Like many people attending the IASA Educational Conference andBusiness Show, I have to steal away from sessions or the exhibithall to get back to my room and do some "real" work. It's hard toconvince ourselves—much less our bosses—that being away from theoffice and thinking about work, without actually doing any saidwork, is not a waste of time.

It's not a waste, though. I sat in a room with over 100 CIOs onTuesday afternoon and all of them were discussing things that areimportant for the future of their company and the industry as awhole—and little of it related to what they will be doing over thenext 12 months.

The subject of one session involved research and development andthe audience heard views from both software vendors and other CIOs.Piyush Singh, CIO of Great American Insurance Co., believesdiscussions that happen at a conference such as this one can alsohappen within the walls of the IT department if CIOs have thefortitude to empower their team of technologists.

Singh asked the audience who had the courage to place theircareer in the hands of others. When a sparse number of hands wereraised, Singh reminded the audience that, unless they are operatinga one-member shop, all of them placed that power in the hands oftheir IT teams every day of the week.

His caveat, though, was "you can't totally cede responsibility"to development teams.

Andy Scurto, president and CEO of solutions provider ISCS, feelsmembers of his industry necessarily need to do more in the way ofR&D than carriers.

"I don't know many carriers that can afford to invest $1 millionin an R&D project that might not succeed," he says. "Thereneeds to be a partnership."

Thinking about the future may not be viewed as productive, butit is necessary, particularly in a world where how peoplecommunicate, shop, and work has changed so greatly in just the lastfive years.

Is insurance ready for a paradigm shift? Changes in thisindustry can sometimes seem painfully slow and, as Scurto pointedout, the industry had to be dragged kicking and screaming intoselling insurance policies over the Internet.

It seems the changes that the coming generations are embracingwill be inevitable for insurers, so sitting down and thinking aboutthem every now and then appears to be a valuable way to spend sometime.