The-Women’s-Insurance-Net-Work was created in 2007 to provide a platform for senior women in the insurance sector to be able to meet, discuss industry issues and exchange new ideas with their peers in a non competitive, relaxed and informal environment. The subtle female focus of each agenda aims to provide a good balance of industry topical subject matter and issues either specific to women or simply of greater interest and importance. Speakers are predominantly though not exclusively female, and the same can be said of the participants at each meeting.
The-Women’s-Insurance-Net-Work builds upon the successful format established by Peter le Beau and Malcolm Small in The-Net-Work and The-Pensions-Net-Work and will be complementary to those bodies.
It is a membership-based organisation meeting in informal conference three times a year. It is run by a Management Board chaired by Helen Crofts, who also chairs the conferences.
Membership will be of keen interest to:
- Insurance companies
- Reinsurers
- Actuarial Consultancies
- Other insurance related businesses
Membership is limited in order to obtain the best possible quality of debate. Corporate and individual memberships are available.
All conferences are run under Chatham House rules.
Conferences are run over 24 hours from a Thursday evening to Friday afternoon to include a dinner with guest speaker and four main presentations. Conference locations are typically within 40 miles of central London. The objective is open, relaxed and constructive debate in an informal environment, allowing the opportunity for members to interact with their peers, colleagues and friends. Members may invite guests for a small additional charge.
In addition, social events are held twice a year in central London and are open to a wider audience of women from the insurance sector.
It is our aim to create a group of high quality thinkers who can discuss the needs and development of women in the insurance sector in an open, collegiate and stimulating way.
Why join The-Women’s-Insurance-Net-Work?
- It is the ONLY insurance-focused forum for senior women aimed at providing continued professional development in an environment conducive to intellectually stimulating debate.
- Each seminar provides 5 speakers who are all experts in their fields and excellent presenters. The programme allows ample time for debate – an essential part of the proceedings. Larger conferences, where very large audiences are essentially being lectured to – or at – cannot hope to achieve this.
Why join a women’s network at all?
- Networking is widely recognised as an important business tool, and it happens all over the place in different guises: in the bar, on the golf course, over dinner. Networking works best when the environment is appropriate – i.e. business focused; relaxed yet professional; and involves like-minded individuals who enjoy interaction with each other. Women remain a minority at senior levels within our profession, hence typical networking opportunities are inevitably male-dominated thus male-centric.
- The forum provides an opportunity to tackle wide-ranging issues from the perspective of women and to turn a business eye to any gender-specific impact, needs or experiences.
- Sometimes this network may consider issues which need to be considered but which in a more male-dominated environment might be ignored.
- It is natural that some women may feel more comfortable relaxing socially in a female-oriented environment.
Why should an employer support its female employees in this way?
- Supporting either individual or corporate membership will assist in the fulfillment of an employer’s diversity policy.
- At senior levels it can be hard to find appropriate personal and professional development opportunities.
- It can be the most appropriate way of enabling female staff to develop a wider network and to exchange ideas.
How will this benefit an employer?
- The likelihood is that for most employers, 50% of customers are female. Ideas generated and discussed at The-Women’s-Insurance-Net-Work will be brought back to the workplace and be disseminated more widely for the benefits of product development, marketing campaigns, recruitment and retention and management practices to name but a few.
