Introduction
What a difference a year makes! With travel and social distancing restrictions on the decline, attendance at this year’s InsureTech Connect (ITC Vegas) was a robust 8,500, making it the place to be for the insurtech community. Industry leaders, technology providers, and our Vitech contingent converged on the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino for the three-day event in late September, and since the healthy walk from the hotel to the exhibit hall gave me time for daily reflection, this week’s blog departs from my usual industry musings in favor of an ITC Vegas travelogue. ITC Vegas bills itself as the as the world’s largest insurtech event, and this year’s program, with its spike in attendance and exhibitors, truly lived up to the hype.
The Lay of the Land
Based on the amount of networking the Vitech team did over the course of the event, there seemed to be more group insurance-related attendees than ever before. We had many fruitful discussions with partners and prospects in the exhibit space which featured roughly 600 service and technology exhibitors, including start-ups, established platforms, consulting firms, and carriers. Other informal discussions on industry developments and hot topics took place in the many fine restaurants along the Vegas strip, where we rekindled relationships with industry colleagues over sushi and barbeque.
Innovation Overdrive
When it came to innovation, ITC Vegas did not disappoint. New technologies were on display in a variety of sectors, including healthcare with wellness and disease screening apps and the gig economy with new benefits and insurance products for rideshare drivers and other gig workers. For life/group/health insurance, there were innovations in underwriting and customer experience with AI-, machine learning-, and data/analytics-based platforms. Other insurance-related innovations included voice recognition and new analytic approaches for detecting claims fraud.
Final Thoughts
It’s gatherings like ITC Vegas where innovation sparks implementation. I’m sure that my fellow attendees share my hopes that the innovations at ITC Vegas won’t stay in Vegas, but instead take hold in their respective sectors and become part of the mainstream. Time, and ITC 2023, will tell.
