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Industry panelists to discuss business continuity in the age of COVID-19


April 17, 2020   by David Gambrill


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Canadian Underwriter will host a free webinar exploring how brokers’ business continuity plans have responded and will continue to respond during the unfolding drama of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Scheduled for 1 pm EST on Wednesday, Apr. 22, the panel features IBAO president Joseph Carnevale, partner and managing director of sales at Brokers Trust Insurance Group Inc.; Graham Haigh, vice president of broker distribution at Wawanesa Insurance; and Steve Whitelaw, vice president of industry and partner relations for the Canadian marketplace at Applied.

The moderated discussion will tackle some of the business continuity challenges and solutions that have emerged for the Canadian P&C industry in the midst of the global pandemic.

The webinar will focus on three distinct phases of the COVID-19 pandemic:

  • Phase One: The initial transition to working remotely from home
  • Phase Two: The current phase of working in the virtual world on an expanded basis, and for an unknown duration.
  • Phase Three: The future of work after the novel coronavirus has run its course

A final question will ask panelists about how the pandemic has made the broker channel stronger.

Phase One

When the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus to be a pandemic on Mar. 11, Canadian P&C organizations quickly transitioned to working remotely from home to help slow down the spread of the coronavirus.

For an industry used to dealing with social disruption caused by major catastrophes, many simply executed their pre-existing business continuity plans. Canadian Underwriter will share poll results about how organizations felt about how their business continuity plans responded to working from home remotely. Panelists will analyze the poll results.

Phase Two

Phase Two includes the realization that the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t going to end in just a couple of weeks or a month. Many reports suggest that it may well be into July, August or September before social distancing is relaxed enough to allow people to return back to working in their offices again.

At this point in the webinar, the panelists will explore what challenges may arise for the industry in working remotely at home for an extended period. Among them, what is happening with the industry’s paper-based processes: How and when might they be digitized?

Phase Three

Yes, viruses eventually run their course — and they may change their hosts in the process. In the post-pandemic phase of the webinar, we will explore what innovations the industry has discovered while working remotely that may survive the pandemic era and be incorporated into business continuity planning once all of this chaos and madness comes to an end.

Has COVID-19 altered the way brokers may conduct their business in the future?



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