NIBA CEO welcome

A BRAVE NEW WORLD – NIBA VIRTUAL CONVENTION 2020

Iwould like to sincerely thank all who supported our virtual Convention in the last week of October 2020, whether as sponsors, exhibitors, and more importantly, delegates.

As with other organisations, we had to take the difficult decision to cancel our face-to-face Convention, which we had intended to hold in Melbourne, also in October. It took us some time to consider alternative options, but I am delighted we were able to proceed with the virtual Convention.

This was a new experience for us. I am sure it was a new experience for many associated with the Convention, too, including many of our delegates.

I do need to record my sincere appreciation for the efforts of everyone at NIBA – they all contributed to the challenge of making the virtual Convention happen and making it a success. I am particularly grateful for the efforts of Arianne Bath in our events team for the work she did on the project.

Why did we do this?

When COVID-19 hit hard in March 2020, the words I was hearing were unprecedented, uncertainty, unforeseen, what is next, what is on the other side. At the same time, with lockdowns and restrictions on movement, many people started to face real challenges in their day-to-day lives, and many businesses – both insurance broking businesses and their clients – faced significant new challenges.

What was most interesting to watch was the fact that virtually everyone started working from home with virtually no notice. At NIBA, we all went home on 19 March 2020, after a COVID scare in our building, and most of us have been working from home ever since.

This brought out another key word: resilience. The resilience of people working in the world of insurance, and insurance broking in particular; and the resilience of businesses in challenging and difficult times.

I felt we had an obligation to support our members in times of such uncertainty, so they could continue to support and advise their clients during the time of a very difficult insurance market. I was pleased when we identified a conference platform which would allow us to do this.

We very quickly worked on a conference program with a wide range of speakers dealing with the challenge of leading and managing in times of uncertainty, explaining the state of the economy and the likely prospects for the next year or so, as well as a number of industry speakers who could speak about current developments in the insurance market. We were also keen to hear from our regulators once again.

I am delighted with the range of speakers we were able to present at the NIBA Virtual Convention. Time and again, I heard the following words: flexible, pragmatic, empathy, resilience, dynamic, adaptive. These words, and the ideas and suggestions that went with them, provided an extremely positive encouragement for all of us.

Some other themes we regularly heard about at the Convention included –• Looking after our staff, keeping them healthy and engaged in difficult and challenging times. You cannot look after your clients if your staff are not engaged and contributing positively to the business. • Challenging business models and finding new ways to operate and new ways to work. This became compulsory when everyone had to work from home, and we all now have the opportunity to re-design how we work in the future. • Expect the unexpected, learn to deal with uncertainty, and take current challenges as an opportunity to shine, to show clients the real value insurance brokers can bring to their relationship. • Get closer to your clients – truly understand their needs, work out ways to help, and help them through the economic and other challenges they are no doubt facing. There was a strong feeling that those who stay close to their clients, and provide real value, will continue to be appreciated and will survive all the current uncertainty.

I found all these messages and presentations especially positive and encouraging. I was amazed by the positive enthusiasm of Bernard Salt. When talking about prospects for the economy, he was not just a glass half full, he was overflowing with enthusiasm and confidence. This was very uplifting indeed.

I do need to acknowledge that there were technical difficulties with the platform we were operating on. We are doing a very careful review of how the platform worked, and the difficulties that people encountered. We are very grateful for those who persevered through the week.

Hopefully, we did set out the Brave New World we all now face, and we also gave lots of ideas and suggestions for how to navigate the changes in front of us.  

DALLAS BOOTH

Chief Executive Officer, NIBA