Look at everything we are going to learn. It will definitely be information overload, but always so worth it. “I’m so excited, I can’t hide it!” Twitter hash tag #BrandCamp12. Follow us and see what we are up to.

There is still time to register for this event. Learn how to make your agency more competitive and profitable through the latest technology and beyond by attending the Take Your Agency to the Next Level 2011 seminar.

Learn how to gain a competitive edge and increase your profitability through the latest technology and beyond by attending Take Your Agency to the Next Level 2011, May 12-13, 2011.

May 12^th is highly-focused for agency principals that will provide a high-level overview without the noise or hype. May 13^th is a more technical day designed for network administrators and those seeking more technical knowledge.

• Get a high-level overview on the latest technology your agency needs to know about including cloud computing, virtualization, mobile computing, and more.
• Keynote presentation by Larry Linne, President & CEO of Sitkins International, sought-after for his experience helping agencies with vertical growth, agency management, sales, and more.
• Pat Alexander, agency coach and consultant will show you how to drive your agency’s brand with technology including your website, social media, and other tools.
• Each attendee receives a copy of “Getting Naked” by Patrick Lencioni, recommended reading by Larry Linne (Sitkins) and Jerry Fetty (SMART I.T. Services) and Pat Alexander.
• You could win an iPad 2 or a Motorola Xoom

SMART I.T. Services has been providing IT and automation services for agencies for over 20 years and has successfully produced the Take Your Agency to the Next Level seminar series for a decade. Seating is limited and time is running out! Register today at SMARTservices.com.

I am pleased to announce the launch today of a new blog Insurance Ecosystem.Com. My vision for this blog is to provide you with communicators that don’t normally blog but have great views and information to share. Each of these individuals has been wooed to blog here because I think they have so much to contribute in their area of expertise. PatAlexander.Com will remain the home base for my voice. I will contribute to this site from time-to-time or enter into the conversation via comments on a particular post.

I am inviting you to sign up to subscription to this new blog. Currently I plan to have new posts for you on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of each week. I have several committed communicators and some thinking about it. If you know of someone that does not regularly blog that you would like to hear, let me know and I will see if I can entice them to join us. If you are a regular blogger, but would like to join in the conversation here with guest posts, let me know.

I believe that the more we have involved in the conversation the better.

Technorati Tags:
Insurance Ecosystem, insurance technology, twitter, blogging, wordpress, intensedebate, insurance technology

As usual I leave HIGH-TECC with my head chocked full of new information and ideas.   I have yet to check out any of the new ideas, but it could happen very soon.  Maybe later today.

In addition to lots of new ideas, HIGH-TECC is a great time to see old friends, make new friends and strengthen relationships.  I was fortunate to have the week before HIGH-TECC to wrap up some loose ends so that while in Vail I could focus on the people and happenings there.  This is the one conference where there seems to be the time and opportunities for real networking.  I left refreshed, mind cleaned out from the fresh air and ready to be back at it this week.

As usual, Steve provided us with a great program and Jenny kept us all on track.  I am already looking forward to next year.  I would like to ask that you provide comments on HIGH-TECC Day 2 about the various break-out sessions or any other comments you would like to add to the various posts.

In the photo from left to right: April Feldt, Vertafore, Chris Kinsman, Vertafore, me and my husband Gene.  Visit the HIGH-TECC 2009 FaceBook page for more pictures.

On the 3rd morning we are all on information overload, but looking for more.  There seems to be no photo from the 3rd morning, but this is a photo from the 1st day when we still look fresh.  As you can see we are hooked into our technology.

As we struggle with waking up our minds Steve forges ahead with his What’s Great In 2009.   He is demonstrating voice recognition software Dragon  Naturally Speaking Version 10 Preferred.  We are moving on to the the many uses of video.  He is discussing a number of uses of video at websites, the use of video for training and how and why to use a Flip Video.  Steve is showing us how to use eyejot to send video emails to clients.

Are you looking for a way to capture and store information on the web, emails and other information?  Steve is reviewing how he uses EverNote as his database for documents and information.

Other technologies discussed and demonstrated:

• Web browsers – Chrome vs. Microsoft IE or FireFox
• Google Voice
• Google Search – you can limit your search in a number of different ways by choosing the .Show Options at the top of the search. 
• Eye-Fi Photo
• Live Chat for your website
• InfusionSoft
• SehHey.
• Kindle
• OmniPage Pro

Having an open discussion on personal projectors used with MP3/Video players.  Lots of pros and cons to this projector.

Steve reminds everyone to check out the pics at the HIGH-TECC FB Page

Steve’s closing remark is to pick one or two ideas that you have seen at HIGH-TECC 2009 and implement them.  Don’t try to do everything at once.

This is the fastest 2 hours at HIGH-TECC.  It always takes me a couple of days to complete this post as there are so many links and subjects to pull together.  My final reflections will follow soon.

Dan Epstein of ReSource Pro began the day discussing Driving Efficiency & Enterprise Value with Business Process Outsourcing. Dan provided a brief presentation on what Business Process Outsourcing is and how it enhances an agencies ability to build their client relationships. He then opened up the session to questions, answers and discussions. This was one of the best open forums and exchange of information I have been involved in for some time.

The 2nd half of the morning is comprised of three break out sessions. The sessions are 2015 & Beyond with Pat Alexander, Social Networking Hands-On with April Feldt and Boosting your Top Line Revenue with Mitch Axelrod. Since I was a presenter I am asking other attendees to give their comments and observations via the blog comments.

Steve is kicking off the afternoon with his Your Questions Answered session. Steve requests attendees to provide questions or issues relating to agency technologies. He asked the attendees at the session to identify which of these or other subjects which are the most important. The 1st subject being discussed all the various issues and products around passwords needed by agency staff. The 2nd subject is about email management. On subject morphs into another. Next we discussing email content in addition to managing other media. The next subject begins at do you want to talk about agency websites. A large range of subjects are being discussed. The session was closed with a discussion on connecting to your client with chat, web conferencing and other similar products.

The final sessions of the day are two breakout sessions which are Mac Workshop with Barry Klein and Tough Economy: Opportunities or Problems with Jack Burke.
I am requesting that those of you that would like to provide feedback on the breakout sessions, please tie to the comments to this post. Other feedback and discussion is welcome as well.

Good morning from the 1st day of HIGH-TECC 2009 in Vail, CO.  After opening comments from Steve Anderson we are engaged by Mitch Axelrod, Axelrod & Associates.  His topic, Win the New Game of Business.  Wow what a great opening session.  Some comments to share:

• Don’t think outside the box, “Throw Away the Box”.
• Imperfect action beats perfect inaction every time.
• Ask people why they bought from you.
• Ask people why they didn’t buy from you.
• Strengthen your strengths, don’t strengthen your weaknesses.
• Serve, deliver and serve some more.
• Thoughts are a dime-a-dozen, Knowledge is scarce and valuable, Wisdom is priceless.
• Are your systems a barrier to serving your clients or do they provide the tools to serve your clients.

Steve Anderson let the 2nd session of the morning with Insurance 2.0.   What are the future trends for insurance agencies.  He began with a YouTube video on Guy Kawasaki on innovation.  The link for this video is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJtK7D90XgQ

The New Insurance Agency

• The New prospect/client
• The new agency owner
• The New Sales manager
• The New producer
• The New CSR

As always, Steve gives great examples, tools and challenges us to think about better and unique ways to do business.

After lunch it is time for the Agency Systems Vendor Panel.  Steve pointed out that this was no longer the Agency Management Systems Panel.  There are several types of systems represented today.  Agencies are often using more than one type of software to manage their business.  This is one of the best vendor sessions in recent HIGH-TECC history.

Wrapping up the day’s presentations is Duke Williams on Increasing your “Find-ability”.  This was an in-depth review of understanding how your website is found in search engines.  Duke is always generous with sharing his thoughts and knowledge with us.

The final session of the day is the Technology Showcase.  Six companies are participating in this event.  It appears that it is busy at each showcase table.  Also, there is a lot of networking and discussion of the days information taking place.  It looks that this event was a success again.

I am honored to share this press release with you.  Watch for my review of this product in the July 2009 edition of “The Anderson Agency Report”.

I highly recommend this webinar.  I have heard very positive feed back from the agencies I know that have attended.  Independent agencies are deriving major benefits from implementing Real Time as well as Commercial and Personal Lines Download today and I encourage you to attend this highly regarded one hour webinar being put on by the Real Time/Download Campaign on Wednesday, June 3 (1:30-2:30 PM eastern time) and on Wednesday, July 1 (1:30-2:30 PM eastern time).  ACT has gotten great agent and carrier attendance at previous showings of this Webinar, averaging 390! I encourage you register for this webinar today.

The webinar– Real Time: The Next Major Advance in Agency Workflow– will be led by Lisa Parry Becker and Cyndy Smith, two highly knowledgeable agents about these new workflows and co-Chairs of the Real Time/Download Campaign.  In this Webinar, they will explain Real Time, demonstrate it, discuss the benefits, and outline next steps whether you are just starting Real Time or interested in increasing its usage in your agency. They will also discuss the increasing importance of Download in a Real Time world. Cal Durland of AUGIE and Jeff Yates of ACT will also participate.

There is no charge for agents or others to attend these Webinars.  After you logon to the Internet session, you will be able to listen to the audio through your computer headset or speakers.  If you would prefer, you will also be provided with a toll number you can call to listen to the audio.

Please register for the June 3 session of the Webinar (1:30-2:30 PM eastern time) by registering at this link now: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/770965005

Please register for the July 1 session of the Webinar (1:30-2:30 PM eastern time) by registering at this link now: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/145366576

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements

PC-based attendees: Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees: Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

Jeff Yates

ACT Executive Director

jeff.yates@iiaba.net

703-706-5402

This week I attended my first Zywave Brokerage Builder Conference.  Wow am I on overload.  For my property & casualty friends, this product is an agency management system built for and used by those agencies writing benefits coverages.  I have watched this product grow over the past several years and it has been impressive.

The conference was a very fast paced two days.  A balance of keynote speakers, product how tos, networking, user panels and of course socializing.  There has to be some fun at the end of those long days of sitting in meetings and piling your brain full of information.

I really like the approach Zywave takes in teaching their users about set up of activities and attachments.  They use the best practices approach of minimizing the number of activity types, matching the attachment types to the activity types and defining the conventions for descriptions.   Consistency is the key to being able to quickly retrieve information from your agency management system.  Consistency is also the key to successful reporting from your agency management system.

For me the most fun session was “Embrace Your Inner Technology”.  My impression of what this session would be about would be the technology of Zywave.  However, it was far more than that.  The session covered, web conferencing, social networking and wikis in addition to the  Zywave technology.  The exercise for each group was to determine what technologies they would use in transacting a particular business scenario with their client.