Some sessions will focus in on specific insurance trends, such as pay-as-you-drive insurance coverage, in which premiums are based on how much a customer drives his or her vehicle. That session, "Pay-As-You-Drive is Coming," will outline the benefits of this approach and also the technology behind it and the regulatory implications.

Professionals will also be able to attend sessions on the reality of a global insurance market. One session, "Similarities & Differences: Our Global Insurance World," will feature representatives from Swiss Re and Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., Ltd, who will outline the benefits and challenges insurers and reinsurers face as they work across borders to find new opportunities.

Another session with an international flavor, "Outsourcing…Benefits from Both Sides of the Pond," will discuss lessons learned by U.K. insurers as they outsourced various functions of their businesses in response to significant bottom-line pressure.

Insurers big and small will share valuable lessons in the session "Best of Both Worlds: What Large and Small Insurers Can Learn From Each Other." Rather than only looking to direct peers when developing IT and strategic initiatives, this session will explain how large companies can learn from their smaller, nimbler and more specialized peers. Small companies, in turn, will learn what lessons they can take from their larger, more structured peers.

Producers will learn how they can benefit from new technologies during "The Future of Agency Technology." This panel, moderated by National Underwriter's editor-in-chief, Sam Friedman, will feature the three finalists for the 2009 "NU Agency Technology Achievement Award," who will share their experiences with technology and describe how cutting-edge approaches have impacted their bottom lines.

For claims professionals, the session "Predictive Analytics for Claims Operators: Beyond Fraud" will share how predictive analytics can be used for claimant management, vendor performance management, subrogation, litigation and reserve management, and catastrophe response in addition to its well-known use for fraud detection.

Claims professionals will also find out what new technologies are available for fraud fighting in the session "Fighting Fraud: Finding the Best Technology."

For the forum's keynote address, Mr. Smith will offer his advice on surviving the economic downturn, and will also share his views on how to prepare for what is to come.