Archive for January, 2007

Steve Snell recently stopped by our offices — during a snow storm! Among others, Steve used to be with AMS in Wisconsin, working on the eAMS initiative. Some time ago, he moved over to WellCare in Tampa (smart man!) to run their newly formed brokerage unit. Last year at ICMG we got to talking, saw each other again at Jesse Slome’s Med Supp Summit in New Orleans, one thing led to another, and before we knew it we were developing an agent enrollment site for Steve’s brokerage unit at WellCare.

Listen in as we hear about Steve’s experience with a cutting-edge agent appointment site, thoughts on what a carrier Web site in the senior health space might serve up, and where Steve feels the Web to headed for the senior agent of the future.

Thanks, Steve!

Click here for Episode 2 — Steve Snell & Web Technology in Senior Insurance Marketing.mp3

Steve Snell, VP National Distribution, Marketing guru for WellCare

Let it snow!

OK, I’m sporting a new ‘stache!

Hey, btw, guess what??! This is my 100th post! Thanks to Mary Fisher, my behind-the-scenes partner in crime. Couldn’t a dunnit widoutcha!

What better way to celebrate 100 than to officially launch podcasting! Recorded live here at IdeaStar, Brent Williams, IdeaStar creative guru (and Richard Dreyfuss clone from his days in the 70′s), talks about a recent site redesign for greater usability.

Click here for Episode 1 – Redesigning for Usability.mp3

Oh yeah… Looking forward to PIMA in 2 days:

Forecast for Wednesday: Boca – 76°/68° Cleveland – 30°/23°

Tough choice!

First I want to show off my FAVORITE Christmas present. It’s a DVD of The Office, a favorite TV show of mine. It ALMOST mimics IdeaStar, but not quite. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and holiday season.

Now let’s take a look toward the future. I’m starting the year off with two great conferences. First is The Professional Insurance Marketing Association (PIMA) Annual Meeting, January 18 through 21 in Boca Raton, FL. I’m really looking forward to some Florida sunshine. It’s January, and instead of our usual cold snowy weather here in Cleveland, all we have is rain, rain, and more rain.

But I’m also looking forward to the conference as a chance to continue some conversations about potential Web projects with several PIMA members. Look for me if you are attending. I’ll be hosting a Roundtable on Web 2.0: Tapping Online Communities.

I’ll also be working on the PIMA MarkeTTech Symposium next Fall as co-chairperson. The theme unofficially will be “Breaking through the Clutter” and how insurance marketers can overcome recent trends, like a point one percent response rate on regular-mail drops.

Two weeks after the PIMA Annual meeting, I’ll be back in Florida for the Inter-Company Marketing Group (ICMG) Annual Meeting, January 31 through Feb. 2 in Naples. I’m really looking forward to meeting with a lot of new attendees and members. IdeaStar has a few new Web products, including lead engines and small group major med.

This will be my fourth ICMG meeting, and IdeaStar has developed several great clients over the years. We’ve even referred a few new people to the group. I’ll be taking pictures of course, so be sure to look to see if you know anybody. And I’ll be adding something new for both conferences. I’ve been itching to podcast, so you can expect some good audio out of both the PIMA and ICMG conferences. I’d love to record your comments. Anyway, I hope to see you there in sunny Florida.