Achieving New Heights at Calgary 2006

Calgary 2006 Co-chairs: Marley Drainville and Joseph Restoule

Calgary, the “Heart of the New West,” is a place in the foothills of Canada’s Rocky Mountains where visitors from across Canada come to discover a new world of exploration, experience and the thrilling sight of something new or old. In 2006, risk managers, brokers, insurers and reinsurers alike will meet in Calgary to listen, learn and participate in the journey to the zenith of the risk management profession. “Achieving New Heights 2006,” the 31st Annual RIMS Canada Risk Management Conference, set for September 16 to 20, is a great opportunity for the insurance industry to test their limits in a new and unique conference setting.

“At RIMS Canada we are always trying to achieve new heights in what we are doing, raise the bar,” Drainville says. “Calgary speaks well to that because it is growing with a number of new organizations and corporations moving into the city, providing opportunities for risk managers and as a result the risk management community has grown.”

RIMS Canada Conference, Drainville believes, provides an opportunity for the industry to grow and evolve because it offers a basis to enhance partnerships between all insurance professions. “We’re all in this industry and so we really have to work together to grow the industry, to grow to new heights.”

With innovative plans for a creative plenary agenda, conference co-chair Marley Drainville says Calgary 2006 will introduce fresh new ideas, experiences and activities into the world of risk management. “This year’s gathering of risk professionals, insurers, brokers and suppliers will be sure to energize our pursuit in scaling the ever challenging risk management summit,” Drainville says.

Drainville says their mandate is to have exceptional plenarys and so the co-chairs have focused a lot of time and budget on securing great quality speakers. “We’ve researched past sessions, back five years, and we are trying to be creative with our sessions,” she says.

“We are most proud of the effort made by every chapter that has held a conference over the past many years. However, we believe that it is the responsibility to the risk management community of each chapter that hosts a conference to attempt to raise the bar going forward – which becomes a real challenge every year and we are preparing to meet that challenge in Calgary,” she explains.

“We want to ensure we present hot, timely topics of interest. We hope to accomplish that through presenters that will bring us up to date information – for example, on the aftermath and results of Katrina and its effect on the global insurance market, to name one topic of concern on all our minds at the moment.”

Drainville, manager of risk management and insurance for Enerplus Resources Fund, is joined by co-chair Joe Restoule, senior risk consultant for NOVA Chemicals Corp. The 2006 co-chair “couple” is a familiar team as they worked together on the SARIMS board, where Restoule sits as an advisor and director at large and Drainville has previously served as treasurer and president.

“I personally am a huge fan of this industry and have always believed that “together” we can all raise the bar in risk management,” Drainville says. “Calgary has become my second home and I could not be more proud of our risk management community and our city, because of how we support the industry and each other.”

reprint from RIMS Canada 2005 Conference Show Daily Report – sponsored by FM Global