NAPSLO Mid-Year Meeting Set for San Antonio

The National Association of Professional Surplus Lines Offices (NAPSLO) is holding its Mid-Year Marketplace & Business Roundup Feb. 24-27 in San Antonio. The Texas gathering replaces the 2002 Mid-Year Educational Workshop, which had been scheduled to take place in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Highlights of the conference include overviews of the status of the hardening insurance market through two programs scheduled for Feb. 26. “Reinsurance in a Hard Market (Guess Who’s in the Driver’s Seat),” the first program, will focus on current availability of reinsurance. Christopher B. McGovern, vice president, national specialty programs unit at All Risks Ltd., will moderate. Panelists include Bob Cohen, senior vice president of sales and marketing at United National Insurance Co., Paul Goodwin, vice president and marketing manager at American Reinsurance, and Leslie Nylund, managing director at Guy Carpenter & Co.

The second program, “Placements in a Hard Market (And By the Way, How’s Your E&O?),” will not only examine placement processes in hard market conditions, but it will also explore solutions to the problem of brokers’ increasing need to assemble multiple policies at renewal to replace single ones while still meeting clients’ coverage requirements. The program will be moderated by Maureen C. Calviston, president of Partners Specialty Group LLC. Panelists include Thomas Ahart, president of the Independent Insurance Agents of America, Wiley Cooper IV, director and property department manager at Cooney, Rikard & Curtin Inc., and David Leonard, senior vice president and chief strategic officer at Royal Specialty Under-writing Inc.

In addition to the scheduled programs, NAPSLO’s Mid-Year Marketplace & Business Roundup will provide association members and conference attendees opportunities to meet and network with one another.

NAPSLO had to cancel the 2001 Annual Convention in San Antonio, originally scheduled for Sept. 12-16, due to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The February conference will take place at the San Antonio Marriott RiverCenter Hotel. The nearby Hilton Palacio Del Rio Hotel has room availability and NAPSLO is currently filling hotel room reservation requests at the Hilton.

Mike Ardis, NAPSLO’s director of communications and technology, explained, “The main idea is to provide NAPSLO members with more networking opportunities. The cancellation of last year’s annual meeting removed these networking and business opportunities…The Mid-Year Marketplace and Business Roundup will give them the chance to do just that.”

Ardis noted that usually, NAPSLO mid-year meetings attract approximately 500 members. But this year, due to the cancellation of the annual meeting, 1300 attendees have registered so far.

The Sixth Annual Foundation Invitational golf tournament is set for February 24 in San Antonio, in conjunction with the NAPSLO Mid-Year Marketplace & Business Roundup. Feb. 25 will be left open for networking and private meetings.