The IRES Career Development Seminar is the Society's premier professional development activity, a three-day series of workshops, panels and social events, usually held in late July or early August.

As you can see below, the 2000 CDS, held July 30-August 1 in New Orleans, was a big hit.

 
Michelle Muirhead, 2000 CDS chair, and her team of section chairs put together a stellar lineup of professional development activities . . .
. . . including 31 individual speakers or panels of speakers, broken down into seven sections – plus three joint sessions to close the proceedings.
  


The Commissioners Roundtable, featuring North Carolina Commissioner Jim Long (above) and three of his peers, was an even bigger hit than usual, with an entertaining mix of wit and substance. And the traditional Art and Bill show (right) brought together industry and regulators to elucidate the issues of the day.
 
Kentucky Commissioner George Nichols, president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, argued forcefully for accreditation of market conduct examiners by NAIC -- and then returned to the podium to accept IRES' Schrader-Nelson Award for authoring the best Regulator article of the past year.
  Another highlight of CDS was the passing of the gavel from Angela Ford of North Carolina to Stephen M. Martuscello of New York (that's the new president at left, presiding over his first board meeting). Click on the photo below for a video clip of the passing of the gavel.
Before leaving office, Angela presented two President's Awards, one to past president Christel Szczesniak (left), the other to Regulator editor Wayne Cotter (right).