We talk a lot about excellence, what it means to be the best of the best. Measuring ourselves against our peers, analyzing how we rank against our contemporaries, seeing how we stack up against our competitors.
When credit is due, it should be given—and that's exactly what we're doing in this issue. In these pages, we salute Broward County, Fla., theme-park operators Cedar Fair Entertainment and Southwest Airlines for their achievements in workers' compensation risk management.
All three organizations have a valuable story to tell, one from which we can all learn something about not just containing costs, but also about taking better care of the personnel that keep one's business moving forward. If a for-profit organization has a direct responsibility to its shareholders, so too does it have a responsibility to its employees regarding their well-being.
Contacting our winners to let them know they've won the award is perhaps my favorite call to make all year, and this time around it was no different. It's a joy to inform them personally that the hard work done by these risk managers and their teams will be celebrated in this issue, on PropertyCasualty360.com, and at the Workers' Compensation Institute's annual Educational Conference, set for Aug. 23 to 26 in Orlando, Fla. During the conference's general session on day one, I'll have the pleasure of presenting the statuettes to our three winners before an audience of hundreds as WCI's event kicks off.
The following day, I will moderate a panel in which the winners and I will discuss before an audience the winning strategies behind their programs.
We at National Underwriter P&C enjoy this recognition program so much that we've decided to extend it to another side of risk management that, not unlike workers' comp, affects every organization regardless of size or scope.
Excellence in Cyber Security Risk Management Award
Risk managers now have a critical responsibility to keep their organizations safe from cyber threats, and over the next several months NU will be searching for candidates whose programs are worthy of recognition with our inaugural Excellence in Cyber Security Risk Management Award.
Presented to three winners, the honor will be bestowed upon those risk managers and/or IT risk professionals whose programs have displayed effective, notable mitigation techniques that are proven to help cyber risks at bay.
The award will be presented at the ALM CyberSecure Conference & Expo, set for Dec. 15 and 16 at the Sheraton Hotel in New York City. The two-day event will feature keynotes, panel discussions and breakout sessions for insurance, law, risk management, legal tech and IT professionals, including CEOs and other C-suite executives; in-house, outside and government counsel; privacy officers; and directors of IT risk and information security, among others.
The winning programs will be featured in our December print edition and on PropertyCasualty360.com. Additionally, during the ALM CyberSecure event, the program for day one will conclude with a panel—which I will moderate—featuring the three winners in which we will discuss what makes their programs tick.
In the coming weeks, watch PropertyCasualty360.com for more details on how to enter. You'll be able to do so online via a special link designed for this purpose, similar to how we accept entries for the Workers' Comp award.
I encourage those risk managers and IT professionals whose mission it is to guard against cyber threats to consider what makes their program noteworthy, what differentiates it from their peers' mitigation efforts.
If you have a unique story to tell, we would like to help share it.
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