In September 2023, the ICMIF Asia and Oceania Association (AOA) held its biennial AOA Seminar in Sydney (Australia). The event saw individuals from ICMIF member organisations gather to share perspectives on topics including creating an attractive workplace, member experience, digital transformation and adapting to climate change. The Young Leaders Programme (YLP) at the seminar was widely successful, with 23 Young Leaders attending from five countries. One Young Leader, Hiroki Saruta from Zenkyoren (Japan), shares his perspective on the experience below.

First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the valuable opportunity provided to meet and have conversations with many throughout the AOA Seminar 2023, held from 25 to 27 September last year.

I had the opportunity to work on the planning and operating committee for the Young Leader programme for the AOA Seminar. Together with Jackie from 1CISP (Philippines) for overseas and with Swiss Re and Gallagher Re for support locally in Japan, we were able to carry out our desired outcome.

Specifically, our focus was to ensure the smooth facilitation of communication initiated by Young Leaders, with the utilisation of “SHIM cards” (a communication tool developed by Zenkyoren, which was presented and demonstrated as an ice breaker at the AOA seminar) and a “YLP 2023 Movie” as catalysts. You can watch the video in English here and Japanese here. One of the main goals was to ‘alleviate Young Leaders from the language barrier especially amongst Japanese Young Leaders’ and also ‘to maximise the opportunities to communicate with Young Leaders from other countries.’ In total 23 young leaders from five countries participated, and also five CEOs generously joined the CEO Roundtable Discussion in the programme.

Over 500 memorable photos captured proactive communication between Young Leaders and other participants, and the video below shows the passion for the community from many people including Young Leaders and CEOs who also contributed to the production. They are the proof and outcome of the efforts we put in, which makes me feel confident that we achieved what we aimed for the AOA Seminar Young Leaders Programme 2023.

The natural next question is… what will our next mission for Young Leaders be?

While the ICMIF/AOA YLP provided valuable opportunity to interact with other organisations domestically and internationally, it is only a starting point for building relationships. Therefore, more importantly, how we continue to develop the relationships we have built over the 3-day event is what I feel as key importance. And this very point was something I felt that strongly expected of the Young Leaders from the community, which was clearly conveyed during the sessions, such as the CEO Roundtables.

Despite some difficulties imposed from differences in countries and languages, I believe that the development of these relationships will lead us into the next generations of ICMIF/AOA.

After return to Japan, we are working to create ‘follow-up activities’ targeting all Young Leaders in Japan, including Young Leaders who have participated in ICMIF/AOA activities in the past, led by Zenkyoren with the aid of Swiss Re and Gallagher Re.

With two main objectives below, we also plan to collaborate with overseas Young Leaders in the near future.

1. Support Young Leaders in building their ongoing and stronger relationships
2. Help Young Leaders gain a deeper understanding of previous topics covered in ICMIF/AOA seminars and continue to contribute to their own organisation.

We are fully aware that this cannot be achieved without having empathy/alignment from everyone, therefore, we will continue to work to expand this circle slowly in a sustainable manner.

We sincerely hope to continue to build a wide and deep network through the above activities.

Once again, thank you very much for the memorable and fantastic experiences.

To find out more about ICMIF’s Young Leaders offering, please visit our website, or contact Georgina Compton, Manager, Member Intelligence.