In my 20-something years of writing about the insuranceindustry, I've been to plenty of conferences, and it always amazesme how little these events seem to have changed.Although overhead projectors have been replaced bylaptop Power Point presentations, the dress is slightly morecasual and there are usually more women and people of color,the general tenor is usually the same: high-level industryprofessionals talking about a problem on a macro level.

Last week's Griffith Foundation'sInsurance Education and Career Summit examined how to attractmore young people to a business where the average independent agentor broker is 55 or older. In some ways, it was like any otherindustry meeting, but with one big difference: participantsincluded actual insurance students, thevery subject of the discussion.

Recruiting Millennials is a huge issue to our industry and apersonal mission of American Agent & Broker.Recognizing the need for new blood in the industry and ourreadership, last July we launched the nexGensInitiative (nGI). Since then we've profiled and had guest blogsfrom dozens of young insurance professionals. But there was stillsomething missing: the high school or college student who withoutintervention, would never even think of insurance as a viablecareer. The industry at large faces the same challenge.

Don't get me wrong; there are wonderful programs at carriers,brokerages and trade associations designed to reach and educatehigh school and college students on the industry. Representativesof most of those programs, including ProjectInVEST, CIAB's FAME andGamma Iota Sigma's“Young Ambassadors,” were active participants in the Griffithsummit. But I don't recall our industry ever trying to develop acollective message, or actually asking young people themselves whatthey wanted to hear from us.

At the Griffith summit, they gave us an earful. Almost all ofthe students said they had never considered insurance as a careeruntil they'd taken a risk management class in college, and that thebest way to get the message out about what a great industryinsurance was is to have a unified message from the industry as awhole, not fragmented into personal vs. commercial lines, orcarrier vs. producer.

Timothy Mazurczak is a freshman at CanisiusCollege who started his postsecondary career as afinance major but became interested in insurance because there aremore opportunities there than in investment banking. “I knew alittle about insurance before, but I learned a lot more about theindustry by being here,” he said. The best way for insuranceto attract new talent is to convey the excitement and paypotential. “High school and college students think of insurance asthe local agent they have to pay every 6 months. Investment bankinghas movies like 'Wall Street.' Insurance needs something likethat.”

Cliff Gallen, a student at Temple Universitywho is considering a brokerage career as a broker, agreed thatinsurance should be branded as a “fun and interesting careeroption,” and that the industry should provide students withthe facts about the ability to advance through the ranks (a bigissue for Millennials is the fear of getting stuck at one careerlevel). He also stressed students' need for personal mentors. “Weare at a very volatile time in our lives, and though it might notseem like much to an established professional, one well-timed andmeaningful conversation could have an enormous impact on the restof our career. This industry offers so many wonderful andfulfilling opportunities to pursue any and every additionalinterest a person might have, sometimes it just takes someone topoint it out to us.”

And Ty Griffin, a student at Mississippi Statewho plans to attend law school but is attracted to brokerage orrisk management, believes we need to stress the wide variety ofcareer options available in insurance through testimonials bypracticing professionals.

By the time the meeting was over, the group had settled on threeinitiatives: market research to determine what Millennials want ina career; development of a unified message on the many careersavailable in the insurance industry, and the creation of aninformation hub to consolidate insurance career information foreasy access. The Griffith Foundation and The Institutes were votedto lead the effort and next steps included getting the word out toindustry organizations that did not participate in the initialsummit.

Will this collective effort succeed in forging a more unifiedindustry message to attract younger generations? Only time willtell. But I believe including smart, enthusiastic young people inthe planning mix can only help the cause.