This year the Insurance Museum has been delivering its public programmes of live events, in the way of talks, tours and webinars. It is part of the Insurance Museum’s Education and Careers Strategy to engage with the insurance profession, not just to tell the story of insurance, but to offer unstructured CPD.
Six months into the year, a few trials completed and feedback given, it has been a success. The Insurance Museum is now rolling out a series of talks for the insurance community. Recently, Howard Benge, Director of the Insurance Museum, presented to the Insurance Institute for London, and the Insurance Institutes for Cardiff, and Luton and Hertfordshire. We have more booked over the summer, including tours of EC3.
The webinars and face-to-face talks are based on the history of insurance and how the Insurance Museum will use that to engage with the public.
They include:
- A quick history of insurance – when did insurance begin, what was the first kind of insurance, and should we consider risk management as part of insurance?
- This webinar is a good introduction to insurance history and aimed at anyone wanting to find out more.
- Story of fire insurance – based on the fire insurance galleries, this talk and webinar will go through the story of fire insurance, from its foundation and beginnings in the 1680s through to the Industrial Revolution. It highlights challenges and issues that faced the insurance profession, and how it developed into the early 20th century.
- This webinar is for understanding in more detail how insurance has developed Fire Insurance developed.
- Objects of the Insurance Museum – although the Insurance Museum is still a virtual one, there are a few objects it looks after. This talk/webinar will look at these objects in a bit of depth, what they can tell us about insurance history, and will relate to how they will be used in the Insurance Museum’s exhibitions and events.
- This webinar is aimed at those wanting to understand how the Insurance Museum will use collections, archives and objects to engage people.
- Why do we need a museum of insurance – what is your impression of a museum, is it one that will be full of dusty old objects, walls of fire marks and displays of old policies? Museums have certainly moved on in the past 30 years and the Insurance Museum will tell the story of insurance using objects archives and people’s stories. It will be a place where people interact with each other, questions are asked, debates undertaken. We have our audience development plan and front and centre of that is the public, the insurance community, schools and young people. But what is the benefit of this? In this webinar we will look at how the Insurance Museum will engage with the public and students, and what it has to offer the insurance profession.
- This webinar is for people wanting an in-depth understanding of how the Insurance Museum will engage with the public, students and the insurance community. It is aimed at insurance professionals working in engagement, HR and future leaders.
The IM has been trialling a series of tours around EC3. This is where London was established around AD 50, and it all began with trade. Shortly after the Roman invasion of Ancient Briton, a group of Gaulish traders set up on the spot where London Bridge is now. It proved to be an ideal area for trade, with the River Thames providing a main route to the rest of the Roman Empire. A bridge was built at this point and a century later it had main roads leading out to the north, south and west of Briton. Londinium boasted a huge forum, the Roman marketplace, where you would find merchants from across the Roman Empire and Briton.
The City remained a centre of international trade and insurance throughout history, and you can see this marked out on the street plans and buildings. The EC3 tour will look at beginnings of London trade and how insurance developed alongside it. It covers medieval insurance, fire insurance, the coffee houses and the events and people of insurance in EC3. It finishes with some of the modern buildings, with some historical additions.
For insurance professionals, the webinars, talks and tours will include Unstructured CPD that will include the learning objectives:
- Gain an understanding and knowledge of insurance history.
- Understand how a museum can engage the public, young people, and children with insurance.
Our first webinar was with the Insurance Institute of Chelmsford and South Essex. Caroline Martin, past President of Chelmsford and South Essex said,
“It was such a pleasure to host a session with the Insurance Museum for our members. Our history has created where we are today, an industry that protects us all and supports innovation for the future. Even though I have been in the industry for too many years to count, I learned so much! Learning about our history connects us with why every role in this industry is important. I look forward to hosting another session soon and seeing the physical museum come to life in London. Please support the Insurance Museum, join as a member, and encourage others to do the same. Not only will it be a great place for employees to visit, it will showcase the industry for the next generation.”
With a bit of development and marketing, we will extend the offer to the public.
If you are interested in booking any of these talks or tours, then please contact Howard Benge, director@insurancemuseum.uk.
