September President's Message

I am a big Prog Rock fan - Pink Floyd, Marillion, Fish, Steve Wilson, IQ, etc - and I have been known to read and analyse song lyrics for hours on end. I love the idea of words and music telling a story or working through a concept. My all-time hero Fish wrote “and my eyes were opened to the darkness, in my hand a burning flame, a spark of life to touch the fuse and blow the clouds away – I can make it happen, if I want to, if I try….” And that’s sort of how I feel now, time to kick on and make things happen:

Tickets for our Annual Dinner are now available

There is no increase in price from last year and dinner tickets are now on sale at £80 each or £75 each for 10 or more. These are “early bird” discount prices and will increase by £5 after the end of October. We have already sold a number of tickets and tables but let’s go for record numbers…….

So what do we have planned?

There will be an excellent dinner in the Hangar at Milsoms, Kesgrave Hall, which is already is already booked for Friday, 5 April 2019. Anyone who eats at Milsoms will know how good the food is. Members of our dinner planning team will sampling menus early next month, which I know they are looking forward to.

We are delighted to have Jacob Baker playing a baby grand piano in the lobby as people arrive. Jacob is a Suffolk chap and was sponsored by the Insurance Charities for his musical training. Later in the evening with have the Cassettes (covers band) booked to play and hopefully exceed their great performance last year. The Toastmaster and Photographer are also in place.

We hope to run a raffle and a small silent auction on the night and through the kind sponsorship of Broadspire we will have a photo booth ready to record you all as the night progresses. We will also present our annual prize awards.

A chance to dress up and enjoy great food at a brilliant location; with networking, music, dancing and a chance to celebrate success – and a photographer and photo booth on hand to record it all! It should be a fabulous night.

The incumbent CII President - Jonathan Clark, Global Head of Business Solutions Claims at SCOR - has agreed to join us as a VIP guest. Jon Neal, CEO of Suffolk Mind, will also be a VIP guest as we continue to seek to raise money in support of this great local charity.

If you would like to buy tickets for the dinner or have any questions regarding the evening, please contact me directly or Vicki Chapman, our Dinner Secretary (vicki.chapman@willistowerswatson.com)

Education, Social and Charity events in October

On 4th October 2018, at Quay Place in Ipswich, from 12.30, a “Study Skills and Exam Techniques for CII exams session” will be run by Alison Cooper. Lunch will be available from 12 noon.

12 days later, on 16th October, a session entitled “How to Market Yourself” will be run by Barbara Schonhfer at the Ipswich Town football ground. Lunch will be from 12.30 with the session to run between 1pm and 2pm.

Then on 1st November, Gary Nuttall will lead an “Introduction to Blockchain”. This will again be at the Ipswich Football Ground, with lunch from 12.30 and the session starting at 1pm.

On the social side, we have a Quiz Night taking place on 10th October, starting at 6pm. This will be a general knowledge quiz with various themed rounds. The cost is £30 for a team of 5 with a small prize (and huge bragging rights) to the winners, whilst proceeds will form part of our fund raising activity for Suffolk Mind.

A curry night will also be arranged pre-Christmas (and plans for early 2019 as also being worked on now).

A Day in the life of….Tom Chambers

After his Connect 4 heroics at our Summer Party a few weeks back, we now have an opportunity to learn a little more about Tom and what really makes him tick:

I have often heard people say that they “fell” into insurance (for want of a better phrase) and are still in the industry many years later. This absolutely applies to me – though in my case, reinsurance. However, I have not looked back and I look forward to developing my career in the industry in the years to come.

For the last six years, I have worked at AXA Liabilities Managers in the Transactional Claims Team, situated in the AXA building on Civic Drive.

After initially starting in the team as an administrator, I became a trainee on an internal trainee scheme, where I learnt much of what I now do on a day-to-day basis. Since completing this scheme in 2015, I have been a Claims Analyst.

The focus of my team is on the processing of non-proportional and proportional reinsurance claims and accounts.

Let’s make it happen...
I attended both the WTW/CII Young Professionals Panel Event (picture of our Comms Officer, Laura Blyth, moderating the panel session) and also the CII Cheese and Wine night early in September.

Whilst the panel event was really well attended, the cheese and wine was enjoyed by a small, select group. Both events were great fun and very rewarding – everyone who attended seemed to have a good time and I have received some great feedback about both events.

On the 11th September, the WTW office was honoured to be able to host a promotional event for the Queens Awards for Enterprise. As Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk, Clare Countess of Euston and her team were trying to generate interest in Suffolk to apply for the Queens Awards. I had the opportunity to meet a variety of people from many different Suffolk based industries, including our sector, and the event was truly inspiring. We have so much talent and ability in this region.

Between now and the end of 2018 we have a variety of educational and social events arranged. All of the topics and events align perfectly with my themes for my presidential year around people and modernisation. I really hope that you will all try and support the events and buy lots of tickets for next year’s dinner.

As ever, I remain keen to hear from anyone interested in joining our Council or the Young Professional Group.

Equally, happy to take any questions or to hear from anyone with ideas about how we can further support Suffolk Mind and the Insurance Charities.

With my very best regards, Richard