ATLANTA–You could argue this year's annual gathering of the National Association of Health Underwriters is the last of its kind, taking place after all appeals have been exhausted and all that's left is for the industry's sentence to be carried out.
You also could contend it's the first of its kind, an inaugural gathering of professionals possibly on the eve of an entirely new career track, or at least a dramatically altered one.
As someone who plans a similar event, I can relate both to the sense of urgency infecting this year's show and the shadow of uncertainty that clouds any future meetings. Planning content and lining up speakers this year was easy (at least as far as these things go). Next year? Not so much.
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But I'm getting ahead of myself. We headed south to Atlanta this year, a city that knows a little something about rebirth.
The organizers at NAHU this year kept the theme of this year's conference simple: "Change. Challenge. Opportunity." And all of those things are already here. All that's left is our response to it.
And I heard plenty this week. One of my friends from one of the smaller Texas towns nailed it: "We won't see any navigators. Texas will get, what, $6 million for navigators next year? They'll be in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Fort Worth, El Paso, you know. So, where I am, I won't have to deal with them."
Someone else remarked, "You know what? Everyone here [as he motioned to the exhibit hall crowds] gets it. The people here today will be here next year because they're involved."
On the flip side, another broker, who just wrapped up his tenure as a state association president, was almost relieved to be stepping back a little.
"Now I can spend the rest of the year focusing on my business, and getting ready for January," he said.
Last year's attendees were swept up in the Christmas Eve hope of finding just what they wanted under the tree. But the Supreme Court ultimately dashed those sugar plum visions before a lot of brokers even got back home. There would be no restoration of truth, justice and the American way for the brokers that year.
Confusion and a kind of determined-resignation replaced last year's cautious optimism. Brokers seem to be hitting the trade shows in droves this year, desperate for answers the feds who put us here don't have or aren't simply aren't willing to give. (Maybe they're just as confused as we are?)
Finally, just before we started packing up our booth, another one of my Texas friends — and a first-time NAHU attendee — wanted to talk about the election (it had been a while), the future of the Republican Party (we both like the party's chances against Hillary) and what the next year holds for both of us (no clue).
Before we were done, I'd realized what nearly everyone else there probably already had been thinking: We still have way more questions than answers.
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