MGAA 2024 Conference: Key Takeaways

The MGAA annual conference remains one of the highlights of the year, and it’s 2024 edition was no exception. With a venue filled with market frontrunners, peers and future prospects, it’s easy to see why there’s a buzz about the place across the two days.

Pro MGA Global Solutions exhibited at the event for the first time this year. Below are the key takeaways from the conference, shared across those who attended the event.

The Future is Bright

There was a real emphasis on the Next Gen committee at the conference, with the panel hosting a discussion on Day One.

The Next Gen question panel was keen on removing the negative stigma around insurance to get more talented young professionals into the market. With the growing emergence of AI, data and the IoT, the opportunity to peak the interest of the future generation is certainly there. Steering our focus away from the more traditional terminology, can generate a buzz with school and university leavers.

Diversifying the way we teach and learn is also an important aspect in generating interest with young talent. This can mean many things, from tools used, time spent and exposure to different roles. We’re strong advocates of giving our young talent the experience and exposure of working with senior members of the team, rather than taking a hierarchical approach where a junior member of the team wouldn’t even have a conversation with a director until they’d been there five years or more.

A Diversifying Crowd

The MGAA has, as ever, welcomed new members in 2024. It was clear to see that the diversification of attendees at the conference was broader than in previous years, with more start-ups, innovative minds and outside-the-box thinkers being present.

Traditionally, a conference of this sort would be full of companies offering similar or the same products and services, with familiar approaches and the same future prospects. This year, however, we saw a whole range of people and businesses, taking new approaches – and it’s exactly what the industry needs to continue to evolve.

Fronting v Traditional Insurers

A panel discussion on Fronting vs Traditional Insurers took place, which provided a real healthy debate. It showed that both types of insurers have their place in the modern market and can be used in tandem by MGAs to enable the benefits of both and evidenced their “power of partnership” theme for 2024.

This speaks to the previous takeaway of new approaches, and it’s exciting to see where the market takes us over the next 12 months and beyond.

A New Perspective

In previous years, we have attended the MGAA Conference as delegates without a home to base ourselves at. This year, we decided to be an official exhibitor, which led to many people coming to visit our stand and spark conversations. We found this to be a brilliant opportunity for us. With some of the team roaming around the venue, and others manning the stands, we were able to have many more conversations than we’d had in previous years, and see the conference from a different perspective.

There were certainly more delegates this year, so attending en masse was important for us. We met many new prospects, and came away with opportunities to follow-up on. It was, as ever, great to see familiar faces too – and the coffee and breakfast rolls went down a treat. Simple pleasures.

We’ll Be Back

All in all, we had a very prosperous two days at the MGAA 2024 Conference, and are excited to attend again next year. Before then, of course, there’s business to be opened and closed, more events to attend and innovation to be sprung.

Thank you to MGAA for hosting such a brilliant event.