The high point for AIDA in 2014 will be September’s World Congress in Rome. 

The conference’s five major themes have been very well supported, with responses from many countries to questionnaires put out by the general reporters. There were 33 responses for the theme of transparency; 32 for arbitration; 26 for discrimination; 23 for online insurance; and 22 for preventive measures. Australia responded to all five topics.

With such a broad spread of countries and legal systems, there is every reason to believe, with the hard and careful work of the general reporters between now and September, the World Congress will see excellent comparative law and practice presentations, with the topics representing some of the most significant areas of challenge for the industry.

The Italian planning committee, under the leadership of Prof Paolo Montalenti, aims to ensure the meeting in Rome will be successful and memorable. I thank Paolo and his team for all their hard work.

In addition to the usual meetings of the Presidential Council and other bodies, all the working parties will meet in Rome. AILA members had an excellent opportunity in Sydney to participate in the deliberations of many of the working parties. It was good to see the strong Australian participation. I thank the Sydney organisers for putting on an excellent annual conference with such professionalism and hospitality.

Rome will mark the end of my 4-½ year term as AIDA president, which began in Paris in May 2010. The executive committee and the Presidential Council are now giving thought to the election of new office bearers. 

These issues will be considered at the first meeting of the 2014 Presidential Council in Athens on April 7-10.

The program can be found here.

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