Whether they were fans of William Shatner from his days as Capt. James T. Kirk on Star Trek, or prefer his current, two-time Emmy award-winning role as master litigator Denny Crane on Boston Legal, attendees here in Orlando at the ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum packed Mondays Opening General Session to hear his words of wisdom about something the actor knows a lot aboutreinventing oneself and ones world.

Not everyone was thrilled with Mr. Shatner's appearance (a bit too casual for some), and his presentation style (too low-tech for this crowd, delivered straight from a printed text, and not always smoothly). You can read all about that aspect of his speech at NU Tech Editor Ara Trembly's blog at www.insurancetechguru.com.

But I didn't really care. I'm a huge fan of both Capt. Kirk and Denny Crane, and it was nice to get a break from the droning on about insurance, tech and standards experts. I give ACORD and LOMA credit for trying to change the pace and let people have some fun.

I am a monument to morph-dom, Mr. Shatner said in his keynote address, talking about the major changes hes undergone in his long acting careersome voluntary, while others were forced upon me, mirroring the volatile world most insurance people find themselves in today.

However, while change is not always pleasant, Mr. Shatner said his career path in Hollywood has taught him a trio of lessons that anyone in businessespecially in the fast-paced technology endcan appreciate and put to use.

For one, be willing to look stupid and not care, he said, adding that to innovate successfully, you have to be willing to take risks and to make mistakes, as long as you learn from those mistakes.

Second, he said, never blindly follow orders, urging attendees to always ask questions about why you are doing something a certain way, and why it cant be done differently to do it better.

Last, but not least, he said, use the discomfort created by your willingness to look stupid and refusal to blindly follow orders to breed creativity.

He urged attendees to be more like a kid. Kids are bold, winging it most of the time, taking shots, giving something new a try, always asking why something has to be the way it is and why it cant be something else.

When people age, they often lose or suppress the spontaneous tendencies of their youth, which can result in an unhealthy resistance to productive changes, he warned.

You cant let the fear of failure paralyze you, he said. You have to remain actively curious. All of us need to be a little unreasonable, otherwise well never change the status quo when it needs to be changed.

Risk taking is critical to progress, he noted. You have to be willing to go out on a limb sometimes. It encourages original thinking to get you out of the trouble your curiosity might have gotten you into in the first place.

Such intellectual flexibility is critical to survive in a rapidly changing world, according to Mr. Shatner.

All of us will find ourselves pushed out of our comfort zones more often as time goes on, he said. If you think you dont like change, youll like irrelevance even less.

Mr. Shatner noted that while it might seem odd for an actor to be addressing an insurance technology conference, he said he has found that science fiction in general--and his cult classic series, Star Trek, in particular--has inspired many real life scientists and engineers to make some of the devices only dreamed about when he filmed his TV show in the 1960s a reality today.

Indeed, this phenomenon inspired Mr. Shatner to research and write a book, Im Working On That, in which he speaks with leading scientific figures, engineers and inventors about how their advances in communications, robotics, nanotechnology and other cutting-edge products was driven by challenges to their imagination from fictional situations.

I had a talking computer and global satellite positioning and hand-held communicators in the 1960s, he said. Of course, none of that really existed back then, but people saw these gadgets and were inspired to make them a reality. (Personally, I would love to see the transporter become a reality--it would save all that tortuous air travel time. Food replicators would certainly beat TV dinners, while holodecks would let me go back to Ebbets Field to see Jackie Robinson play!)

Mr. Shatner joked about finding top scientists and engineers slack-jawed upon meeting him because of his being a cultural icon, when in fact, I said to them, I should be slack-jawed meeting you, because its your imagination, dedication and brilliance that is making all these technologies a reality.

That same spirit should fuel innovation within the insurance industry and all those it serves, according to Mr. Shatner.

Imagination is critical no matter what field you are in, he concluded. You must embrace the absolute refusal to stand still and accept the status quo if you have an idea about how to do something better.

Special Reports /

Shatner Talks Tech At ACORD-LOMA Forum

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