TheInsurTechLawyer was recently in Europe on an insurance related mission. Despite it being autumn in Europe, the weather was surprisingly warm even by Australian standards. TheInsurTechLawyer had the opportunity to visit some insurance landmarks in Europe, speak at Europe’s leading insurance law conference, and met up with some very clever insurance people.
We flew into Munich at night and the next day visited the famous Englischer Garten, one of the largest inner city parks in the world. It was the day just after Oktoberfest:
When an insurance nerd is in Munich, one must visit the world’s largest reinsurance firm. The first visit of the day was to Munich Re’s impressive headquarters where we were fortunate enough to get a tour.
Following our visit of Munich Re’s impressive headquarters, it was time to do some work. We went to the Munich offices of law firm Norton Rose Fulbright where TheInsurTechLawyer practises. Although they were not as impressive as the offices of Munich Re, they were nonetheless very good.
The offices were only a short walk from the famous Marienplatz, the centre of the city since Munich was founded by Henry the Lion in 1158.
One of the main reasons for the trip was to present at the 9th Association Internationale de Droit des Assurances (AIDA) Europe Conference on the topic of Financial Lines Insurance and Web 3.0 / the Metaverse. The conference was held at the Marriott in Zurich.
The conference was very well attended, with many fellow delegates commenting on the unique opportunity to get-together as an industry after many years of COVID and virtual conferences. There was a good spread of delegates from law firms, industry and academia. TheInsurTechLawyer enjoyed all the sessions and the great global networking opportunity.
There was also quite a contingent of fellow Australians at the conference, including to promote WICA 2023, the XVI World Insurance Congress to be held in Melbourne in 2023.
London
The next stop was London. After such a long flight to the other side of the world, it was time to visit the insurance capital of the world. We caught up with many insurance people here, including those in InsurTech as well as established insurers.
They say that it rains all the time in London, but that was definitely not my experience. It was quite sunny the time we were there – a rare London occurrence they say!
One of the highlights of the trip was visiting the Lloyd’s underwriting floor. I have never experienced so much energy in the one room, and as an insurance nerd, it was very exciting.
It was also great to meet some of the new and past Lloyd’s Lab team. The Lloyd’s Lab are doing such great things for InsurTech and their cohorts are going from strength to strength.
It was then time to call it a day and head for a drink at Leadenhall Market with some chaps from a Lloyd’s syndicate.
All in all, it was a very productive and eye opening trip. Great to catch up with people, some of whom I had only ever seen on MS Teams. TheInsurTechLawyer looks forward to visiting again some time soon!
