Tech, talent and collaboration top Darim agenda

Denmark’s risk and insurance management association (Darim) chose collaboration as the theme of its annual members’ conference in Copenhagen.

The association adopted a new approach to the event. Rather than following the typical conference model of interviews, powerpoint presentations and panel discussions, the association picked five key areas of focus for members.

Five cross-industry working groups involving risk managers, brokers, insurers and reinsurers were then convened to set out their objectives at the Copenhagen conference.

The first of these groups, led by Darim board member and Coloplast risk manager Sussi Sommer Bisgaard, looked at the total cost of risk (TCOR) and how various firms are addressing this, sometimes without even knowing that they are doing so.

The group first looked to conference attendees to provide a definition of TCOR before providing details on why the concept is important and how a TCOR-type framework can be beneficial to both insurers and risk managers.

The group will take all of the feedback provided at the event, and then present its findings to Darim members in December.

The second morning event, led by Darim vice-president Thomas Lau Christensen, who is risk manager for Nordic Leisure Travel Group, looked at the rising challenge of underinsurance and lack of capacity in the natural catastrophe market.

More specifically, the cross-industry group looked at the feasibility of developing a model for the transfer of “uninsurable” nat cat risks and deciding whether this can be done with or without the insurance sector.

The three other themes covered were climate change and new technology, tracking new legislation, and developing models for claims handling from multiple insurers.

According to Darim president Charlotte Enggaard, head of group risk management at Carlsberg, the increasingly complex world of risk has demonstrated the need for greater collaboration between risk managers and the insurance industry.  This process began at the 2022 Darim conference when insurers and brokers were invited for the very first time.

Darim has also teamed up with educational institutions, including the Copenhagen Business School, to develop a graduate qualification, master of science in economics and business administration with a minor in risk management, in order to attract more young talent into the industry.

“Participants get to work with a range of insurers, brokers and risk managers over a two-year period and can then choose which part of the insurance industry they would like to work in,” said Enggaard.

“Once people are inside the insurance industry, they find it much more interesting than they expected. The challenge is getting them there in the first place,” said Enggaard, who started in the M&A arena before becoming a risk manager.

“We hope that with the brand names involved and the variety of experiences on offer, the initiative will prove to be very effective,” said Enggaard.