Review of Risk and Investment Conference 2012
Review of the conference by Elliot Varnell and Margaret de Valois, Joint Chairs' Risk and Investment Conference 2012 Programme Committee.
The Risk and Investment Conference took place between 25 and 27 June with 250 members and guests attending. Highlights of the conference were a keynote talk from leading financial journalist Gillian Tett who discussed the application of Anthropological ideas to the Cultural Aspects of Risk Management and updated the audience on the latest Geopolitical developments in Financial Markets. She was joined in her session by leading Anthropologist, Michael Thompson of the IIASA Research Institute and Alice Underwood of Willis Re who have been interpreting the ideas of The Cultural Theory of Risk for practical use.
The conference welcomed several other media speakers too including Adam Shaw of BBC Panorama (assessing the economic outlook), Anthony Reuben of BBC Business (who led a discussion on the use of data in the media) and Lisa Pollack of FT Alphaville (who gave an in depth analysis of losses emerging from JP Morgan).
After Gillian Tett, Evelyn Bourke, CEO of Friends Life Heritage Business spoke from her personal experience to provide insight into the way that risk and investment is perceived from different seats in the boardroom including CEO, CFO and CRO – all C-Suite positions that she has held in recent years. Kathryn Morgan led a highly interactive plenary session on the practical implementation issues that insurers are finding with the Solvency II ORSA, and Richard English gave a comprehensive insight into capital management at AVIVA Group.
The final plenary was led by Dawid Konotey-Aluhu, founder of the Pensions Social Media website, Mallow Street, who gave insights into the changing nature of communication and left the audience with much food for thought about the way that technology is interacting with the emerging risks that the world is facing.
In addition to these plenaries there were 24 breakout sessions ranging from Variable Annuity Risk Management to the Resource and Environmental Limits to Economic Growth.
A small gallery of photographs taken at the conference may be viewed here.