E-Fusion conference.

Sessions and speakers subject to change.

Sunday, Oct. 17

2-5 p.m.

E-Fusion Awards Preliminary Presentations

7 p.m.

What Matters in Insurance IT: An interactive town-hail style meeting in which speakers and attendees share insights, challenges and best practices, plus a time for networking and visiting with colleagues.

Monday, Oct. 18

8 a.m.

Innovation Imperative: How to practice cutting-edge technology in an increasingly robust regulatory environment.

Dennis S. Callahan

Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer

Guardian Life Insurance Co.

9 a.m.

New Federal Mandates and Old IT--Imperfect Together: New rules "blow the cover off hodgepodge IT," one report notes. Hot spots: Sarbanes-Oxley, Patriot Act, HIPAA, GLB, more.

Cynthia Saccocia

Senior Analyst, Insurance Practice

TowerGroup

Kathleen Jonson

Industry and Regulatory Affairs Counsel, Property Casualty Insurers

Association of America

Heading Off the Process Server: Case law, pending litigation and legislation affecting the liability environment for insurance technologists.

Alan S. Rutkin

Partner, Insurance & Coverage Litigation Practice Group

Rivkin Radler LLP

Kit Chaskin

Partner, Litigation Sachnoff & Weaver

10 a.m.

State and Local Regulatory Hot Spots--What to Know, What to Prepare for Now" Notification, fair reporting, anti-spam, more.

Lawrence H. Mirel

Commissioner

District of Columbia Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking

Marsha Harrison

Regulatory Affairs Manager

National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies

Project Management Boot Camp: How to make your vendors and employees deliver exceptional results on time and on budget.

Chuck Johnston

Director, Industry Marketing

Callidus Software

John Kellington

Chief Technology Officer

Ohio Casualty Group

11 a.m.

Securing the Last Mile: New rules and savvy attackers mean security is an escalating battle. Where insurers must defend, why yesterday's defenses aren't adequate.

Steve Orrin

CTO

Sanctum Inc.

John Quinn

Principal and CTO

Cap Gemini Ernst & Young's National Health Care Consulting Practice

CapGemini U.S.

Scalable Solutions: How fraternals and regional insurers are leveraging new technology and ingenuity to take on large-scale challenges.

Michael A. Edwards

Executive Vice President, CIO

American Skyline Insurance Co.

Larry A. Robbins

CIO

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans

1 p.m.

On the Regulatory Horizon: What's ahead in some of the hottest states in e-filing, SERFF, company and agent licensing, more.

Craig Eiland

Representative

Texas State Legislature

James V. McMahan III

Deputy Commissioner

Maryland Insurance Administration

2 p.m.

Meeting Today's Mandates Without Sacrificing Tomorrow's Opportunities: Dr. Charles "Chuck" Emery Jr. is remaking one of the nation's largest health operations into a highly compliant, automated and information-centralized operation. He's also a down-to-earth speaker with an eye on the practical.

Charles C. Emery Jr.

Senior Vice President Information Systems and CIO

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) of New Jersey

3-6 p.m.

E-Fusion Awards Finalists Presentations and Judging

Tuesday, Oct. 19

8 a.m.

One for All: How Safeco did a high-wire turnaround, shedding lines, agents, customers and employees. All the while, it was fashioning a new IT backbone on which to stake its future. Now it's showtime.

Yom Senegor

CIO and Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy

Safeco Corp.

9 a.m.

Where the Agent/Broker Desktop Is Headed: New standards and real-time interface are changing the way producers are working and linking to carriers.

Jeff Yates

Executive Director, Agents Council For Technology

Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America

Todd A. Silverhart

Assistant Vice President and Director

Technology in Marketing and Distribution Research

LIMRA International

Web Services--An Insurance-Based Approach: Everybody talks about Web services, but not everybody is using them--yet. Where Web services have caught hold, where new potential is developing and why they're not a solution for every problem.

Randy Wheeler

Founder, Chief Executive Officer

Valley Oak Systems

Matthew Josefowicz

Manager, Insurance Group Celent Communications

Srinivas Koushik

Senior Vice President and CTO Nationwide

10 a.m.

Life in the Fast Lane: How automated underwriting and new data tools are driving breakthroughs in speedier turnaround, better risk selection and new paths to the middle market.

C. Michael McFarland

Vice President, Life Underwriting Prudential Financial

Robert Haran 

Vice President and Chief Underwriter

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co.

The New Risk Segmentation in Property/Casualty Underwriting: A barrage of new data and information tools is harnessing financial models, historical patterns and individualized information analysis. The result: insurers who don't pay attention to the new tools may end up insuring a competitor's rejected business.

Lamont D. Boyd

Insurance Market Manager, Global Scoring Solutions

Fair Isaac Corp.

Charles Neeson

Senior Executive, Personal Lines--Product

Westfield Group

11 a.m.

Technology and the Rating Perspective: How technology impacts financial strength and business profile. Insurers' approaches to technology and electronic communication are playing a larger role in determining their ability to survive today's fast-changing markets. An inside look at how analysts gauge that commitment, and the role it plays in shaping their view of companies and the industry.

Get Smarter--The New Rules of Business Intelligence: GE ERC has made an art of pulling together disparate information and putting it at managers' fingertips. But too much information is too little knowledge. What to ignore may be just as important as what to report.

Joseph Heintjes

Market Research Leader

David Wittman

Senior Marketing Analyst

GE ERC Group

1 p.m.

Face the Music: Leading insurance technology firms take the hot seat for a lively give-and-take on competing approaches to support, upgrades, licensing and customer commitment.

2 p.m.

The Electronic Handshake--Using Technology to Monitor Complex Negotiations: New regulatory requirements, plus recent high-profile litigation, have insurers turning to technology solutions to get a handle on the hundreds of elements involved in a typical reinsurance, placement or investment negotiation. How one multinational is keeping tabs on its commitments.

Steve Drill

Vice President, Products

Q.Know Technologies Inc.

John Soares

Information Technology Manager

Arch Re

3 p.m.

The team that received the 2003 E-Fusion Award, Availity, will explain how they've moved beyond last year's project, followed by announcements of the six E-Fusion Awards recipients.