Market Luminary, a new online community for the property &casualty insurance industry, was formed to allow professionals tobuild relationships with colleagues, collaborate, network, ratevendors, and interact with experts.

“Our members share their real-life experiences with each otherin a secure, controlled environment so they can choose thesolutions and the relationships that are right for their needs,”says Jeff Brown, president of Market Luminary. “Our collaborationcommunity provides social media functions without the risksassociated with social media sites.”

The innovative community at www.marketluminary.com lets members buildrelationships, research and learn, contribute items and conductbusiness. It's open to employees of carriers, agents, consultants,brokers, technology vendors, and service providers.

Members can read unbiased reports and reviews about products andservice providers in all property &casualty market segments.Its “luminaries” are experts who share their knowledge with membersthrough blogs, videos, whitepapers, and webinars.

Free membership benefits include product and service discountsfrom the site's partners, online communities for groups andassociations, and reputation-management and social-mediaintegration. The interactive directory provides listings ofmembers, luminaries, carriers, MGAs, service providers, andvendors.

Market Luminary also offers a premium membership level for bothmembers and companies. For companies, the premium membershipprovides additional features that enable them to expand the amountof information for both current and potential customers. Membersbenefit from a premium membership with advanced features such asthe ability to post virtual RFPs to member companies.

The community delivers the power of broad-based socialcommunities, but with a tight focus on the P&C industry, addsBrown, who also founded Blue Cod Technologies, a leading IT andbusiness-process outsourcing provider for the industry.

“The P&C insurance industry is starved for innovation whenit comes to collaboration,” says Gary Milliken, CEO of HarringtonInsurance. “Market Luminary has provided us with a platform thatcould change the way industry professionals interact.”

For vendors, the Market Luminary community provides interactivemarketing and branding opportunities, product and servicepromotion, and the ability to collect feedback and manage theirreputation. Operating in beta test until recently, the site hasalready attracted several hundred members.