We鈥檙e excited to invite you to the IFoA GIRO Conference 2026, taking place this year in Edinburgh.
This year鈥檚 conference brings together the brightest minds in general insurance for three days of insight, innovation, and connection. With 130+ expert speakers, their unique perspectives will inspire as we explore the evolving landscape of general insurance during this must-attend event for professionals driving the industry forward.
Whether you're looking to expand your knowledge, network with peers, or celebrate industry achievements, GIRO 2026 is where it all happens.
GI Board Awards 2026: nominations opening soon
The GI Board is pleased to launch four award categories recognising outstanding achievements and contributions to the General Insurance actuarial community.
Featured speakers
The former CEO of Lloyd鈥檚 of London, Dame Inga Beale is a British businesswoman with over four decades of experience in the financial services sector. Inga led the global insurance market through a dramatic period of modernisation, opening the Lloyd鈥檚 Innovation Lab, expanding the company鈥檚 global access, and challenging the 鈥榦ld boys鈥� club鈥� image of the 330-year-old institution.
Prior to joining Lloyd鈥檚, Inga held a variety of international leadership positions for GE Insurance Solutions, before becoming Group CEO of Swiss reinsurer Converium. She was then on the Global Management Board of Zurich Insurance Group, until she became Group CEO of Canopius, one of the top insurers in Lloyd鈥檚 market.
During her time at Lloyd鈥檚, Inga developed a culture of innovation, modernisation, and inclusion. She expanded the company鈥檚 reach to new, high-growth markets, including Asia and the Middle East and delivered some of Lloyd鈥檚 strongest financial results. As the first female CEO of Lloyd鈥檚, she played a key role in changing cultural perceptions and highlighting the importance of diversity and inclusion. Under her leadership, Lloyd鈥檚 launched a number of diversity initiatives, including the Dive In Festival, which grew to become the only world-wide insurance industry diversity and inclusion event.
Drawing on her experience at Lloyd鈥檚, Inga discusses what it means to lead cultural change and steer a company through a technological transition without losing its core character. Her talks uncover how successful transformation means establishing a balance between tradition and history, and modernity and innovation. Moreover, she tackles breaking glass ceilings, and building inclusive environments within the workplace. Inga also analyses the reasons behind a lack of trust in both governments and the corporate sector, as well as the rise in public emphasis on corporate responsibility, purpose, ethics, and sustainable business models.
She serves as an Ambassador for the UK LGBT Charity Stonewall and was awarded a Damehood in 2017 for her influential work in driving the inclusion agenda for women and the LGBT community as well as her services to the broader UK economy.
She has served as a member of the London Mayor鈥檚 Business Advisory Board, President of the UK Chartered Insurance Institute, and a member of the UK Government鈥檚 Financial Services Trade and Investment Board.
She currently serves as Chair of the climate solutions company South Pole, and also sits on boards of the claims handler Crawford & Company, the global insurance broker and advisor Willis Towers Watson, and the Dutch insurer NN Group. In addition, her pro bono roles include President of the British Swiss Chamber of Commerce.
Eliza Manningham-Buller headed Britain鈥檚 Security Service (MI5) from 2002 to 2007, before serving as Chair of the Wellcome Trust, one of the world鈥檚 largest charitable funders of medical research and other activity to improve human health, from 2015 to 2021.
From counter terrorism to pandemics, Eliza has led organisations through remarkable and pressurised times.
Eliza reflects on twenty years as a leader of two very different organisations, but which share many traits and goals in managing the unpredictable and trying to keep millions safe. She outlines how leaders鈥� priorities must change in order to keep pace with shifting demands from all stakeholders and the constant emergence of new, often unimagined challenges. From existential threats such as climate change and pandemics to diversity and fairness, leaders have to seriously consider an ever-changing, complex landscape of
priorities that influence both their organisation鈥檚 success and society鈥檚 future.
At MI5, Eliza led the Service through significant change, expansion, and scrutiny as it dealt with the growth of Al-Qaida terrorism after 9/11, and in response to the 7/7 attacks in London. Prior to serving as Director General her various roles took her to Washington during the first Gulf war, as well as seeing her responsible, at separate times, for work on Irish terrorism, surveillance, technical collection, finance, and IT, before she became Deputy Director General in charge of intelligence operations.
During her time as Chair of the Wellcome Trust, Eliza helped lead the UK鈥檚 biggest charity, overseeing funding for scientific research into all aspects of health and wellbeing, from infection to mental health, as well as responding to Covid-19. Having foreseen the threat of a pandemic on the scale of Covid-19, the Trust also helped to establish the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
In presentations Eliza covers lessons in leadership from throughout her career, drawing on her experience in the most demanding of environments to stress the need for leaders in any walk of life to engage in frank dialogue and invite criticism: 鈥淒o not try to be something you鈥檙e not; take responsibility for your team and remember that praising people takes seconds and can make an enormous difference. And don鈥檛 forget that humour can be found even in the most awful situations.鈥�
Eliza is a crossbench peer, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a former president of the respected foreign policy think-tank Chatham House. She was Chair of Council at Imperial College for four years, and has delivered the prestigious BBC Reith Lectures. Her analysis in those lectures of the theme 'Securing Freedom' also formed the basis of her book of the same title.
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Pricing and booking information
| Members – Full conference | |
| Members – Day 1 only | |
| Members – Day 2 only including conference dinner | |
| Members – Day 3 only | |
| Non-members – Full conference | |
| Non-members – Day 1 only | |
| Non-members – Day 2 only including conference dinner | |
| Non-members – Day 3 only |