Working Parties & AIDA World Congress

It is easy to dismiss AIDA as simply an international body for which our chapter AILA is affiliated. However, AIDA is much more than that and is relevant to all the AIDA chapters, particularly AILA and NZILA, two of the largest and most active chapters in AIDA.
The AILA and NZILA membership is by far the largest in the World and is held in very high regard by the governing body, the Presidential Council. As an indication of the high esteem with which NZILA is held by AIDA, the current NZILA President, Jonathan Scragg was recently appointed to the Council. The Council consists of 35 members from various countries and as a body meets twice yearly to discuss issues of relevance to the organisation.   

While we are generally aware of what AILA, does we are inclined to forget about AIDA activities, which are principally linked to the work done by the 14 AIDA Working Parties, which are as follows;

• Accumulation of Claims and Subrogation
• Climate and Catastrophic Events
• Credit Insurance and Surety
• Dispute Resolution
• Financial Lines
• General Principles of Insurance Law
• Marine Insurance
• Motor Insurance
• New Technologies, Prevention and Insurance
• Personal Insurance and Pensions
• Reinsurance
• State Supervision of Insurance
• Financial Lines Insurance.

The Australian and New Zealand members are active participants in many of these working parties. Indeed, I have the honour of chairing the Dispute Resolution Working Party and Ray Giblett of NSW, was recently appointed to head up the newest AIDA WP – Financial Lines Insurance.
The Working parties cover a very broad range of insurance issues and we encourage all members to become involved. You don’t need to attend a World Congress or regional meeting to participate although we would be delighted to see as many of our members attend at least one World Congress during their careers as they are exceptional events with a superb scientific program.

Each of the WP’ has a Chair person and the contact details of that Chair are contained on the AIDA website. 

The most recent Presidential Council meeting was held in Warsaw in April It was the venue for the 7th AIDA Europe Conference and was themed “De- Mystifying Insurtech: a legal and regulatory view “ 
There were exceptional presentations on how new technologies are reshaping the insurance field. The papers are all available on the AIDA website together with the papers and presentations from a number of the combined Working Party meetings held on the final day of the Conference.
I would encourage all our members to become involved, in respect of one or more of the Working Parties. Read the papers on the AIDA Website and make a submission, comment, or, write an article.  The AIDA website contains the papers submitted by the members, many of which have been presented at the various international working party meetings around the globe. Becoming a member can be as simple as emailing the WP chair with your contact details and expressing a desire to participate in the party activities. We encourage all our members, regardless of what country you come from, to become an active AIDA member.

With the next World Congress coming up in Rio in October, this year we would like to see as many Australians and Kiwis there as possible. In this regard, AILA members have already participated in the program by making submissions and responding to the conference questionnaires on the four conference themes … New Technologies (Hayley Stubbings, Minter Ellison Lawyers), Disclosure Duties (Rachel Teh, Gilchrist Connell) Corporate Governance of Insurers (Mark Radford, Radford Lawyers) and Pollution Insurance (Johanna Kennerley, Carter Newell). What is particularly encouraging is the fact that three of the four questionnaires were completed by younger AILA members. 
The World Congress is held every four years and as many of you will know, the next conference in 2022 will be hosted by Melbourne, which will once again present our AILA members with an opportunity to showcase our chapter. The last time it was held in Australia was the spectacular event in Sydney in 1994, which I had the good fortune to attend. It was my first AIDA World Congress. I would encourage as many members as possible to become involved in Melbourne 2022, particularly our younger members and while it may seem a long way away, the conference planning has commenced already.  

In Rio we will be showing promotional film clips for Melbourne and will also be hosting an event booth at the conference venue to encourage as many of our international members to come to Melbourne in 2022. If anyone is contemplating attending the Congress in Rio, please contact me as we would welcome your support in promoting Melbourne at the October Congress this year.