Many of you flat-landers out there will be surprised to hear that I left the ACORD LOMA Forum, came home and skied!   Snowbird Ski Resort, which sits majestically about 7,000-feet about the Salt Lake Valley in Utah, is our "local mountain."  Long after the destination resorts of Deer Valley and Park City Mountain have closed, the locals turn their attention to "the Bird", where if there is snow, and folks to ski and ride it, the resort will be open into June. 

This is that special time of year when the hard core golfers are golfing and the hard core skiers are skiing.  Locals have been known to do both on the same day.  It's that time of the year when you come down out of the mountains to discover that the rest of the country has moved on from winter, through spring and into early summer.    

It is also conference season, when insurance professionals shake off the long cold nights and head somewhere (often south) for their annual IT and business get-together.  This year ACORD LOMA was in Las Vegas, and IASA will be in Washington D.C.  These events are interesting bellwethers of the state of our industry, reflecting technology, business, and economic trends.