Caroline Bedford | SpeakerHub

Personal Details

Bio

Caroline is a speaker, facilitator, interviewer and educator.

As founder and creator of the Digital Minds programme, Caroline’s forte is embedding future-focussed skills and a creative mindset within traditional roles in the Insurance and corporate tech worlds.

Using her 30+ years of tech and specialty insurance experience, she brings to life discovery, ideation, innovation and cultural change within insurance organisations. She focuses her passion on developing career longevity and digital confidence across all ages and levels, and capability and curiosity in business practitioners of all roles.

Caroline has a deep-seated belief that to future-proof your career, an ever-agile Generalist approach to support industry and customer needs is the key to happy staff, happy leaders and happy clients.

Current position (4)

CEO

EDII

Head of Digital Minds

DXC Technology

Head of Insurance Product Training

Markel International

Consultant

Sherwood Technology Services

Achievements (4)

Mentor of the Year 2021 - Women in Insurance

SCOR Talent & Diversity Programme of the Year - 2019

Power of Women Award - 2020

Featured in Top 50 Insurance Women aged over Fifty

https://fiftyoverfifty.org.uk/list/caroline-bedford-edii/

Degrees (1)

Accredited Action Learning Facilitator

Institute of Leadership and Management

2020

Presentations

Presentations (3)

The Rise of the Generalist in the Technology World

A powerful, uplifting presentation about the value of adding new skills to your specialisms.

The Future of Skills in the Insurance Industry

What's the hardest question to answer at an interview? I think it's that age-old, "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?".

Because we're in an age of acceleration. The speed of technological change is too fast for an individual to keep up with.

It changes the way we live & work. The risks we face, the risks we place and the risks we write

And the way we write them.

This talk looks at the current roles in the Insurance Industry, and how organisations can help their staff become more Generalist by adding crucial, future-focussed skills to their specialist capabilities.

It's fast-paced, it hits home and it will get you and your teams curious about the future, and ready to get onboard.

Progress, not Perfection. The Art of Iteration.

One of the most challenging but most important skills to master is the art of iteration – the principle of creating the first pass, assessing the outcome, adding to it and adding to it some more. Continually improving and progressing. Traditionally, perfection is seen as the goal, and to so many people, it isn’t worth even starting if you can’t guarantee perfection from the outset.

In my experience, this is one of the biggest blockers to building a culture of innovation and developing yourself. As a result, good ideas are left in limbo, suggestions stagnate, and concepts remain untested as people cling desperately to the notion that something will only work if you have every part nailed.

We all need to overcome the ‘perfection or nothing’ mindset. The art of iteration – creating something good enough, letting it loose, reviewing and building on it. That’s where innovation, growth and personal development really come into their own.

Workshops (3)

Introduction to Design Thinking

90 minutes

An introduction to the power of Design Thinking as both an ideology and a toolset, to help businesses solve complex problems in a customer-centric, human-focussed way.

Inside Innovation for Insurance Leaders

Full day

Join us to explore innovation strategy, tactics, language and culture in this essential one-day session for Insurance leaders.

Digital Minds - The Innovation skills you need, to succeed

Full day

Learn more about EDII's flagship programme for embedding innovation, design thinking and digital skills and behaviours in the insurance community.

Past talks (1)

The Future of Work in Insurance - The Rise of the Generalist

Insurance Innovators Summer Festival

Munich

June 22, 2022

All (2)
Videos
Photos (1)
Slides (1)

This speaker hasn't uploaded any videos yet.

Carline Bedford Head Shot

The Rise of the Generalist: Caroline Bedford speaks at The Women In Tech Conference 2022

This speaker hasn't uploaded any one sheet yet.

This speaker hasn't uploaded any press information yet.

Books & Articles (6)

Caroline Bedford - 50 over Fifty - Top 50 Women in Insurance

Attracting new talent to Insurance - with the STEMettes

The Future-Focussed Skills Driving Insurance Excellence

Why experimentation holds the key to success

London Market Transformation - Caroline Bedford interviews.....

Digital Minds - Insurers & Brokers demonstrating innovation skills at Liberty Specialty Markets

Expertise (18)

IT consulting and services

Clients

Women in Tech

London Insurance Market

JLL

Markel International

Reviews

Testimonials (1)

I chaired a conference recently at which Caroline gave a presentation on The Rise of the Generalist. Her warm and individual style immediately connected with the audience, despite delivering it remotely and the content resonated. Several points she raised have remained with me but the most important is that technical skills remain valuable for your career progression for about 2-3 years, while personal skills such as listening and communication are life skills and are increasingly in demand.
Tony Tarquini
Verified