Shift Technology hosted its third annual coaching afternoon for its Women in Insurance Network on 24 September 2026 at WeWork's Aviation House in Holborn, drawing 30 women from 11 insurance organisations including the Insurance Fraud Bureau, Covéa Insurance, ManyPets, and Hastings Direct. This year's session, themed "Level up: Women driving insurance innovation," featured business coach Gemma Brown leading discussions on professional reputation and career-supporting networks, followed by a panel with representatives from Shift Technology, Markerstudy Group, and Intact Insurance UK. The second half covered AI use cases and building AI agents in Claude Cowork, led by Shift's director of product marketing.
The network, originally launched in 2023 as the Women in Fraud Network before broadening this year, builds its agendas entirely from member feedback. Shift's Laura Horrocks emphasised the event's purpose as creating a safe community space for women to discuss day-to-day industry challenges — from imposter syndrome in 2023 to resilience in 2025 to this year's innovation focus. Horrocks also spoke about the ongoing gender diversity gap in insurance leadership, noting more progress at junior levels than senior ones, and hopes the sessions encourage women to pursue promotions confidently. The coaching event is now an annual UK fixture, with a sister event recently launched in Miami.
Click through to read the full article for more on the panel discussions, Horrocks' comments on workplace communication, and the network's growth story.
