San Francisco – The LIMRA Social Media Conference started out with a bang: a pre-conference hackathon to hash out new ideas on how to resolve some of the industry's main problems.

Moderated by speaker and venture capitalist Gregory Bailey, the two-hour brainstorming session brought to the table some interesting ideas on how to solve pressing issues in the insurance and financial industries. Participants discussed how to recruit the right people to target the right prospects; how to encourage advisors to adopt new technology; how to help both experienced advisors and the general public overcome preconceived notions of who millennials are; how to eradicate consumer confusion and distrust about the industry; and how to retain more agents, among other issues.

"It's here and it's happening," said Bailey about how the future is our reality right now. "There are creative people around the globe working on this (technology)." Bailey gave a few examples of what some companies are doing with wearable technology to minimize and predict risk.