Program areas at IMUA
The annual meeting - in the second quarter of each calendar year, usually april or may, imua holds its premier education event at an off-site hotel or resort-style property in the u.s. The event runs from sunday through tuesday and includes a board meeting; an opening reception and dinner for member networking; open forum business meeting; six education sessions on topical issues, each lasting from 1 to 3 hours, often with continuing education credits from one or more state insurance departments; some recreation events; a mini-trade show on both monday & tuesday; and a closing reception/banquet. In 2023 the annual meeting boasted record attendance of over 375 attendees.
Regional seminars - imua has 9 regional advisory committees located in toronto, new york, atlanta, columbus, chicago, dallas, boston, richmond, and san francisco. At various times throughout the calendar year, these volunteer-based committees each hold one or more breakfastlunchnlearnhalfdayfull day live educational seminars, often with state insurance department continuing education credits, on a myriad of insurance topics germane to a geographic area. They also occasionally host networking socials and/or field trips to get a closer look at various Inland Marine insurance exposures (ie visiting a refrigerated warehouse to see the various Inland Marine transportation and warehouse legal liability exposures). Attendance for these seminars events typically ranges from low 20's up to 100 attendees. Objective/ accomplishment - primarily education and training but also networking/strengthening industry connections.
Web seminars and virtual classes/forums - about 12 to 18 times a calendar year, a volunteer-based regional committee and/or technical committees arrange for a web seminar, typically 1 hour in duration from 2:00pm 3:00pm et where geographically remote sites across the u.s., and sometimes internationally, can log into the audio/visual presentation on a topical issue usually presented by a non-insurance expert, e.g. Hurricanes and the impact on levees. Multiple attendees are traditionally at each site, and member companies find this is a cost effective and efficient way to provide education and technical information to their employees (there is no additional cost to attend webinars as all access to all virtual programs is now included in imua's company membership fee. In 2023, imua presented 12 educational webinars and 6 classes with each session attracting an average of 300 viewers with a duration of 60 to 75 minutes for webinars and 3 hours for the virtual classes/forums.
Technical committees - these volunteer committees, centered around the major lines of Inland Marine business and claims/loss control, provide technical information via the members-only section of the website in a myriad of ways including technical papers, planning seminars/webinars, and field trips.