Keynote Speaker, Alastair Newton — an international advisor and expert on international geo-political issues and their impact on financial markets — brought an insightful overview of the US-China dynamic for the Asia Pacific and New Zealand under the Trump administration.

Tony Gallagher — Guy Carpenter CEO Asia Pacific Region talked about the uncertain and changing world of capital and the role it will play in changing the types of products available to manage risks.

That established a tone of volatility and unpredictability, themes that played out in an in-depth two-hour Insurtech session of presentations and a panel. It included presentations from

•  KPMG’s Steve Graham — an American with extensive experience of start-ups in other industries) providing strategic insights
• Andrew Stead from IAG’s Firemark Lab — who has extensive local start-up experience
• Ralph Ronnenberg, Managing Director of MunicRe Australia and New Zealand — who has a global approach to investing, partnering and keeping pace with change in the Insurtech space across the insurance value chain
• Mitchell Pham, head of FinTech NZ — who convened the session.

The afternoon shifted the focus to how to be resilient in the face of volatility and uncertainty. It started with well-known celebrity and psychologist, Nigel Latta, who gave insights into consumer attitudes and behaviour.

That was followed by presentations and a panel discussion by

• Elizabeth Longworth, a Kiwi who has spent many years offshore and has held a number of senior leadership roles at the UN (including two years as the Director of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction) returned to talk about the international and local state of resilience.
• Dr Erica Seville, author of Resilient Organisations, talked about what insurance companies can do to be more resilient.
• Mike Mendonca, Wellington City’s Chief Resilience officer, who has led the development of his city’s resilience strategy as part of the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities initiative.

As usual, the conference ended with a panel of industry leaders — IAG’s Kevin Hughes, Allianz's Marc Guppy, FMG’s Chris Black and MunichRe’s Ralph Ronnenberg —  who reflected on what they took from the day and what it means for their organisations and the insurance sector.