President's Message

Welcome to the Insurance Institute of Mid Kent.

I am incredibly proud to have been elected this year as President of the Institute of Mid Kent. I firstly want to congratulate and thank my predecessor Natasha Saint for guiding the council through an incredibly challenging year and all whilst preparing for the arrival of her beautiful baby boy.

We know in Mid Kent that the service levels have suffered since Covid and whilst we have worked incredibly hard behind the scenes to maintain a high level of CPD and (where safe) networking events, I appreciate there is still more we can do. I will be continuing to focus on similar key areas as Natasha did last year, pushing for a wider range of CPD and social events through our CPD programme and Next Generation council,  in order to reach as many of our members as possible. This year will see the return of face to face events but we will ensure we do not lose the benefits we have gained by delivering certain events online either.

The Mid Kent Institute covers a wider area, especially after merging with the East Kent Institute. This year we will be placing more focus on how we can deliver to members equally across the whole area to ensure everyone is receiving the benefits their membership pays for, online CPD has played a large part in this but I want us to go further and explore what more as a council we can offer in all areas of our region.

With all that said, the council does not run itself. It is powered by a small army of volunteers from the insurance community in Mid Kent and I am incredibly fortunate this year to be surrounded by some of the most passionate and determined individuals I have ever met, this team is ready to make the CII Mid Kent institute better and stronger than it has ever been before and I am incredibly excited to see what we can achieve over the next 12 months.

These individuals are currently working on relaunching and creating a large number of projects and I am sure you will be seeing many more exciting updates on these various projects very soon.

If anyone is interested in finding out more about the council, how we operate, or potentially want to get involved in any of the projects you see being discussed in meetings or online, please do not hesitate to reach out to any of the council members tagged on LinkedIn or myself at Midkentinstitute@cii.co.uk.

A lot of emphasis is put on what theme a president picks for their term and with the challenges the council are currently facing a number of themes came to mind, for me though one in particular stood out and that is the theme of visibility. I believe the council needs to regain the presence it had in Mid Kent in the past and to remind insurance organisations in the Mid Kent area the importance of the CII local Institute. There are members who have joined insurance organisations in the Mid Kent area during Covid who have never had an opportunity to network on the scale the Mid Kent Institute can offer and have only ever attended CPD events online.

Whilst online learning clearly has a place in this modern world we have lost some of the benefits and relationship building that networking provides us, which is why we will be placing a heavy focus on delivering both online and offline events over the coming year. Coming along to support these events will be incredibly important and explaining to colleagues who have joined during COVID the benefits of face to face events will be equally as important as we can only succeed with your support.

Over the coming year I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible at our CPD events, our networking events and our annual dinner to hear about the areas we have succeeded in and what we can do better to help you and your businesses make the most out of your CII memberships.

Kind Regards,

Daniel Winter ACII