I am moderating a panel tomorrow at the National Workers’ Compensation Defense Network’s Fall Seminar in Hartford, CT. The panel, in a session called “Challenges in Workers’ Compensation: How Do We Get to 2023?” immediately follows keynote speaker, David North, CEO of Sedgwick Claims Management Services, Inc. North will be speaking on “Workers’ Compensation Industry Trends: Where Might We Be in 2023?”
So, North will tell us where the industry might be in 2023, and our panel is tasked with figuring out how to get there in one piece. This will be interesting, as I have no idea what Mr. North will say, but I suspect the two sessions will complement each other nicely.
Frankly, I was a bit concerned when I was asked to moderate this panel. As regular readers know, I have tried my hand at the prognostication thing, and generally suck at it. In 2011 I made ten distinct predictions for 2012, virtually none of them accurate. The results were so poor that I vowed not to do 2013 predictions until early in 2014. Ironically, one of those predictions was that Sedgwick, having finally acquired everybody else, would purchase Joe Paduda. I predicted the consolidation would produce a subsidiary named Paduda Joe's, and would feature industry observations, critical insight, experience based wisdom, imported cheeses, gourmet groceries and Two Buck Chuck by the truckload. Sadly, Paduda would be let go, as his position would be eliminated in the merger.
I’ll have to ask Dave North why that did not transpire.
The people serving on my panel form a nice representation of industry players. They are:
Fernando Lomanto, Unilever
Stephen Tyler, American Water Works
Patrick Jewell, Esq., OnPoint Underwriting
Eric Wasserbach, AmTrust
Scott Anderson, Peoples United Insurance
I do not know these men, but if our planning call (which I immediately lost control of) is any indication, this will be an outstanding group. Suffice it to say that the issues we face over the next 10 years are varied, intertwined and complex. We likely will not be painting a rosy picture.
Still, I am happy to be a part of it, and look forward to getting a glimpse of our future. Spoiler alert; I’ll let you know what we find.