IFoA Middle East Conference 2025: call for speakers
We are looking for speakers for the IFoA’s Middle East Conference 2025.
If you are keen to share your research, knowledge or thought leadership with the Middle Eastern insurance and actuarial community, we would be delighted to hear from you.
It should be a length of about 250 words summarising your talk and cover:
target audience and assumed knowledge level
key learning outcomes and key takeaways for attendees, which are critical for the committee’s decision-making (elevator pitch: key areas covered and benefit to attendees)
other useful background information (for example, it was a working party submission or perhaps used results from a new survey)
format of your session (for example, interactive live presentation, debate, panel session, pre-recorded presentation)
organisation and contact details of all speakers
Please submit your proposal in English.
We can only base our decision on your submission (which will be anonymised so that your name, organisation, country or contact details will not be included).
The plenary/keynote sessions are one hour and breakout workshops are 50 minutes, which includes at least 10 minutes for Q&A. Please take this into consideration prior to your submission.
An example of a good submission:
Why isn’t machine learning (ML) used routinely in reserving as it is in personal lines pricing?
Although there is widespread interest in ML, we see the same questions come up time and time again on difficulties and obstacles to incorporating ML into reserving. These are topics of substance with no single, easy answer and include questions such as:
why use ML for reserving in the first place?
how do you get your stakeholders (including auditors) on board with using ML?
how can we research and apply ML techniques if we don’t have access to granular transactional data?
how do you incorporate judgement or external information into an ML-based reserving process
are actuaries going to be replaced by data scientists?
In this session we will have a panel discussion featuring various members of the Machine Learning in Reserving Working Party (MLRWP) and we will discuss these points and others. The MLRWP has shared many of our findings and material in talks and on our blog.
This will be delivered virtually and will be a high-level session rather than a technical one. It should be of interest to actuaries at all levels with an interest in ML including senior actuaries and team leaders who are interested in using ML in the reserving process and may be asking many of these same questions.
Topic ideas
Actuarial science programmes in academic institutions (for example in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia)
Actuaries in the workplace (for example communication, professionalism, DEI, agile, professional excellence)
Climate-related catastrophic claim events (UW, reserving, pricing): recent events in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia
Cyber risk
Economic issues (for example inflation, global economic outlook, social fairness)
Education of actuaries beyond exams
Emerging and evolving risks (for example ESG, climate change, geopolitics, cyber, blockchain, digital currency, driverless cars)
Future of individual life in light of distribution challenges
How actuarial assumptions are set in pension plans
Insurance market environment and trends
Investments
Life insurance and changes in the United Arab Emirates and saving packages
Mergers and acquisitions in the insurance industry and importance of actuaries in the activity
Mortality and longevity trends
Motor and medical pricing: regional challenges
Non-traditional actuarial roles and work and where actuaries and their skills can add value
Pension topics, especially GOSI changes and what that means
Potential regional actuarial association
Regulatory environment (for example regulator views, SII reform, IFRS17, personal injury discount rates)
Reserving
Risk frameworks
Savings plans and investments and sustainability in Saudi Arabia
Telematics
Topics to inspire the next generation
Use of data analytics, AI and machine learning in insurance
Vision 2030 (role of actuaries in finance and insurance)
Regional trends in healthcare: developments in Saudi Arabia
Submit your proposal
Please submit your proposal by Friday 14 February.
