2026 Conference Wishlist
A long time ago, when I was a little baby adjuster, I rarely, if ever, attended industry conferences. It always seemed like something that was reserved for executive leadership, not for front line staff, and I had no idea of the inner workings.
As someone who not only attends conferences regularly, but who also has had a hand in planning a conferences, there are a few things I’ve learned along the way. I’ve put together a wishlist of things I would love to see in 2026:
Help Attendees Explain the ROI
Many conference organizers are seeing a decline in attendance. Part of this is driven by the increased costs to attend a conference. Between the cost of the registration, airfare and accommodations, you’re looking at a minimum of a couple thousand per person to attend. As organizations are looking to tighten belts, it can be a challenge to justify these costs. In addition, there are new conferences that have entered the competition for attendees, which makes it harder for attendees to determine which conferences to attend. Some conferences have a one-page summary with bullet points on why attendance is beneficial and what attendees will learn. I would recommend this for every conference organizer, since some attendees may struggle to communicate the ROI to their leadership in order to provide the funding for attendance.
Sponsorships and Scholarships for Individual Contributors
Management level staff are usually sent to conferences, but I would LOVE to see more individual contributors attending. Your claims adjusters, underwriters and customer service reps are in the weeds. They are your front line. They have real time, direct knowledge of the challenges your organization is facing. Yet, I rarely ever see them attending conferences. I understand that cost is a factor, but this could easily be covered by vendor sponsorships/scholarships specific to individual contributors.
Focus on Failures and Lessons Learned
I’ve seen tons of conference sessions that address problems and solutions very generally (e.g. here’s what could happen and here’s what you might do) as well as conference sessions that allow someone to talk about an actual success story. But as an attendee, that’s not what I want. I want a train wreck delivered by someone who survived the wreckage. I want the opposite of a success story. I think we learn so much more from failure than success. Tell me about a program that wasn’t able to launch. Tell me about a software implementation that went south. Tell me about a horrible contract clause that you missed and what the fallout was. Those experiences offer the best lessons.
Reimagine Networking Events
Many of the networking events are basically cocktail hours, and that’s fine for some folks. But think of how intimidating it is to walk into a room full of strangers who are already broken off into groups and trying to decide where to go, who to talk to and how to enter an existing group. This sort of scenario is why I spent YEARS avoiding any sort of networking event. I actually like meeting new people, and I am great when it is one on one or a small group in a quieter setting, but the scene I originally described still makes me anxious just thinking about it. Some conferences will have activities based networking events like hiking or yoga that are great ways to give people an opportunity to get together in a quieter, sans alcohol setting that may be more appealing to some attendees.
That wraps up the 2026 conference wishlist! Let’s see how many of these actually happen this year.
