More than 350 attendees from both the P&C and Life & Health insurance worlds gathered for two days of educational seminars and networking events at the 2014 Annual Insurance Executive Conference, hosted by the National Underwriter Co.

At the Grand Hyatt in New York on Dec. 4 and 5, presenters focused on two recurring themes: talent management, including the issues of an aging workforce and how to recruit younger workers to the industry, and the effective use of technology to better serve customers as well as to attract new customers.

The conference kicked off with an opening keynote address from Peter Hancock, president and CEO of AIG. Speaking to the large audience of attendees, Hancock described himself as an optimist and noted that “the industry has plenty of room for growth.” He advised the audience to look carefully at particular customer segments to understand the issues and create solutions. Hancock also noted that government has become more of a competitor as the “insurer of last resort,” although the insurance industry best does the job of defining the scope—and price—of those risks.

Following the keynote, in a panel discussion addressing how best to reach customers, James Clay, chairman and CEO of Westfield Insurance and Westfield Bank said, “Risk is the last thing [clients are] thinking of. How they interact with their insurance company is colored by the rest of their online experience.”

National Underwriter P&C Editor-in-Chief Shawn Moynihan moderated the “Industry Update: The Property Casualty Reinsurance Sector” panel, which focused on the industry's adaptations to disruptive changes in the market.

Panelists Eric Andersen, CEO of Aon Benfield, Brian Boornazian, chairman of Aspen Re, and Bill Donnell, president of U.S. P&C at Swiss Re, discussed their ideas on how to “grow the pie” for the industry as a whole, innovate solutions for new issues, and capitalize on underwriting expertise to better assess risk.

Aspen Insurance CEO Mario Vitale presented the P&C afternoon keynote address, “Impactful Leadership and the Next Generation.” Vitale said he is passionate about inspiring younger people, and he noted that he made the best decisions when he was on the front lines: visiting a small, local office or a remote one, the IT department or a broker's office.

Vitale asked the audience how many believed that leaders are born with natural talent, and only one person raised his hand. More people agreed when he asked the audience whether they believe that leaders have a combination of natural ability and skills they've learned along the way.

Elissa Doroff, vice president, Underwriting, and product manager Cyber/Technology at XL Group, spoke in her session about adapting a cyber-security framework. She recommended that a Cyber policy cover any fines and penalties for data breaches, when available by law; network interruption coverage, which generally doesn't become effective unless the outage lasts longer than eight or 12 hours; and extra expenses to get your business back up and running. She also advised that a policy include third-party intellectual property, using the example of the Sony Pictures data theft in November, in which Deloitte's files also were breached.