IDIS 2026

Fellow Petersen International colleague, Derrick Pfau and I recently returned from the International DI Society conference in Atlanta. This year, there were a number of records broken at the conference:

  1. Most registered attendees
  2. Most sponsorships
  3. Most exhibitors
  4. Most new/first time attendees

The programs were all fantastic, peppy, and the time flowed quickly and smoothly.  As a regular attendee at many industry meetings, this was the first one in over 5 years that I came away excited about!

President Kurt Bruandmeier and Program Chair Travis Christy (along with the entire board) did an incredible job in making this event as successful as it was.

Motivational speaker Ron Gold set the program in motion on Day 1 with some important basic thoughts – When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. In other words, you always have a choice when life events change for the worse.

Discussing product and processing innovation both for sales and underwriting was a panel of carriers including:

  • Principal
  • Standard
  • Mass Mutual
  • Illinois Mutual
  • Assurity

There were several breakout sessions with different tracks ranging from selling Disability Insurance to Building better BGA’s. We heard from industry leaders such as Steve Woods (Gen Re), Tim Adams (Munich Re) and Dan Skwire (Milliman) about the State of the industry.

We heard from Olympic medalist Paul Kingsman  (thank you Ash Brokerage) about Peak performance, and we closed the last day with Ross Bernstein about the Champions Code. One of the most fascinating items I heard from Ross was that when Wayne Gretzky retired, we all know that he had the all-time most goals. What most people don’t know was that he led the all-time assists, which were double his goals). Wayne was prouder of the assists, than the goals…Why? He said, “With a goal, one person is happy, with an assist, 2 people are happy!”

Lastly, the receptions… Mass Mutual hosted a great evening at the College Football Hall of Fame which was really fantastic. Petersen International Underwriters hosted the opening reception with an 80’s themed evening which had a jammed packed house, great music and food. People stayed long after the music shut down!

We met some great new people and got better acquainted with a number of producers who do business with PIU, but whom we had not met in person.

PLAN NOW! 2027 IDIS conference will be in Dallas September 27-29. I hope to see you there. I promise it will be time worth spending!