I am honored, privileged and humbled to be elected as the President for a second year. Obviously this was not by design, things change rapidly in our industry and our board is not immune to those changes. However, when asked if I would consider a second term, I immediately agreed to do so. The professional comradery and experience of being the Broker Association President has been second to none.  Honestly, the first year absolutely flew by, but having said that, we accomplished a lot as an association (please refer to my article in the fall issue to see all we achieved in 2018/19).

As it turns out, we have multiple associations across Canada who are also having their President sit for a second term, and fortunately, both years are during my two-year tenure as President, two of which being our neighbors to the east, PEI and Nova Scotia. This allows our National IBAC Association to benefit from longer and therefor more productive relationships among sister associations as well as an added element of continuity both Provincially and Nationally.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t also thank our returning board members, Joanne Deveaux-Murphy, Chris Russell, Blake Anderson, Brandon McGee, Stephen Halsall, Scott Embree and of course, our second-year Chair, Brian Schryer. I must also welcome the new Directors who have agreed to take on positions on our board, Julie Godbout and James Higgins and last but not least, returning Director, Andrew Page.

I am very much looking forward to the year to come and appreciate the support of our members, our board and association staff.

I was going to open this with a little joke about Trudeau not being the only one who has been elected for a second term… but that might still be a little too fresh for some.

AIBC Convention 2019

This year’s convention was, in my mind, second to none. Although Newfoundland is a very tuff act to follow, I felt we did as well as we possibly could following up their top-notch convention in Saint Johns in 2018. The format and agenda were as good as I’ve ever seen and the CEO panel was actually among the best I’ve attended. I want to give a special thanks to our Magenta Sponsors, Intact, Wawanesa, RSA, Economical and Travelers and our Insurer Partners who had CEO’s and Upper Exec participate in our panel, you did a fantastic job!

The President’s Dinner was absolutely stunning (thanks Nicole for your decorative eye and meal selections) and the “Broker Beer Fest” was a really fun, interactive and innovative way to network and mingle with all of our industry peers. Excellent job executing that Mr. McNair. Last but not least, thanks to Becci, I had my 15 minutes of fame while recording our skit with the absolutely and incredibly talented Adam Growe from Cash Cab. What an EXPERIENCE! Of course, there was much more on deck during this event including education sessions, hospitality suites and more, but these are just to name a few. I hope everyone who attended enjoyed the event as much as I did and to those who didn’t make it this year, make sure you get there in 2020. It is sure to be amazing if they are going to top this year’.