Take one iconic cheese grater shaped office building, some of the biggest players in the global insurance market and mix that up with a bunch of comedians and what have you got?
The second Dive In Festival celebrating diversity and inclusion in the insurance industry wrapped up its three-day, international events programme on Thursday 29th September with a ‘comedy fringe’ event in London, hosted by Aon at their Leadenhall headquarters curated and produced by Funny Women.
Acts on the bill included Doc Brown, Sindhu Vee, Eshaan Akbar, Ayesha Hazarika and Pat Monahan and the show was hosted by Zoe Lyons. We were also joined by Harriet Braine, fresh from winning the Stage Award in the final of the Funny Women Awards at KOKO the night before!
“As the grand finale to the Dive In Festival 2016, we wanted to celebrate diversity and inclusion with a fun but powerful ending and Funny Women helped us achieve just that,” explains Ajay Mistry, partnerships manager at Aon. “Many of the issues we tackled in the festival were hard-hitting and out of people’s comfort zone, but through the power of humour we were able to showcase the real benefits of diversity.”
Dive In is an initiative of Inclusion@Lloyd’s, a strategic collaboration between the Corporation of Lloyd’s, IUA, LIIBA, and the Lloyd’s Market Association. The festival was launched in 2015 and has picked up multiple awards as a Diversity Champion, Event of the Year and for Employee Engagement. It is the only international, sector-wide, concurrent diversity and inclusion event of its kind anywhere in the world, with a potential audience of over a million insurance sector leaders and employees.
This year’s light touch approach to getting insurance to focus on diversity and inclusion issues also featured broadcaster Gok Wan’s ‘Big Fat Massive Quiz’ at Willis Towers Watson and a hugely entertaining ‘An Evening with Clare Balding’ at Aviva.
Despite the fun elements, the message that came through clearly from insurance leaders and experts speaking at more than 50 events around the world was that diversity and inclusion is no laughing matter and the insurance sector has to do more to attract diverse talent to futureproof its business.
The festival’s content offered anyone working in insurance free access to events in 10 countries: Australia, Bermuda, Canada, China, France, Ireland, Singapore, Switzerland, UK and the USA. Celebrity speakers, industry leaders and experts shared their insights and experiences on issues ranging from mentoring and sponsorship (to get more women to the top), to inclusive recruitment that removes barriers and hiring bias, to enabling more flexible working practices for carers and parents.
“The feedback to our event at Aon has been incredible, with many guests still talking about their favourite comedians and jokes a week later!” says Ajay Mistry. “Corporate audiences can often be a tough crowd, but the comedians were all excellent, and were great sports chatting to guests and taking photos after the show. This made the evening even more special for the audience.
“Funny Women were extremely professional and organised in helping Dive In achieve a hugely successful festival finale, so special thanks to them, and I can’t wait to work with them again!”
Thanks Ajay! We can’t wait either!
Content captured from the Dive In festival is available via the website www.diveinfestival.com or on the app (available for iPhone and Android). In support of the ongoing call to action around better Diversity & Inclusion practices, Inclusion@Lloyd’s is publishing a short, accessible guide. 5 Steps to Diversity & Inclusion also available to download from the Dive In website.
