Annual Dinner 2017 - A photo gallery

Reflections by Gavin Potter Cert CII/ Aviva - Council member of local institute.

How the year passes quickly with the annual Institute dinner event coming round so soon - this time with a twist though. We were extremely lucky to have Insurance royalty joining us as guest of honour in the form of Dame Inga Beale, CEO of Lloyd’s of London and the 121st president of the CII.

Our chosen venue, Needham House, Little Wymondley was very pleasant with friendly, accommodating staff and the evening was punctuated with good food and drink. The evening was very slick from start to end.

The meal commenced with an introduction followed by an ice breaker led by our president, Graham Williams which was a form of heads or tails but Shakespeare or Hip Hop themed. Certainly the group showed themselves as an eclectic bunch who knew their verse, both traditional and modern day with the final win by Julie Hicks of the CII who won a bottle of Champers. I had the great pleasure of sitting next to Julie and I’m very glad she didn’t listen to my suggestions otherwise the outcome would have been very different.

After dinner Dame Inga Beale took the mic and talked of the impact of Hurricane Irma, concerns over Donald Trump and NK and ultimately the need to continually adapt and change but also the impact of automation on people in our industry. Where will new technology take us? I was very lucky to Meet Dame Inga earlier on in the evening and found her captivating and interesting. It was a real honour to spend time with her.

There was the usual raffle and with a variety of lucky recipients winning some very nice prizes, Aviva for instance very generously donating 4 tickets to any premiership Rugby game which was won by Brian Clements of Lorica.

Also people were wowed by Lee Smith the Magician who left us all talking about the wonders of making playing cards appears in the most unlikely of places or disappearing entirely.

All in all a very good event with lots of fun had by a nice bunch of people. I’m very much looking forward to the 2018 event and it’ll come round quickly!