Many corporations now have their own blogs as a platform to market themselves and spread their knowledge of their respective business practices.

For this reason, RIMS hosted a session on the numerous risks of blogging. Speaking were Christopher Sloan of Liberty Mutual, Mark Flannery of Caterpillar and Andy Steggles of RIMS.

Andy pointed to the fact that blogs, though most times useful to companies, pose a great risk because of user-generated content (UGC), privacy protection issues and data breach worries. Other issues to worry about when operating a company blog are:

• Defamation
• Unfavorable remarks
• Infringing material
• Potential disclosure of confidential information

Chris pointed to the fact that every company using a blog should, at a minimum, monitor UGC (such as comments on the blog) and use tools like IceRocket and Google Alerts to keep up with what people are saying about your company on the internet. In fact, one of these devices helped alert a company to a bomb threat, the information for which was posted on the internet by the person in question. A man in the audience at this session shared with us the story of how Google Alerts helped notify his company of the impeding bomb threat.

“Because of Google Alerts, we were able to apprehend this person within 24 hours of this serious threat being posted on the internet.

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Chris Sloan then pointed to the following legal considerations each company should consider if they choose to operate a blog associated with their business.

• Privacy and confidentiality
• Copyright and trademark infringement
• Data security and data breach laws
• Record retention and electronically stored information
• Submission guidelines and moderation

“Whatever you do online, remember to protect your brand,” said Chris Sloan.

And protecting your brand can prove priceless, as Mark Flannery stated:

“Defaming comments on blogs can affect stock price and sales,” he said. “Financial risk is far more damaging and more far reaching than effects of defamation suits or data breaches.

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The hurricane preparedness session at RIMS 2009 featured Dave Cocchiarella, Orlando’s own Central Florida News 13 meteorologist.

Also speaking were Graeme Harper of Risk Strategies USA and Mark Yarmolich, vice president of risk management for Hercules Offshore, a provider of offshore drilling.

Dave Cocchiarella provided this forecast for the upcoming hurricane season as of April 7:

12 named storms
6 hurricanes
2 major hurricanes
54% probability of major landfall along U.S. coastline
32% east coast storms
31% gulf coast storms

Hercules Offshore pointed to the various business impacts such storms could have, such as:

Offshore — platforms, rigs vessels
Property — coastline, inland
Business income — direct, contingent, other
Production — coastal, inland, other losses

It was noted that as water temperature continues to increase, the next 10 to 20 years will see more hurricane activity, which brings the attention of risk managers to the topic of preparedness. Key questions every risk manager should consider are:

• Are you a 501(c)(3)?
• Are you aware of new federal insurance requirement regulations that could also impact your FEMA recovery?
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• If a major business interruption occurs, are you going to pay your employees? For how long?
• Have you given additional thought to how you might prepare/respond to a loss during these times of economic downturn?
• Has the downturn impacted your suppliers?
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“When dealing with hurricane preparedness, business continuity management is absolutely crucial,” said Graeme Harper. “Make sure you get the right leadership and have backup for that leadership.”

This afternoon was filled with a slew of informational sessions for those attending the RIMS 2009 conference.

One such session was Risk Financing 1 2 3, an informative presentation regarding incurred but not reported claims (IBNR), loss development, net present value and discovery and payout patterns.

The session was hosted by Barbara Benson Grinnell, vice president of Willis HRH, Joyce Armstrong, director of risk management for Scotts Miracle Grow and Scott Silitsky, risk manager for ThyssenKrupp Elevator Co.

Grinnell opened with the idea of basic loss development and using the growth patterns of historical losses to predict ultimate losses on policy years that are still open and developing.

Using workers comp loss mathematical models, she explained the calculations that risk managers require to give their CFO the information needed.

Dovetailing from Grinnell’s presentation, Armstrong spoke about the risk financing continuum and moving from risk transfer to risk retention with guaranteed cost, large deductibles, qualified self-insurance and captives.

The session concluded with a case study of net present value of guaranteed cost and self-insurance — important for risk managers in every line of business.

Stay tuned for more conference coverage coming your way.