Swiss Life Network clients award top marks to 2005 International Employee Benefits Conference

Swiss Life Network Clients award top marks to 2005 International Employee Benefits Conference

More than 220 international clients, brokers, consultants, Network Partners and Swiss Life executives traveled from 33 countries around the world to the highly successful Swiss Life Network International Employee Benefits Conference held April in Interlaken, Switzerland.

An excellent networking and information-gathering event
This well-established, regular meeting of multinational clients, insurers and international employee benefit players was last hosted five years ago. Recognized as an invaluable opportunity to renew personal and business contacts and to hear about the latest developments in international employee benefits, one participant called it: “a well-balanced conference,” while another described it as: “an excellent mixture between meeting people and learning”.

Presentations judged “outstanding, very interesting”
Opened by Paulina Casal, Head of the Swiss Life Network, and Paul Müller, Chief Market Officer of the Swiss Life Group, the conference filled two and a half days with professional and informative plenary sessions and workshops on themes ranging from demographic developments to health plans to international employee benefits solutions. The popular Network Partner Marketplace provided an excellent venue for clients and insurers to meet for in-depth consultations, while valuable contacts were begun or renewed during the varied and highly-rated leisure program, which included an exceptional gala dinner evening.

Inspiration from top achievers
Among the distinguished star guests speaking at the conference was Ahmet Aykaç, Director General of the THESEUS International Management Institute. A former professor at INSEAD, France, and IMD, Switzerland, he specializes in the dynamics of market adjustment, market structures and industrial organization. Professor Aykac revealed during his excellent presentation that demography is the key component of the challenges facing humanity –not only in respect to the well-known financial repercussions, but also in its far-reaching socio-economic impacts. We will face issues far beyond finance – such as whether there will be enough caretakers to look after us when we will be in need.

Another renowned guest speaker, Lennart Levi, is emeritus Professor of Psychosocial Medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and advisor to the World Health Organization and to the European Commission. He gave a fascinating speech that focused on stress, illness and cost, and how to break out of this often vicious cycle.

Delegates also welcomed Bertrand Piccard, the first person to circumnavigate the globe in a balloon, who delighted his audience with a thrilling and thought-provoking speech: “Adventure is a state of mind”.

Using flight as a metaphor for a new relationship between man, technology and nature, the intrepid adventurer described the choices we face every day, showing that just as a balloon is captured by the air currents, and a plane flies best against the wind, so we have to decide whether and when to go with the flow – and when to swim against the stream.

A meeting of multinational minds
As ever, the conference took an open-minded, truly multinational approach, with delegates from multiple countries and industries sharing generously of their experiences and expertise while gaining important new insights. Participants also shared a common understanding not just of sophisticated benefits concepts but also of contemporary requirements and future challenges.

Ralph Endres, from the Swiss Life Network team responsible for the conference, summed up the experience by declaring: “We put a firm focus during the International Employee Benefits Conference on uncovering mysteries by asking the right questions, and keeping a flexible attitude regarding client's individual needs. Because just as in life, in international employee benefits, and especially with the Swiss Life Network, there are no standard solutions.”