Last year, after InsureTech Connect 2016, I wrote a blog lamenting the death of offerings in the individual life and annuity space. I loved the meeting and learned a lot in the group and other spaces, but there just wasn’t that much in individual.

Oh how that has changed. I had the opportunity to “speed date” with a large number of people at the conference. This ranged from startups to insurers. I saw innovation in underwriting, direct-to-consumer sales, customer experience, data analytics, and more. The entire session was a leap forward for the event. The startup vendors had unique takes and were bringing offerings that can legitimately shake up the industry.

Our conversations with insurers were equally interesting. Their level of interest and engagement was fantastic. These were leaders of their organizations at the meeting to find ways to disrupt their companies. We are confident that there will be many follow-up meetings, both for us and for the other attendees.

We also want to call out how impressive Oliver Wyman’s commitment was to the event. Full disclosure, Oliver Wyman is our parent company. They saw the need for this event and invested in the very early stages, before the first meeting last year. This has turned out to be a great leap for them too, because it is rapidly turning into one of the premier events.