Think of the children

Last year’s festival attracted more than 60,000 attendees. The event has been rebranded somewhat, with the emphasis more on craft beer and entertainment rather than the dated notion of a dating festival. But with rural isolation and suicide rates among single, male farmers both on the rise, there are some serious underlying issues behind all the sniggering at the socially awkward.

Similarly, in China the legacy of a one child-only policy and a society that favours boys over girls is that by 2020 there will be 30 million more men seeking wives than there are women to marry them. This has worried the authorities and led to a resurrection of matchmaking festivals, the largest of which takes place in Shanghai every summer.

Meanwhile, in the insurance world, the InsurTech conference – which took place in Singapore in September and was the largest gathering of insurers and tech startups ever under one roof – was like a matchmaking festival all of its own.

On one side are the insurers – well moneyed organisations rich in real estate and pedigree but set in their ways, struggling to deal with a changing landscape and worried that they might struggle to keep both the family name and business going much longer. They are wearing suits. Dark suits.

On the other side are the startups – bright young things from the big cities dressed in their t-shirts and trainers. Having left the family home to start their own blockchain-based business or price comparison website, they are looking to snag an ageing sugardaddy willing to let these young things loose on their farmhouse.

And watching eagerly on the sidelines are the venture capitalists, consultants and even the odd corporate risk manager and insurance buyer, wondering if this courting ritual will ever produce a product relevant to them.

For in many ways, they are the anxious parents in this drawn-out analogy, keen to ensure that the relationship bears fruit by producing new insurance products or risk management services. And this is the vital issue for InsurTech – without meaningful products that are adopted in numbers, then we really are just observing a selfish courtship with both sides looking to serve their own interests.

So on behalf of risk managers everywhere, please, think of the children.