President’s Message

April 2024

AND…the 2025 OIAA Claims Conference is FINALLY here! The 2025 Claims Conference is taking place on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, at the Metro Convention Centre. This is one of the OIAA’s signature events, and one that I look forward to each year.

I joined the OIAA as an Adjuster Member in 2001, when I started my career in the insurance industry as an Accident Benefits Examiner. It was in 2002 when I attended my first ever, OIAA Claims Conference at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. I still remember being in absolute amazement between the variety of seminars available and the vast tradeshow floor! This started my yearly ritual of attending the OIAA Claims Conference. It was always a good opportunity to spend time with my colleagues, get caught up with previous colleagues, touch base with vendor partners, and refresh my claims knowledge and skills. I eventually joined the OIAA Provincial Chapter in 2015 as a Toronto Delegate and cannot believe 10 years later I am the President! Time really does fly when you are having fun! Please look out for your OIAA Executive at the registration booth, in the seminars and on the tradeshow floor on April 2nd. I am including a picture of your 2024-2025 OIAA Executive that we took at the 2024 OIAA Holiday Party so if you see one of us, feel free to stop us for any assistance or ask us questions!

The 2025 OIAA Claims Conference features diverse seminars for attendees to choose from so you are sure to find 1 or 2 or more that will appeal to you. We have seminars featuring catastrophic property response, leadership lessons, cyber investigations, AI technology in restoration, construction claims liability, tort update, concussions, property claims estimating, top AB cases from 2024, and two panel discussions: one panel featuring Claims Leaders from Allstate, Aviva, Enterprise and Trillium Mutual, and the second panel on Canadian Underwriter’s Mental Health Survey Report.

In addition, there are 139 Exhibitors to check out at the 2025 OIAA Claims Conference. We have a wide variety of exhibitors at this year’s conference. This year we have also invited some very special organizations to join the OIAA Claims Conference with a booth. In addition, the OIAA also has their own booth and will have members of the Provincial Chapter, as well as members of our local chapters present at the booth. Please stop by Booth 102 and we can tell you about our future events and reasons to join the OIAA as either an Adjuster Member or Social Member. We also have a contest, so please do stop by and check us out!

We are also pleased to provide you with a paper copy of the WP (Without Prejudice) for the Special April Edition to all attendees of the 2025 OIAA Claims Conference. As always, the WP will be also available digitally on our website at www.oiaa.com. Thank you to our advertisers!

Lastly, the 2025 OIAA Claims Conference features WP Radio live. Our very own Terry Doherty (and current Past President) is the host of WP Radio. Terry will be in Room 104D and will be interviewing some of our vendor partners. Be sure to check it out and say “hi” to Terry!

I would also like to acknowledge our Sponsors for the 2025 OIAA Claims Conference.

Our next event is the 2025 OIAA Golf Tournament taking place on Friday, May 31st at Cardinal Golf Club. Follow our social media for further details.

I welcome your comments and feedback. Please feel free to reach out to me at sgillen@facilityassociation.com.

Yours truly,
SHAWNA GILLEN, CIP
President
(437) 962-5820