We plan to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the Society in 2022 with a number of initiatives, including a series of podcasts which will provide a retrospective and a look to the future. The primary audience for the podcasts is our members and the intention is to create, for posterity, an audio record of our history, where we are now and where we see ourselves heading as a profession. The podcasts will also serve as a resource for people thinking of joining the profession in the future. We propose to promote the podcasts on LinkedIn which will showcase the influence and breadth of the profession to others.
The current proposal is to deliver a themed series of podcasts with a small number of speakers in conversation with a facilitator, exploring particular themes through a “Past, Present, Future of the Society” lens. Each podcast will be short and snappy – not more than 30 minutes but possibly quite a bit shorter – and not overly scripted.
Take “technology” for example – what was the state of play back in the early days of the Society, how has technology changed actuarial practice, what future developments and impacts can we foresee or aspire to?
Other possible themes could include:
- The role and influence of the Society: evolution from networking society to professional body
- Changing areas of work: growth of actuarial involvement in general insurance, risk management and data analytics; future expansion into wider fields
- Diversity and Inclusion in all its forms, including experiences of members who joined us from other countries
- Actuarial education: the role of universities and emergence of new topics – CERA, data analytics, banking etc.
- How others see us – for this theme, we might have external speakers or a mix of external and actuarial.
We would be delighted to receive suggestions from members regarding other themes which we could explore.
We are seeking members to join in initial conversations (1-2 hours) to explore some of the themes above and others suggested by members. The aim here will be to draw out reflections and lessons from the past and ideas and aspirations for the future, and use this to firm up on content for the podcasts. We want the podcasts to appeal to all of our members and so we will need a diverse group to develop these themes – long-standing (and retired) members, those recently qualified or perhaps still students, members who have worked in different jurisdictions or from different cultures, members from traditional and new practice areas etc.
To be clear, those who volunteer to take part in the initial conversations will not be committing themselves to be a participant in a podcast, although we would hope that some of them would put themselves forward to do this once the themes have been chosen and the format agreed.
If you would like to take part in the initial conversations outlined above, or if you would like further information on this proposal, please contact info@actuaries.ie no later than Monday 17th January 2022.