The Vermont Captive Insurance Association (VCIA) will hold its 2021 annual conference virtually “to make it accessible to all who wish to participate”, according to Rich Smith, president of the association.
Although the event is 10 months away, VCIA said there were key factors that required a decision to be made in advance, such as hotel and meeting space contractual obligations, programming and technology decisions, ideal platform availability, and projected budget constraints for many companies for 2021.
VCIA also took into consideration feedback from member organisations and expected travel restrictions to be in place for 2021, as well as reduced budgets for in-person events.
In April, VCIA announced that it would host its this year’s annual event virtually due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Commenting on the 2021 conference decision, Smith said: “We will build on the success of the 2020 event, keep the quality of the education as high as ever, and increase opportunities for people to connect in small group-video settings during the event. We are listening to the needs of the entire membership, and are acting in ways that meet their needs.”
Smith noted that as much as VCIA would like to meet in-person, “the prospects for having large scale in-person conferences in 2021 is not a sure thing. Multiple economic and public health impacts of the pandemic are being felt among our members”.
“VCIA looks forward to seeing everyone in person as soon as it makes sense. In the meantime, for 2021 we will evolve our offerings further, to boost up face-to-face engagement throughout the year, and create opportunities for service providers and captive owners to connect with each other,” he concluded.
In the lead up to its 2020 virtual conference, Smith spoke to Captive Insurance Times.
This year’s virtual event focused on how captives responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of mentorship within the industry and deeper conversation around the digital future.
