It's too bad that Sandy Praeger, president of the NationalAssociation of Insurance Commissioners, had to bow out of NU'staping of “The Great Debate” over federal versus state regulation,due to scheduling conflicts in the midst of dealing with thefallout from last weeks crisis with AIG. But luckily, we were ableto get an able replacement from the National Conference ofInsurance Legislators–its secretary, State Rep. George Keiser–todebate American Insurance Association President Marc Racicot. Thedebate is available online free of charge, starting this Wednesday,Sept. 24, from 11 a.m.-to-Noon EST. Read on for details.

The debate, moderated by yours truly, is the main event of FacingThe Future Of Insurance–the second annual online conference andexposition produced by National Underwriter and two of itsaffiliated publications, Claims and Tech Decisions.

To registerat no chargeclick here.

The debate will focus on bills in Congress to create an optionalfederal charter, a federal Office Of Insurance Information, aNational Association of Registered Agents and Brokers, or to setfederal standards for state oversight of reinsurance and surpluslines.

The conference will feature seven sessions, as well as a virtualexhibit area. Besides The Great Debate, NU will present two othersessions:

The State Of ERMEnterprise & Entrepreneurial RiskManagement, Sept. 25, 11 a.m.-to-Noon EST.

Moderated by Assistant Managing Editor Caroline McDonald, thissession offers two parts, each led by board members of the Risk andInsurance Management Society.

The first sectionfeaturing Daniel Kugler, assistant treasurer ofrisk management at Snap-On Inc.shows how entrepreneurial riskmanagement can raise a risk managers profile, promote their value,better measure results, and develop relationships with peers andsenior management. Tips will be offered for getting the most out ofcaptives, as well as repositioning risk managements goals andprocesses to become a profit center.

The second partfeaturing John Phelps, director of business risksolutions for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Floridareveals resultsfrom a newly released RIMS survey on enterprise risk management.Among the questions: How widespread is ERM? How effective is it? Towhat extent is the C-Suite engaged in the ERM process?

What Does It Take To Tackle Workers Comp Risks?Sept. 25,12:30-to-1:30 p.m. EST.

The three winners of NUs second annual Award For Excellence InWorkers' Compensation Risk Management share the secrets of theirsuccess in a session moderated by Mr. Friedman.

Risk managers from ServiceMaster (David Hopps), The Walt DisneyCompany (Tim East) and Select Staffing (Fred Pachon) providepractical insights on how to reduce accident frequency andseverity, improve back-to-work performance and more effectivelymanage claimsall while gaining senior management and companywidesupport for loss control and safety initiatives.

Other sessions at the virtual conference include:

Hail Damage To Roofs, Sept. 24, 12:30-to-1:30 p.m. EST.

This course gives students a comprehensive look at hail damageto all major roofing types. Among the points discussed is haildamage to asphalt composition shingles, wood shingles and shakes,concrete and clay tiles, slate, built-up roofing, modified bitumenroofing, single-ply membranes, polyurethane foam, and metalroofing.

For each of these roofing types, the instructorTim Marshall,P.E.discusses the hailstone size needed to cause losses and typicalcharacteristics of hail damage. He also compares typical haillosses to other common types of roof damage.

Predictive Analytics: Unstructured Data DilemmaSept. 24, 2-to-3p.m. EST.

With estimates that up to 90 percent of the data received byinsurers is unstructured, a carriers ability to garner qualityinformation and turn it into useful predictive analytics can beextremely difficult.

Semantic technology solves this problem by recognizing topicsand concepts, extracting information, and categorizing it, saidKaren Pauli, research director in the insurance practice atTowerGroup. She will provide an overview of predictive analyticsand then funnel it down to the problem of unstructured data and howits absence from the data pools utilized by predictive analyticscan decrease its accuracy.

Kaleb Adams, assistant vice president of claims research for TheHartford, will continue the discussion by offering the hows andwhys of implementing semantic technology from an insurerperspective.

His remarks will include an analysis of the unstructured dataproblems that The Hartford was facing, why they wanted to solve it,the results theyre seeing having implemented the technology, andthe benefits they expect to see in the future.

This session will be moderated by Robert Hyle, associate editorof Tech Decisions.

Speed And Ease: Underwriting At Its Best, Sept. 24, 3:30-to-4:30p.m. EST.

Speed-to-market and ease of doing business have become two ofthe most hyped phrases in the world of insurance. This sessionexplores the latest trends, strategies and implementations thatmaximize automation efficiencies between underwriters and agents toturn the hype into profitable reality.

Speaking are Robert J. Asensio, chief information officer ofDarwin Professional Underwriters, and Donald Light, a senioranalyst at Celent.

Claims In A Climate Of Change, Sept. 25, 2-to-3 p.m. EST.

This session, moderated by Claims Editor Eric Gilkey, confrontsthe fact that whether or not global warming is a reality, there arealready legal cases and insurance claims being tendered.

In this free-form discussion, an insurance defense attorney anda coverage expert will explain what constitutes a global warmingclaim, summarize current climate-change litigation, and provideguidance in assessing whether coverage might apply.

Speakers include legal expert Suzanne Badawi, a partner in thelaw firm of Luce Forward Hamilton & Scripps, and coverageexpert Diana Reitz, editorial director of FC&S Online, anaffiliate of NU.