Attendees to the mid-year conference of the National Associationof Professional Surplus Lines Offices, Ltd. will see a change inthe meeting's format, and will notice that their fellow attendeesare higher up on the leadership ladder.

The meeting will be held March 3-6 at the Fairmont ScottsdalePrincess in Scottsdale, Ariz.

In light of the challenges facing the excess and surpluslines industry today, NAPSLO decided to gear the conference moretoward executives and to make the format more interactive soattendees can discuss the issues on their minds with NAPSLOleadership and other attendees.

Letha Heaton, secretary of NAPSLO and Mid-Year Conference chair,said E&S market participants are facing challenges similar toothers in the insurance industry. She defined the market as asituation where there is a lot of capacity and many new entrants,but demand is flat or declining. Economic conditions in the nationoverall have combined with good loss experience in the E&Smarket to create “unprecedented challenges,” Ms. Heaton said.

“CEOs and presidents have a challenging environment,” said Ms.Heaton, who is also vice president of marketing for AdmiralInsurance Company, a member of the W.R. Berkley Group in CherryHill, N.J.

Executives need to think outside the box about the future, sheadded, stating that the “age-old strategy of hoping for a hardmarket is not a solution.”

In light of that, she said NAPSLO wanted to create a “moremeaningful venue” to bring these executives together to share ideasand learn from each other.

The NAPSLO meeting will have a revamped agenda featuring twoformal sessions–with both sessions designed around an interactiveformat, she said. The rest of the meeting, she explained, will beabout providing time and opportunities for attendees tonetwork.

As for the two sessions, Ms. Heaton said Thursday morning willfeature NAPSLO's first-ever Town Hall meeting. Attendees, she said,will be able to pose questions to all members of the association'sboard of directors about how NAPSLO can be improved to better serveits members.

NAPSLO President Marshall Kath will open the town hall meetingwith a background of the association's financial performance, butthe agenda will move immediately to questions from the audience,Ms. Heaton said. She added that Thursday's meeting will not beabout NAPSLO standing up and talking about what it has done.Rather, the discussion will be driven by membership.

“What do they [members] want to talk about?” Ms. Heaton said.“What do they want from their association?”

She said around 10 or 12 questions have already been presented,and 3×5 cards will be provided for attendees to write questions onanonymously if they do not want to be identified. For others,microphones will be available for them to ask their questionsdirectly.

As for the topics, Ms. Heaton said, “Nothing's off thetable.”

Based on the questions already received, she said attendees areinterested in the long-term vision for association–how NAPSLObudgets and manages fiscal responsibility. Other topics ofinterest, she said, include what NAPSLO is doing for the industrywith respect to recruiting young people and identifying technologyneeds.

NARAB has also been an area of interest, Ms. Heaton said, withmembership interested in how NAPSLO is working with federallegislators to secure passage. NARAB is a measure that would createa National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers, with thegoal of simplifying nonresident insurance agent and brokerlicensing. It has passed the U.S. House of Representatives threetimes, Ms. Heaton said, but has not made it through the Senateyet.

The second session–staying trueto the theme of industry leaders sharing thoughts with otherindustry leaders–will feature four executives who will discusschallenges in their own organizations that have arisen due to thechallenging environment. The executives will outline the issuesthey face and their vision for addressing those issues.

Steve Harvill, president of Creative Ventures, a provider oforganizational learning and strategic planning programs for Fortune500 companies, will moderate the panel consisting of the followingleaders in the E&S space:

o Neal Abernathy, president and CEO of Swett & Crawford.

o E.G. Lassiter, chairman and CEO of RSUI Group.

o Matt Power, executive vice president of Lexington InsuranceCompany.

o Tony Markel, vice chairman of Markel Corporation.

Each speaker has selected his own topic to discuss, Ms. Heatonsaid. NAPSLO has released quotes by Mr. Abernathy and Mr. Lassiterpreviewing their topics.

Mr. Abernathy said, “We have employees who were in the workforcebefore computers and we have employees who have been playing orworking with computers their entire lives. Our challenge is to stayon the cutting edge of technology without running off some of ourmost valuable employees.”

Mr. Lassiter said, “Being committed to the wholesaledistribution system is one of RSUI's greatest strengths, and one ofour biggest challenges.”

Ms. Heaton said quotes and topics from the other two speakerswill be released soon.

Speaking to membership reaction to the format change, Ms. Heatonsaid while the organization is not sure how the changes will bereceived, response can be measured partly by attendance. She saidNAPSLO was concerned about how many people would attend. “Are theyvoting with their feet?” she asked. So far, she noted, “it lookslike we'll exceed attendance from last year.”

To help generate interest, Ms. Heaton said NAPSLO has advertisedthis meeting more than previous mid-year conferences. Theadvertising campaign, she said, has featured postcards, phone callsto senior-level executives, and e-mail blasts outlining the agendaand the challenges in the industry. One message, she said, is, “Ifyou're waiting for the market to turn, you may not be around nextyear to talk about your strategy.”