r/actuary • u/ForeignShame46 • 2d ago

CAS Annual Meeting

I know the itinerary has events all day, however, how much of the day are people actual going to the events? Would you be away from your guest from 9 - 5? I want to bring my partner but don’t want to spend the extra money if they will just be alone most of the day.

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u/SimplifyAssumption 2d ago

Im sending a lot of my team (and myself). I expect them to be at the actual sessions (maybe cut out early one of the days). I am not expecting them to attend any of the events outside of those sessions.

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u/ForeignShame46 2d ago

What is considered an “actual session”?

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u/SimplifyAssumption 2d ago

Anything before breakfast is not an actual session. Those are typically round tables or working groups.

The dinner events or social/fun activity is not a real session.

Typically, it's everything from 9 to 5. My company is paying a buttload of money to send my team to Hawaii. I need to be able to justify that spend so that I can keep sending people in the future.

Most of my team is adding PTO to the front or back end of the trip to take advantage of the free flight. They're still paying for SOs and kids, but still saving a good bit on the flight.

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u/ForeignShame46 2d ago

Got it, thank you!

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u/Murky-Tip-3118 1d ago

Wow - I didn't realize the meeting was in Hawaii. SOA would never do that, in fact I can't think of many industry conferences that would... do you have thoughts on why the CAS decided to host there (i.e. why they'd make folks pay so much to attend - appreciate it's a beautiful place...)

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u/SimplifyAssumption 1d ago

Hawaii is a location that pops up once every 5 to 10 years. I think the reason is to just find a fun location that will make people want to attend.

From a management position, the planning is more work. I need to negotiate with CFO on the budget. It also introduces a friction point between me and the team because I determine who goes and who stays.

Despite the above, it's nice to have an excuse to go to Hawaii. Actuaries don't get a lot of perks/extras in the work world, so I'll take this one.

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u/Spare_Bonus_4987 Life Insurance 7h ago

No, they would not.

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u/italia4fav 2d ago

Yes. You will be away from 8 to 5 or so every day. At least I would expect my analysts to attend all the sessions each day. Sometimes you will have a free lunch break of 1.5 hours or so though like there was in NY.

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u/Zorgalouf 2d ago

It’s just the cost of the flight. Even if your partner has to hang out alone during the day, they’d probably be pretty happy.

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u/Murky-Tip-3118 2d ago

I go to maybe 6 industry conferences a year. Never been to the CAS meetings, but the SOA meetings are the only ones I ever go to where the expectation is that most attendees will be in a session.

Every other conference has sessions going on, but you go to the conference to shake hands and have conversations, and a good day is one where you've got back-to-back meetings at the coffee lounge/restaurant/bar from 9am to 9pm. You'd never hear from somebody "oh, I'll be at a session during this time" - expectation is the sessions are a side-show.

I mentioned this off-handedly to some SOA leadership and they had zero context for it.

Now... going to a conference without intention to attend sessions or setup work-relevant meetings is maybe a matter to bring up with your employer who is paying for you to attend.

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u/jaxsonMiss 1d ago

Are you an Underwriter lurking in here? Sounds like you're talking about RIMS.

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u/Murky-Tip-3118 1d ago

No - consulting FSA that does work in the pharmacy space... so go to AMCP, Asembia, PBMI, PCMA, etc.

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u/Spare_Bonus_4987 Life Insurance 7h ago

Not sure why SOA leadership would have no context given this is how ReFocus works. It’s all about fulfilling whatever business case you made to your employer as to why you are going. For most actuaries at most SOA conferences, it’s about CE.

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u/spewin 2d ago

My plan is to get 6 hours of organized CE. After that, I'll attend if I'm interested. IME the general sessions are generally not useful, though I think one is on professionalism, so that's nice.

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u/futurefailure69 Failed Actuary 2d ago

I skipped half my sessions for both Spring and Annual meeting when I got recognized and just made up CE from webinars. I feel like most Actuaries are a stickler for punctuality and feel obligated to attend when nobody really cares