Heading into RISKWORLD 2025, the APP Tech team was feeling good. We were excited about chatting up our peers and having real conversations with risk professionals from across the country.
We had a clever booth concept, inspired by the iconic dog-in-fire meme (playing on the all-too-familiar chaos of claims and risk management), and bins full of stuffed dogs to hand out.
Then our booth disappeared.
One of the shipping cases went missing somewhere between here and Chicago. No signage. No banners. No display structure. Suddenly, our tongue-in-cheek booth theme about claims chaos became wildly on brand.
Stuff happens. And when it does, you adapt. What followed was a scrappy, funny, and genuinely rewarding few days that reminded us why we love this space — and how much you can accomplish with the right mindset, the right team, and a few floppy-eared fire dogs.
When “this is fine” became real
RISKWORLD is the premier event for claims and risk professionals — risk managers, legal, compliance, brokers, and tech innovators. We came prepared to make a splash.
Until we didn’t have a booth.
As Paul put it in an email to the team: “You’ll never believe this, but the exhibit services company has lost one of the cases for our booth. Without it, the booth display is dead in the water! We’re preparing a Plan B… but the ‘this is fine’ meme might be closer to reality than we anticipated.”
Ah, well. We borrowed some basic materials from the exhibitor services crew and turned on some hustle. Paul even spun up a quick video loop for the loaner TV. It wasn’t the booth we planned — but it worked. And honestly, it matched the theme a little too well.
The dogs delivered
We gave out dozens of the “This is fine” plush dogs within the first few hours. One attendee asked if they could take one for their kid — then paused and admitted, “Well, actually, it’s for me.” Attendees were tracking us down from across the exhibit hall.
After we ran out on the first day, we heard someone say, “I think it was over here somewhere…” then squealed when they spotted someone walking by with one. We wish we had it on video.
The takeaway? Great storytelling, even at an industry trade event, doesn’t have to be boring. A well-timed laugh can spark real conversations — and open doors to deeper connections about the serious business of managing risk.
Lessons from the floor
RISKWORLD gave us more than a memorable story to tell. It reminded us of a few core truths that power everything we do at APP Tech:
- Adaptability is everything. Whether you’re standing in a half-baked booth in Chicago or navigating a claims crisis, the ability to pivot matters. Our team stayed calm, collaborated, and kept our goals in sight.
- Imperfection creates connection. We showed up imperfect — and human. That vulnerability opened more doors than a pristine booth ever could.
- Engagement starts with emotion. People didn’t line up for a sales pitch. They came for a smile, stayed for a chat, and left remembering who we were.
Why RISKWORLD was worth it
Even with the booth bungle, RISKWORLD 2025 was a fantastic event for the APP Tech team. We connected with risk and claims leaders across the spectrum — from compliance and operations to IT and finance.
We took in forward-looking session tracks on risk management analytics, accident tracking, AI and claim handling, captive utilization and more. We learned what’s keeping risk professionals up at night — and how we can better serve them with the next evolution of our claims management software and RMIS tools.
Our DevOps & Support Engineer, Hector, even called it his favorite RISKWORLD yet.
For us, that says it all.
Let’s put out the fire and get your claims process under control
If your current claims and risk processes feels like a crisis — or if you’re just tired of settling for “fine” — let’s talk. APP Tech helps claims and risk teams move from chaos to control with smarter, more adaptable, incident-based software.
Connect with our team, and let’s talk about:
- What’s broken (and what isn’t)
- How you’re managing risk events in real time
- What you wish your claims platform could do
We’ll bring the coffee — and maybe a few stuffed dogs.