Recapping AgencyBloc's BlocBuilder 2024 Annual Conference

In this episode, Tim Robinson and Cory Schmidt recap the BlocBuilder 2024 conference. BlocBuilder 2024 was a powerful event where AgencyBloc team members, customers, and partners came together in Atlanta for 3 days of leadership meetings, educational sessions, and 1-on-1 meetings.

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Transcript

[00:00:00]  Tim Robinson: Welcome back to another edition of Insurtech Building Blocs. I'm Tim Robinson, CEO of Agency Block, accompanied by my co host, Cory Schmidt. Cory, how you doing?  

Cory Schmidt: Doing well. How about yourself, Tim?  

Tim Robinson: I am doing great. It's it's actually been nice to to get a few days and in the old home office kind of get caught up on a number of things after the last couple of weeks of being at conferences and including our very own BlocBuilder. 

Tim Robinson: So, which was a month ago. Yeah. You know, I was gonna say it felt like a month ago, but hard to believe  

Cory Schmidt: a week ago. Last week? Yes, last week. Yes. I'm with you. I'm just looking forward to a solid week at my home office, at my desk so I can catch up on all the things that happened while we did Medicarians and then obviously BlocBuilder. 

Cory Schmidt: So, I mean, [00:01:00] fantastic. Fantastic. Couple of weeks, but it's good to be back home.  

Tim Robinson: Yes, yes, absolutely agree. And yeah, I think the, the last podcast we did, we we gave some updates and related to CMS and a few other things and committed to doing a quick recap of our, our BlocBuilder. So thought that'd be great to do that today. 

Tim Robinson: You know, it was for, for me. Really the first BlocBuilder that I've been to and so powerful to get spend time with our team members, but also with with our customers and, and partners and, and the conversations, the depth of the conversations just. You can't replace being in person. 

Tim Robinson: So it was, I thought that was, that was great. I believe this is, this is number four, some accounts that may be considered number five Cory, your, your perspective, as you look back on the other ones compared to this one,  

Cory Schmidt: Yeah, I mean, definitely. I think they've continued to [00:02:00] grow and get better every year. 

Cory Schmidt: The last, you know, the last two have been in person and more you know, more widely attended. I think the year prior to that was the one that we did a hybrid model with you know, in 2021. So I would just echo what you said. Like I, I always come off a BlocBuilder, like incredibly energized, excited the customer. 

Cory Schmidt: Obviously customers attend because they're excited to talk about the products that we offer and engage with our teams. But the amount of energy positive energy and enthusiasm from customers and partners is just off the charts. It's it's definitely a recharge for me.  

Tim Robinson: Yeah, I think we ended up with somewhere north of 310. 

Tim Robinson: In person attendees there. And it was at the Omni down in Atlanta by the Olympic park there, downtown, it was a cool venue. I had not been there before, but really, really cool. And we did an event over at the aquarium. That was, that was actually really fantastic. I guess [00:03:00] the beluga whales and some, , some number of sea creatures was, was just was really well done. 

Tim Robinson: And I know I think that shark  

Cory Schmidt: and manta rays, they were pretty incredible. I think there might've been Somebody on our team who lives in Florida, who is having difficulty identifying the difference between a Ray and a whale shark. So I won't, we won't name names on the podcast, but yeah, they live in Florida, so I had expected more out of them, but yeah,  

Tim Robinson: they, they know who they are  

Tim Robinson: yeah, the step back again, just amazing conversations, but we, we took away a number of learnings as well as an organization. As we think about doing this in 2025 we, we expect to have even more attendees next year we're going to be. In Phoenix area at a really cool resort there more details to come out in the next week or so, but similar dates it'll be in April, kind of mid April ish, but we'll, we'll get the dates out for that. 

Tim Robinson: And I'm excited. I think [00:04:00] that's going to be a really incredible venue as well and get us into, you know, maybe an area that might be a little easier to travel to if you're central or West coast, whatever it might be. Well, you know, 1, 1 thing that stood out to me is we were on this leadership development track on Sunday afternoon and oh, man, what a, what a powerful session for, you know, for our customers to come in basically have a facilitated session with an EOS implementer, who's got experience in the industry she did a fantastic job. 

Tim Robinson: So I thought that was powerful. Kicking off our certification program, right? First time we've had that we're getting you certified on various components of our application. A lot of in depth time. I heard the assessments may or testing may have been a little challenging, but I, I think the attendees participants persevered. 

Tim Robinson: So that's great. The success labs. What a, what a cool concept. Cory, did [00:05:00] you get a chance to talk to some of the folks that went into the success lab?  

Cory Schmidt: A bit. Every time I approached the table where folks were checking in, it was like an onslaught of kind of, you know, people checking into sessions and checking out. 

Cory Schmidt: And I got to observe a bit and it was, there was a lot of really. Great energy there as well. I think customers were very excited. I, I even encountered a few who had not gotten a time booked on the calendar and so they were trying to get it fit in, you know, last minute to be able to spend time with our customer success team. 

Cory Schmidt: So I think that yeah, it was a huge success. Success Labs were a huge success, basically, is the best way to put, it's good. Yeah. Success Labs were a success. I think there were, there were a hundred and 115 of those I think in, yeah. Two days. And unfortunately I think someone was ill, but we had someone else on our team step up who had previously been in that role. 

Cory Schmidt: And yeah, it was, it was awesome. Just love, love the engagement. Love how yeah, I love how much customers just lean in to the event.  

Tim Robinson: One of the, you know, one of the things, love your [00:06:00] perspective on too. I know you're either participated in or facilitated a number of panel discussions. Any takeaways there, just some perspectives. 

Cory Schmidt: Yeah, we had so we had a couple of sessions that were moderated panels with some really good folks from industry expert perspective, as well as Medicare really good discussion and conversation. Obviously, you know, the CMS rulings were a part of that. We tried not to make that the entire time, even though I'm sure we could have spent many, many sessions just talking about that, but a lot of good perspectives from the group. 

Cory Schmidt: I think there's certainly a. Factor of diversification in terms of product offerings that we're seeing be, you know, pick up interest. I think inside of our customer base you know folks just trying to think about better ways to do business. I think anytime there's disruption, that's always something that the people are going to take a look at is, are they properly diversified? 

Cory Schmidt: Do they have revenue concentration? I think that's absolutely a thing right now, especially in the Medicare [00:07:00] segment. So that, that was one, I think there's also a lot of beyond just CMS, there's a lot of compliance and, and compliance and other kind of industry regulations that are happening. 

Cory Schmidt: There's a lot of involvement from the folks that we had on that panel in terms of legislation. I know very involved in NABIP and actually we had Jessica Brooks Woods as our keynote from the president of NABIP, which is awesome. Got a chance to speak with her briefly. Obviously the importance of that organization, I don't think can be overstated. 

Cory Schmidt: Like there's a lot that they are doing to try to stay on top of all the things that are happening again, not just CMS, even though that's the one catching all the headlines. There's a lot happening on the group benefits space as well. So I think there's a lot of positive energy for brokers to have. 

Cory Schmidt: Higher level engagement. And I think the biggest theme that maybe came out of that was making sure that they're understood to be more of an advisor rather than someone that's just selling products because that's really what truly what they are is someone that's helping advise customers in terms of the best [00:08:00] insurance products that fit their needs. 

Cory Schmidt: And I think that's a a perception that maybe is not fully fully understood by the legislators. And I think NABIP's working very hard to dispel that.  

Tim Robinson: Yeah. It's hard to believe that all transpired in just a couple of days, all those conversations. But love the perspectives and absolutely agree. 

Tim Robinson: I, I had some. Just great conversations with, with customers as well. Both, you know, orgs that do Medicare small group benefits or ACA. And the thing that really resonated with me was you know, we talked about the, the product, how they are utilizing, leveraging our products to run their businesses but also areas of opportunity and. 

Tim Robinson: The cool thing is that each in each one of those conversations, it would always end with something like, but I have to tell you, you guys have just such an amazing team and I can really see how important the culture [00:09:00] is and how important the team members are by coming to this event, but also just in my interaction in general with your sales or your support organization. 

Tim Robinson: So, you know, for, for me, that's, that's just a really great. You know, confirmation affirmation of the work that we're doing and ensuring that we've got a great business, great organization and supporting our customers, keeping them as you, as you say at the heart of what we do, which is, which is so important. 

Tim Robinson: So  

Cory Schmidt: yeah, a thousand percent. Yes. And I, it was so funny, all the same conversations, Tim, with customers where they, you know, basically said, I, I don't know how you guys do it, but your team is incredible. And I think that, you know, our customers view us as a partner in their business, as much as they do a software vendor, which I think is just incredible. 

Cory Schmidt: And I think it speaks to the, the deep knowledge and care and You know, and support that our team gives to our customers. And I'm, I'm really proud of that. And we've, we've invested in that a lot over the years, and we [00:10:00] haven't stopped as an organization investing in that, which as you grow is, is continually more and more difficult to do. 

Cory Schmidt: But we, we really truly believe that. And I think it's it's bearing out. I love it.  

Tim Robinson: Yeah, maybe maybe where we end is, you know, last and last podcast, we talked about a techno steakhouse and you artfully escaped the adventure from this last trip, which was going to a diner with a karaoke bar. I don't know how you did it, but I will learn from you. 

Tim Robinson: But yes, in Atlanta near the Olympic park, there is a diner that has a full on karaoke bar. It was fun. I'm not going to lie to you. I mean, it was a heck of a lot of fun. I just may have been out a little, a little later on the wrong side of midnight. We'll just leave it at that.  

Cory Schmidt: Well, I hope our, I hope our team collected some unofficial videos that that we can maybe circulate around. 

Tim Robinson: That may be the case. Well, I'm not going to admit to it. Well, we'll look Cory, always awesome to, to connect with you. And you know, for our listeners please keep the feedback [00:11:00] coming. Thank you. We want to make sure that the content that we're delivering, the conversations that we're having, the guests that we're, we're bringing on are relevant and what you want to hear about. 

Tim Robinson: But with that, we will we'll sign off, have a, have a great rest of the week.