INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- The Society of Insurance Research is offering the most robust agenda in its history for its 40th Annual Conference, coming up November 14-17, 2010 in Jacksonville, Florida (http://www.regonline.com/sir-40-years).

"There is more content built into this agenda than for any Annual Conference in memory," says SIR President Denese Ross, who is also Vice President of GMAC Insurance, "and registrations are now on pace to exceed all prior attendance records. The great diversity and depth of topics on the schedule reflect the broad interests of the Society's members, who come from many different disciplines and types of organizations but have a common interest in emerging issues and research for the insurance industry."

"This year's event has elements to interest people from personal lines, commercial lines, and health insurance, across every experience level," notes Conference Chairman Gary Hodge, Marketing Research Manager for the American Modern Insurance Group. "We will be looking at such advanced topics as the latest in modeling concepts or cutting edge analysis of federal healthcare legislation, while we are offering the Insurance Fundamentals orientation as a pre-conference option."

Plenary sessions at the conference will survey the latest initiatives in research methodologies and product management, and look at the state of the industry from various perspectives including those of trade associations and financial analysts. Conning & Co will highlight findings from their analysis of smaller P&C insurers, assessing how as a group they remain a competitive force and how individual carriers have outperformed the market, which should interest anyone who works for or competes with a smaller insurer.

Other sessions will probe agency - carrier relationships; leveraging social media and proprietary online communities in relationships with agents and customers; and consumer shopping behavior.

Analysis of "Healthcare Reform" in the Health Insurance track will be especially timely just two weeks after the 2010 Congressional elections. Other topics in the track include new product design concepts for health, vision, and dental coverage against the backdrop of the new regulations.

A panel in the Technology track will look at the current state of the art in analytical and modeling tools for insurance marketing, pricing, claims, retention, and underwriting.

The Competitive Intelligence track will attack questions that are especially challenging because data is either not filed separately or not filed at all, looking for approaches that can be adapted to such questions across diverse lines of business. A presentation by Fuld & Co will outline an approach, then participants will apply those principles in case studies.

The popular Insurance Fundamentals program is available as a pre-conference workshop. This course provides an overview of the unusual structure, terminology, and economics of the insurance industry for persons seeking a broader perspective to interact with other disciplines within a carrier, or who need to "speak the language" to sell products or services to insurance carriers.

Discounted pricing for conference registrations is available until September 19th. Interested persons can learn more and register at http://www.regonline.com/sir-40-years, or use the links at http://www.sirnet.org.

About the SIR

The SIR is a leading forum for insurance practitioners from all aspects of the industry, focusing on emerging research approaches and industry issues for the benefit of individual members and their employers. SIR members have accountabilities in research, product development, competitive intelligence, marketing, strategic planning, and many other disciplines within the business.

For more information, see http://www.sirnet.org, email sir.mail@comcast.net, or call SIR Executive Director Ed Budd at 317-398-3684.

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SOURCE Society of Insurance Research