On Point with Peter van Aartrijk and Rick Morgan, Episode 1: Social Media
June 25, 2009 by Charles Wasilewski · Leave a Comment
On Point with Peter van Aartrijk and Rick Morgan is an audio conversation with insurance industry leaders who champion change and challenge all of us to think.
In this first episode, Insurance Journal’s Mitch Dunford and Julie Tinney introduce the new “On Point” podcast with hosts Rick and Peter, and discuss Insurance Journal’s adoption of technology, including social media.
The podcast was published Thursday, June 25, 2009. Run time is 29 minutes 2 seconds.
On Point with Peter van Aartrijk and Rick Morgan, Episode 1: Social Media
June 25, 2009 by Charles Wasilewski · Leave a Comment
On Point with Peter van Aartrijk and Rick Morgan is an audio conversation with insurance industry leaders who champion change and challenge all of us to think.
In this first episode, Insurance Journal’s Mitch Dunford and Julie Tinney introduce the new “On Point” podcast with hosts Rick and Peter, and discuss Insurance Journal’s adoption of technology, including social media.
The podcast was published Thursday, June 25, 2009. Run time is 29 minutes 2 seconds.
Brand Camp Won’t Be Yet Another Meeting
June 22, 2009 by Peter van Aartrijk · 1 Comment
Regarding Aartrijk Brand Camp (in Chicago, Sept. 28-30), some of you have asked, “Why is Aartrijk putting on such an event? What do you hope to accomplish?”
Excellent questions. I attend many industry conferences so I’m sensitive about offering another one.
I can assure you that Brand Camp won’t be yet another meeting.
This event is the only one designed to put in context the impact of social media/social networking on marketing and branding in insurance and financial services. So if you are responsible for formulating and articulating your brand in our industry—agency, broker, carrier, trade association, services provider—then you should come to Brand Camp.
At most conferences, speakers present in a one-way format. Like social networking itself, Brand Camp will be much more engaging, where attendees truly will get involved. We hope to imagine—even create—some new ways our industry can communicate with customers and prospects. This engagement is a more fun way to learn anyway.
You will return home with a solid plan to introduce or enhance your brand in this new social networking world. Brand Camp will be educational, engaging, entertaining and rewarding for the group as well as for individual participants.
Go on, jump into the fray! Check out the Brand Camp Web page.
– Peter van Aartrijk
Are You Saying This?
June 8, 2009 by Rick Morgan · 1 Comment
It’s a fad
I don’t have time for this
It’s not appropriate for business
Show me the ROI
I don’t want my staff wasting company time on this
I am concerned about the E&O exposure
Objections or perhaps more accurately excuses to avoid having to deal with the social networking? Yes, but we have heard it all before.
Earlier today, I was just talking to a friend about the history associated with the use of technology in the insurance agency business. I reminded him that back in the early ’80s when the push was on for agents go become “automated” there was huge resistance. He then recalled how when e-mail was first introduced many agency owners adamantly objected to their staff using it and the objections were even stronger about “surfing ” the web at work.
Yes, there needs to be a corporate strategy. Yes, there needs to be a policy. Yes, there needs to be management and monitoring. Yes, there shoud be best practices guidelines. Yes, Yes, Yes. But lets get past the excuses and begin to reap the rewards that come with smart implementation social networking. The hoola hoop was a fad. The societal and business trends being fueled by the social web are not.
– Rick Morgan
Photo Credit: Flickr DarynBarryWave, Bing Newest Four-Letter Words to Sweep the Web
June 5, 2009 by Charles Wasilewski · Leave a Comment
Google Wave is “collaboration and communication using the same tool.”
– Jens Rasmussen, Senior Staff Engineer, Google
“Many people believe search today is a great tool; however we believe search is still in its infancy and there is much more that people can and should expect from their search service. Bing … is designed to help people find the shortest distance from their initial search query to the point of making an informed decision.”
– John Mangelaars, VP, Consumer and Online, Microsoft EMEA
In reading these quotes and looking into the latest four-letter words (“Bing” from Microsoft and “Wave” from Google) to sweep the Web, I’m struck by the incredible optimism of the people who are developing tools for the Web.
I see these Web tools (search engines, e-mail, and social networks) and say things like: ‘Wow. Amazing that these are available to me today, and for free or little cost. And they help me work faster and better.’ These folks say things like: ‘Well, those are neat but they have shortcomings X, Y, and Z. Here’s another approach we’re working on.’
Google Wave
Thus we have Google Wave (still in development and not yet available) and Microsoft’s Bing (a “decision engine” and not, the Microsofties insist, a “search engine”).
Bing is out and available. Wave was previewed for the tech/developer crowd last week. How they fit into the future, or how they fade away, I’ve no idea yet. But the excitement (mixed with angst) is that they might change the way we communicate.
Let me leave you with two statements from the folks working on Bing and Wave, the first serious and the second (mostly) tongue-in-cheek.
“Microsoft has designed Bing to help people quickly find the information they need on daily routine searches and in order to accomplish tasks, including making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition or finding a local business…. The explosive growth of online content has continued unabated, and Bing was developed as a tool to help people more easily navigate through the information overload that has come to characterise many of today’s search experiences…. across all search engines, as many as 30% of searches are abandoned without a satisfactory result.” [source: comScore Inc.]
– Microsoft news release, May 28, 2009
“Don’t be shy, you guys. If you see something you like, don’t be shy letting us know. We can handle pretty much any amount of applause.”
– Lars Rasmussen, Software Engineering Manager, Google, to developers when previewing Wave
– Charles Wasilewski
Aartrijk’s Morgan Named to IIABNY Board
June 2, 2009 by Charles Wasilewski · Leave a Comment
Independent Insurance Agents, Brokers of New York Board Elects Rick Morgan of Aartrijk To At-Large Director Position
(May 18, 2009) — The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of New York, Inc. board of directors elected Rick Morgan, senior associate with Aartrijk, to a one-year term as an at-large director. He will help shape the association’s policies on issues vital to the interests of its 1,900 member agencies statewide.
Morgan brings to the board a wide variety of experiences in insurance and technology. As co-owner of a Boulder, Colorado insurance agency, he developed the process of transactional filing, which ultimately brought new efficiencies to thousands of independent agencies. He went on to serve as vice-president for Delphi Information Systems and Confirmnet Corp., and he co-founded Insurance Reference Systems. IRS was the creator of Silver Plume, an electronic library that revolutionized the distribution of insurance reference material to agents and insurance companies. He also served as a national director on the advisory council for software developer GEMINI and was instrumental in the development of the GEMINI Users Group, of which he became national president.
Morgan also was co-founder of HIGH-TECC, an industry-wide educational event. He was the founding editor of The Automated Agency Report, and his articles have appeared in Rough Notes and Independent Agent, among other publications. His most recent industry position was senior vice-president of marketing for Applied Systems, a leading agency management system vendor, from which he retired in October 2007.
Morgan is a graduate of Colorado State University and lives with his wife in Broomfield, Colorado.
The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of New York, Inc. has represented the common business interests of independent insurance professionals since 1882. More than 1,900 agencies and their 18,000 employees currently rely on the DeWitt, New York-based not-for-profit trade association for legislative advocacy, continuing education and other means of industry support. In addition, many IIABNY members represent Trusted Choice®, a national consumer brand uniting more than 7,000 independent agencies across the United States. For more information, go to www.trustedchoice.com or www.iiabny.org.
[excerpted from IIABNY news release]