Bring ideas. Bring your team. Build your advantage.
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InsuranceFest was a ‘wow’ experience – after more than 600 conferences, I’d rank the networking and social interaction on the Santa Monica Pier in my top five.
INSURANCEFEST AT A GLANCE
Network Like You Mean It
1,000+ insurance leaders, founders, and innovators in one place. Brokers, MGAs, agencies, insurers, InsurTechs. From C-suite to NextGen, they’ll all be on the pier.
Join the Conversation
60+ industry voices you actually want to hear from—from Aon to Marsh McLennan to InsurTech founders. Interactive sessions across every zone where you’re invited to jump in, ask what you really want to know, and steer the discussion. This isn’t sit-and-listen; it’s speak up and be heard.
Hands-On Marketplace
30+ exhibitors and interactive InsurTech demos you can actually touch and test. A buzzing marketplace of ideas, solutions, and collaborations where you discover new tools, products, and partners to tackle your biggest challenges.N ot just watching — finding what you’ll take back to your work.
Discussion Table Real Talk
50+ exclusive, 1-hour Discussion Tables for senior brokers and decision-makers. Small-group, facilitated conversations on Cyber, Digital Transformation, Construction, and E&S where everyone leans in, swaps war stories, and pressure-tests ideas in real time.
Bring Your Crew
Team experiences and group sessions designed so your whole organization goes back energized with shared insights and new connections. Build your own festival lineup as a team, join collaborative workshops together, tackle live challenges side by side, and turn the pier into your offsite — complete with shared moments, fresh ideas, and stories you’ll still be talking about back at the office.
Festival Energy on the Pier
From sunrise yoga to sunset sets, food trucks, cocktails, and ocean air — the pier turns every coffee break into a moment.
THE PRACTICE & BUSINESS OF LAW IN THE AI ERA
Sessions on AI governance, billing models, legal tech investment and emerging risk — for the counsel and innovators shaping how legal work gets done.
Hall Two is where the AI conversation gets real. Beyond the hype, this track tackles what's actually working in legal AI adoption today: the risks, the governance, the pricing shifts and the tools reshaping how legal work gets done.
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+FEATURED SESSIONS: HALL TWO
What AI Gets Right, What It Gets Wrong—and What You Should Stop Doing Manually
A blunt opening assessment of where AI is already safely handling legal work, where it still falls flat, and the guardrails legal leaders need before handing over more. Leave with the immediate steps to vet vendors and govern AI use in your organization.
When the Evidence Is Overwhelming: Turning Mountains of Data into Legal Strategy
Practical ways to bring sprawling case files, audits and breach responses into one streamlined review process, without the IT headache. Leave with a faster path from document dump to defensible strategy.
Buy vs. Build in Legal Tech—What Actually Makes Sense for Your Team?
Legal leaders unpack the true cost of building in-house tools versus buying off-the-shelf, including the hidden maintenance and governance risks. Leave with a clearer framework for making the right call for your team's size and budget.
Is AI Changing the Billable Hour: What GCs Now Expect from Law Firms
General counsel share how they're rethinking legal spend as AI drives new efficiencies, and what they now expect on turnaround, transparency and pricing. Leave with the new baseline for external counsel relationships.
Getting Reliable Results from Legal AI: Prompts, Workflows, and Emerging Agents
A practical session on building dependable, repeatable AI workflows for due diligence and drafting, plus a look at the AI agents starting to handle multi-step legal processes. Leave with techniques to keep AI focused on your facts.
The Invisible Threat Layer: Shadow AI, Fraud, and Data Exposure
As unapproved AI tools quietly handle sensitive client data, this session maps the governance frameworks needed to close the gap without stalling innovation. Leave with strategies to manage the fraud and data exposure risks now.
FEATURED SPEAKERS: HALL TWO
As a Partner at Neinstein, Rose is an integral member of the senior leadership team, driving innovative practices that keep the firm ahead of the ever-evolving legal landscape. Her keen organizational skills and strategic foresight have made her an invaluable source of knowledge and trust among her peers.
Rose also maintains a comprehensive medical malpractice and personal injury practice, focusing on birthing injuries and motor vehicle accidents. Over a legal career spanning more than 20 years, she has established herself as a diligent, driven lawyer, and a compassionate advocate capable of nurturing strong client relationships. Her skillful negotiation style is strategic and solution-oriented, optimizing client outcomes while ensuring their cases are advanced with the utmost care and attention.
Kosta Starostin serves as VP of Legal for Cohere, the security-first enterprise AI company. Kosta leads Cohere's global legal operations. Prior to joining Cohere, Kosta was a Corporate, M&A and Venture Capital attorney at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, one of Canada's top ranked law firms, where his practice focused on advising emerging and high growth companies on commercial transactions, corporate governance, venture capital, and M&A.
Jatinder Chera is a seasoned lawyer with ~17 years of legal practice gained from a leading national law firm, solo practice, and in-house.
At present, Jatinder is Director, Legal Affairs for Lactalis Canada. In this role, in addition to advising on day to day legal matters, Jatinder is a member of the Lactalis Canada Leadership Team and Co-Chair (Co-Compliance Officer) of the Lactalis Canada Grocery Code Compliance Office.
Prior to joining Lactalis Canada Inc., Jatinder had his own legal practice, Chera Law Firm, based in Peel Region with a focus on corporate law. Prior to his own legal practice, Jatinder was an Associate in the Restructuring and Insolvency group at Blakes, Cassels & Graydon in Toronto.
In respect of community involvement, since June 2022, Jatinder has served on the Board of Directors of the Peel Children’s Aid Society.
Paul Saunders is a Partner and the first Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer at Stewart McKelvey. After six years practicing corporate and M&A law, Paul has spent the past decade leading the firm’s strategic innovation efforts. His work spans practice innovation, legal project management, pricing, process improvement, profitability analysis, continuous improvement, change management, AI and emerging technologies, partner compensation, data analytics, and application development. Paul works closely with lawyers, staff, and firm leadership to address complex challenges and co-create practical, forward-looking solutions. In addition to his leadership role at Stewart McKelvey, Paul increasingly collaborates with other law firms seeking to build or enhance their own strategic innovation capabilities.
THREE CONTENT STREAMS
- GC-Law Firm Partnership
- Small & Mid-Size
- AI & Innovation
The GC–law firm relationship is being renegotiated. Clients expect faster decisions, sharper commercial alignment, and greater accountability from external counsel — and in-house teams are under equal pressure to do more with less. This stream goes beyond the traditional dynamic to tackle leadership, legal operations, risk, talent, and what genuine business partnership looks like in practice.
The firms growing right now are making deliberate choices — on pricing, on technology, on the work they take and the clients they keep. This stream delivers practical, direct guidance on running a profitable and future-ready practice: client expectations, operational efficiency, culture, succession, and how to build something sustainable in a market that's moving fast.
The legal technology conversation has decisively shifted from “if” to “how.” This stream brings together innovators, early adopters, and constructive sceptics to tackle the real questions - on AI, automation and what meaningful digital transformation looks like for legal teams and firms in 2026.
WHAT ATTENDEES ARE SAYING
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WHO ATTENDS
THEMES AT A GLANCE
Digital Transformation & Innovation
Cyber, Risk & Underwriting
Nat Cat & Climate
Regulation, Legal & Compliance
Next Gen
E&S Unfiltered
Construction & Specialty Reports
Market Capacity, M&A & Economic Headwinds
DISCUSSION TABLES
Step into action with our all-new themed discussion tables—built for leaders who want results now. These fast-paced, interactive sessions go beyond theory, delivering tactical conversations and proven takeaways you can put to work immediately.
Cyber
How do you keep up with rapidly evolving cyber policies while driving client education on emerging risks and solutions?
Digital Transformation
What are the transformational benefits of implementing AI effectively across your business?
Construction
What are the biggest hidden builder’s risks brokers and clients need to watch for, and how can you identify them early?
Excess & Surplus Lines
How do you build and maintain client trust in E&S placements, especially in a volatile market?
Cyber
How are you leveraging AI to outpace cyber threats, and what challenges are you facing in the cyber arms race?
Digital Transformation
How can brokers turn data into actionable insights that drive revenue and growth?
Construction
What strategies help brokers navigate high-risk construction projects in a tightening market?
Excess & Surplus Lines
How do you stay ahead of volatility in the E&S market and make confident placement decisions?
Cyber
What strategies have helped you convert cyber skeptics into loyal, proactive clients?
Digital Transformation
How do you design a digital-first client experience that truly delivers value and loyalty
Construction
How do you evaluate and implement jobsite technologies that deliver real value for clients?
Excess & Surplus Lines
What creative strategies help brokers secure E&S coverage when traditional markets say no?
Cyber
What digital threats are most concerning for your clients, and how are you helping them prepare?
Digital Transformation
What lessons have you learned from your digital transformation journey—both successes and failures?
Construction
How do you identify and negotiate contract clauses that can make or break a construction deal?
THEMES AT A GLANCE
Digital Transformation & Innovation
- Turning AI from hype to ROI in real brokerage workflows
- Building a digital client journey that wins (and keeps) business in a virtual world
- Choosing InsurTech and RegTech partners that accelerate real transformation
Cyber, Risk & Underwriting
- Turning cyber risk into a client‑value conversation, not a fear pitch
- Cyber crisis playbooks: who does what, when it hits
- Underwriting the next wave of cyber and personal cyber exposures
Nat Cat & Climate
- Rethinking nat cat models for a world that won’t sit still
- Helping clients understand climate‑driven pricing and coverage shifts
- Placing and structuring nat cat and climate‑exposed risks when volatility is the norm
Regulation, Legal & Compliance
- What new rules really mean for AI, cyber, and everyday brokerage workflows
- RegTech that actually simplifies audits, file reviews, and reporting
- Staying compliant on claims, E&S, and specialty without killing broker speed
Next Gen
- Career playbooks: what rising brokers wish they’d known earlier
- Mixing veteran experience with new ideas in
- Finding your lane as a NextGen broker in a consolidating, tech‑driven market
Diversity & Inclusion
- Real stories from women and under‑represented leaders on breaking through and bringing others with them
- How brokers can sponsor others, share opportunities, and use their voice even without a hiring title
- Where inclusion has changed client relationships, ideas, and outcomes – not just internal messaging
E&S Unfiltered
- Winning in a capacity‑tight, appetite‑shifting E&S market
- Designing E&S solutions for “wild risks” the standard market won’t touch
- Broker, MGA, and carrier partnerships that unlock specialty placements
Construction & Specialty Reports
- Managing construction risk under climate, cost, and regulatory pressure
- Spotting breakout niches across specialty lines before the market crowds in
- Claims and coverage lessons from large, multi‑party and specialty projects
Market Capacity, M&A & Economic Headwinds
- Broker playbooks for navigating consolidation and staying relevant
- Positioning your firm for sale, scale, or strategic partnership
- Competing when capacity, pricing, and client demand all move at once
Digital Transformation & Innovation
- Turning AI from hype to ROI in real brokerage workflows
- Building a digital client journey that wins (and keeps) business in a virtual world
- Choosing InsurTech and RegTech partners that accelerate real transformation
Cyber, Risk & Underwriting
- Turning cyber risk into a client‑value conversation, not a fear pitch
- Cyber crisis playbooks: who does what, when it hits
- Underwriting the next wave of cyber and personal cyber exposures
Nat Cat & Climate
- Rethinking nat cat models for a world that won’t sit still
- Helping clients understand climate‑driven pricing and coverage shifts
- Placing and structuring nat cat and climate‑exposed risks when volatility is the norm
Regulation, Legal & Compliance
- What new rules really mean for AI, cyber, and everyday brokerage workflows
- RegTech that actually simplifies audits, file reviews, and reporting
- Staying compliant on claims, E&S, and specialty without killing broker speed
Next Gen
- Career playbooks: what rising brokers wish they’d known earlier
- Mixing veteran experience with new ideas in
- Finding your lane as a NextGen broker in a consolidating, tech‑driven market
Diversity & Inclusion
- Real stories from women and under‑represented leaders on breaking through and bringing others with them
- How brokers can sponsor others, share opportunities, and use their voice even without a hiring title
- Where inclusion has changed client relationships, ideas, and outcomes – not just internal messaging
E&S Unfiltered
- Winning in a capacity‑tight, appetite‑shifting E&S market
- Designing E&S solutions for “wild risks” the standard market won’t touch
- Broker, MGA, and carrier partnerships that unlock specialty placements
Construction & Specialty Reports
- Managing construction risk under climate, cost, and regulatory pressure
- Spotting breakout niches across specialty lines before the market crowds in
- Claims and coverage lessons from large, multi‑party and specialty projects
Market Capacity, M&A & Economic Headwinds
- Broker playbooks for navigating consolidation and staying relevant
- Positioning your firm for sale, scale, or strategic partnership
- Competing when capacity, pricing, and client demand all move at once
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