Guibert: Defense Collaborative Kicks Off First Event Since Start of COVID Pandemic

Monday, February 28, 2022 | 0

The Defense Collaborative kicked off a two-day event at the Tampa Bay History Center called “Speed Dating With Risk and Insurance Professionals." About 50 people attended the first event the collaborative has held in person since the beginning of the pandemic.

Yvonne Guibert

A different kind of event, the program was based on the concept of “speed dating” and included nine tables with industry experts ready to discuss specific topics. Attendees were asked to pick a topic or table, then after the first hour, they chose a second topic and table.

Topic tables included:

• Insurance bad faith and extra-contractual liability, presented by Mary Beiter, casualty claims manager at Pure Insurance, and Chris Harper, a partner at Franke, Schultz & Mullen.
• Medical cannabis and pharmacy, presented by Mark Pew, principal at The RxProfessor, and Brian Williams, a pharmacist at myMatrixx.
• Cyber liability, presented by John Butler, director of cyber and the E&O industry leader at CNA Insurance, and Leslie Whitten, a partner at Chartwell Law.
• Investigations, presented by John Wichmann, chief strategy officer at Photofax Inc., and Andy Adams, senior manager of corporate risk management at the Kraft Heinz Co.
• Physical therapy, presented by Robert Townsend, clinical consultant at Bardavon Health Innovations, and Renee Mason, vice president of business development at Bardavon Health Innovations.
• Issues related to retail, hospitality, travel and restaurant employers, presented by Marie Reyes, head of risk management at Mitra QSR, and Cheryl Stevens, vice president of business development at MTI America.
• Return-to-work, presented by David Massey, vice president of corporate growth at Sheakley, and Michael Anderson, East Coast manager for MCKM Inc.
• Issues relating to the trucking and transportation industry, presented by Daniel Karp, senior partner at Fee, Smith, Sharp & Vitullo; and John Bethea, president and accident reconstructionist at J.D. Bethea Consultancy.
• Trying a case during COVID, presented by Bharat Varadachari, partner at Hepler Broom, and Lisa Dierks, claim representative at CCMSI.

The event started at 1 p.m. Wednesday, allowing attendees a chance to network before the sessions, and the topic sessions started at 2. Attendees were able to choose two topic tables for an hour each, and the third hour included a presentation on ethics by Sabrina Persaud, attorney at Eraclides, Gelman, Hall, Indek, Goodman, Waters & Traverso.

Attendees were invited to attend happy hour at American Social, a popular spot in Tampa for food and cocktails.

I visited the medical cannabis and pharmacy table, where we had a great primer on the history of cannabis legislation, and a lively discussion on how we feel about medical cannabis. You can always count on Pew, the Rx Professor, to give you tons of useful information about cannabis, and he did not disappoint. Pharmacist Brian Williams provided sensible information from the clinical perspective.

My second session was at the return-to-work table, where David Massey discussed the benefits of having a modified duty program that can help reduce litigation, reduce lost time and provide a win-win situation for both the employer and the injured employee.

The event concluded Thursday.

Sara Govero, owner of The Defense Collaborative, said, “We are so happy to be back in person after two years! It’s great to see the whites of people’s eyes again.”

According to Govero, The Defense Collective was founded to create an environment for attendees to have more intimate discussions and get real education. The organizers purposely wanted to get away from big, conference room-style presentations where, she said, it is difficult to focus, and so that people can make connections with the speakers and with other attendees.

For more information about The Defense Collaborative and for upcoming events, visit https://www.thedefensecollaborative.com.

Yvonne Guibert is vice president, workers’ compensation, for WorkCompCentral.