Highlights included a keynote address by Joel Wood of CIAB, and very well-attended discussions on PPACA, headlined by Linda Rowings, UBA’s Chief Compliance Officer. In addition, Partners took advantage of information on stop loss coverage, exchanges, recruiting and selling techniques, UBA’s new AdEase marketing tool and much more.

The annual presentation of the “Ubbie” Awards was also made. The four awards, as well as a newly-created fifth award for the UBA Staff Member of the Year, recognize outstanding performance during the previous year. Mary Drueke took home the Staff Member of the Year, while Mark Gaunya received the Partner of the Year Award. Mountain West Benefit Solutions was recognized as the Partner Firm of the Year, and Symetra Life Insurance Co. was named the Strategic Partner of the Year.

Linda Rowings, UBA’s Chief Compliance Officer, was the recipient of the first-ever UBA Staff Member of the Year award.

Several door prizes also were given away. Winners were: UNUM Lobster for two: Jeffrey Evans (Employee Benefit Resources); HR Service Inc. $50 cash: Krys Reid (Tower Benefits Consultants); Colonial Life 8″ Android Tablet: Vicki Getner (Pappas Financial); Mutual of Omaha Kindle Fire: Bob Berk (Reames); Touchpoints & Blueprint Selling HDMI pocket projector: Mark Schwendenan (Schwendenan Agency); Sun Life Kindle Fire: Larry Kitts (Horizon Agency); The Standard Kindle: Dan Berndt (ClearPath Benefit Advisors); Principal iPad Mini: Brad Graffius (Commonwealth Benefit Advisors).

The next UBA meeting will be Sept. 8-10, also at the Intercontinental. For a full meeting recap, including a photo slideshow, videos and PowerPoint presentation downloads, visit this page on the Wisdom Network.