AILA President's message - Cameron Roberts

AILA weathers the Covid-19 challenges

AILA has adapted quickly to the changed circumstances created by the challenges of Covid-19. 

Much of this is because of the hard work we did in investigating alternative service delivery models for AILA events over the past 18 months.

The initiatives the National Board has put in place should make us a much stronger association when this crisis is over.

Because Covid-19 has had a significant impact on AILA’s programs, the Board investigated and has approved a subscription to GoToWebinar, which will enable us to host an unlimited number of webinars each month with up to 500 registrants attending.

GoToWebinar will also provide recordings of the webinars to add to the AILA library.

Gill Award winner announced

Congratulations to Sydney solicitor Jessica Chapman, who has won AILA’s inaugural Gill Award that honours an AILA founder, Michael Gill.

Ms Chapman, from Wotton + Kearney, wrote and presented on: Decrypting crypto: The state of play and how insurers can catch up to the cryptocurrency boom.

An edited version of her submission is the lead story in this issue of Resolve.

Read AILA’s announcement of the win here.

Many thanks to DLA Piper for its generous sponsorship of this event.

Many thanks also to those who gave so generously of their time to assist me in judging the award – Allison Grice, of CGU; Samantha Traves, from the University of Queensland; and Patrick Meade, of Carter Newell.

Keep an eye out for the chance to enter this year’s Gill Award, with entries opening soon.

Board structure

I am pleased to advise the Board has filled the last casual vacancy, with the appointment of Shannen De La Motte, from AIG.

Shannen’s appointment is significant because it brings the number of industry representatives on the Board to eight. That is 50% of the Board, which is a goal I set out to achieve when I was appointed president 18 months ago.

The Board’s other industry representatives are Scott Duell, Angus Kench, Andrew Lillico, David Lloyd, Lance Schmidt, Jillian Pancott, and Rebecca Pember.  

Shannen’s appointment brings the number of female board members to six, so we still have work to do there.

Marketing plan

Last year, the Board engage a consultant to generate a marketing plan, and we have already agreed to adopt many of the plan’s recommendations.

We are now obtaining quotations from service providers to facilitate a rebrand.

Membership changes

For the 2020/21 membership year, the Board has added two new membership categories. The first is an individual industry membership of $50, available to insurance brokers, underwriters, claims staff, reinsurers and in-house counsel.

The second is a retired person's membership of $50 for those aged over 60 who no longer work full time.

Both membership categories represent a substantial saving on AILA’s standard membership.

Information technology rebuild

The Board is obtaining quotations to replace AILA’s aging information technology, including the website.

AILA’s new IT storage will be cloud based and more secure, and include client relationship and event management tools.

The new website will feature, among other improvements, mobile optimisation, increased membership and event options, and the ability to store and display podcasts and webcasts.

We hope AILA’s new IT infrastructure will be operational in the 2020/21 financial year.

Ron Shorter award

The Board has appointed a new service provider, the Australian Institute of Management (AIM), to facilitate this year's Ron Shorter award, with the goal of reducing costs without compromising quality.

However, the onset of Covid-19 has compelled the Board to make the painful decision to cancel this year's award. After consulting AIM, and after careful consideration, we decided award participants would not get the same benefit from the training if it could not be conducted face to face.

However, rest assured, the Ron Shorter award will be back bigger and better than ever in 2021.

Stay well.