News from AIDA - Council Secretary-General steps down

The AIDA Presidential Council’s second meeting was in Lima, Peru.

Unfortunately a long-standing commitment in Prague clashed with the Peru meeting, so I was unable to attend.

Due to the distant location for many PC members, numbers were down (14) with 31 apologies.

However I can report on the meeting's activities. Of particular significance was Colin Croly's retirement as AIDA Secretary General after 24 years in the role.

The President and the PC offered a well-deserved vote of thanks to Colin for his enormous contribution to AIDA and the council. He remains a PC member. The new Secretary General is Prof Samim Unan, of Turkey.

Of much interest to Australian members is the PC's recognition of the need to engage with young participants in AIDA events and look at younger people as the future of AIDA.

The PC is aware of Australian initiatives with the Young Professionals program and the Ron Shorter speaking series and is keenly examining the level of engagement and results with a view to seeing whether they could be adopted in other chapters.

A great deal of time and resources is being invested in revamping and overhauling AIDA's website to modernise it and enable chapters to see what is happening around the world, including more extensive publication of presentation  materials.

A costing exercise is being implemented to consider having the site in Spanish and English to accommodate AIDA's substantial South American membership.

I attended a meeting hosted by AIDA Europe in Vienna on the topic: Flood of change: Insurance in times of change – technology, climate, regulation. It was an excellent program. I had the honour of chairing the climate change session with three exceptional speakers, Richard Traub, from New York; Dr Caroline Bell, from London; and Joachim Krane, from Munich.  

The meeting was well attended with members from all over the world, including South America and five from Taiwan. Consistent with the great support AIDA receives from FDCC in the USA, the current president Mills Galvin and his wife attended.

It bodes well for an exceptional meeting in Singapore next year and members are reminded of the new dates, 18-20 October. I look forward to seeing you there.