American Fidelity's Barrowman To Take ICPA Helm

Taking the helm of an association that is changing as quickly as the industry it serves, incoming president Brett Barrowman said the Insurance Conference Planners Association will add more educational programming, particularly regarding technology and the economy.

Barrowman, assistant vice president of conference and corporate event planning for Oklahoma City-based American Fidelity Group, will begin serving his one-year term as president of ICPA next month at the association's annual meeting at The Atlantis resort in Paradise Island, Bahamas. Barrowman will replace National Life of Vermont's Lynn Averill.

This will be the first full annual meeting since ICPA's watershed decision—approved at last year's meeting—to allow planners from financial institutions to join the association, provided their companies have some direct connection to the insurance industry. The issue was controversial, but feelings that a stream of mergers and the broadening scope of insurance offerings by financial corporations led their planners to face many of the same issues as ICPA's carried the day last year.

The transition has gone smoothly, Barrowman said. "We haven't had a problem," he said. "With the advent of mergers of insurance companies with financial and banking institutions, we knew we had to open up the membership to address those concerns. It does not change our mission, because our industries are so closely aligned. In a sense, meeting planning is meeting planning, but there are unique twists to the insurance and securities industries."

Some of those twists include governmental regulation of tax issues regarding corporate incentive programs, an evolving environment that will be addressed at the meeting, Barrowman said. "If you play by the rules, you'll be okay," he said.

The association, despite an influx of financial planners, has maintained its strict one-to-one buyer-to-supplier ratio, with an annual lottery determining which suppliers will be able to hold membership.

This annual meeting will not feature The Exchange, a popular but controversial forum of buyers and suppliers. A note by Averill on ICPA's Web site, www.icpanet.com, said that the group had canceled the Exchange because of concerns that comments therein were damaging reputations.

"My basis for not scheduling The Exchange is this: Over the past five years or so, I have witnessed the results of negative comments about our hospitality partners, perhaps provided in good faith by members, that literally affected their careers," said Averill in the note. "The information shared in The Exchange did not remain confidential among members, which frankly borders on unethical in my opinion, and whichever hospitality partner was targeted would receive little or no activity at his or her Marketplace booth, which obviously means no leads and no business. It was time we came to the realization The Exchange as we knew it could not continue without changes." Averill left open the possibility that The Exchange could return in some form at later meetings.

Barrowman takes the mantle from Averill not only at a time of change within ICPA, but in the industry as well. The terrorists attacks in the United States on Sept. 11 caused a great deal of uncertainty regarding the industry's immediate future. Some insurance companies have canceled meetings through the end of the year.

ICPA decided against canceling its own meeting. "That wouldn't help our supplier partners or alleviate fear of travel," Barrowman said. Instead, it will dedicate educational programming to the changes the industry faces.

"There's no simple solution here," Barrowman said. "Senior management sees sales declines and how much pressure there is on the corporate books. We all have to be flexible."