Our 29th Unimutual Annual conference, for Members and their brokers, will be held Wednesday 4th to Friday 6th September at Elements of Byron, Byron Bay.

The Conference is a very popular gathering of higher education professionals and those associated with the higher education sector achieving outstanding reviews each year. The conference provides you with an invaluable opportunity to attend an educational, relevant and interesting conference. You will hear about changes to Unimutual since the last conference and receive an update on future changes. You will hear from various member speakers on a variety of interesting topics. As always the conference will provide you with the ability to learn from your peers and network in a relaxed and collegial environment.

It is important to note there is NO LIMIT on how many people can attend from your organisation.

Registration will open soon, so look out for an invite in your inbox.

The Members Only Forum will be held on the Wednesday afternoon  from 4:30pm.  This follows from the success of the Online Member Forums established last year.  The purpose of the Forum is to create an environment in which Members come together to discuss and exchange ideas on a variety of issues and topics without any external influences, such as emerging risks, education or operational issues dealing with risk management or claims.  The Forum will again be restricted to Unimutual Members and will not involve Unimutual Managers or brokers.

Please contact Belle Truelove at belle.truelove@rmml.com or 02 9247 7333 regarding flight bookings, or Kerry French at kerry.french@rmml.com or 02 9250 2823 with any other registration enquiries.

Conference theme ‘The Changing Landscape: Risks and Opportunities’ 

The world of higher education gets increasingly challenging each year, full of both risk and promise. Its promise includes everything from improved positioning on global league tables, improved research outcomes to greater community engagement. All of this is possible for our sector and represents opportunities which we can embrace. Conversely, there are numerous new and developing risks as part of this universe as well. Threats to campus assets from climate change, threats to digital teaching from cybercrime and technological change as well as threats to students from themselves from crime, changing job markets, housing costs and changing standards.

This dynamic environment is shared by all institutions working in higher education. The need to adapt to new circumstances, accept or reject new technologies, seek new partners and find new sources of financial support is a common thread amongst universities, medical research institutes, residential halls and those who support and promote the sector. With the rise of new competitors, each entity must work harder to identify their risks and work to mitigate them as effectively as possible.

At the Unimutual conference, we will examine this new emerging risk universe. The focus will be on how institutions are adapting to major issues such as alternative sources of funding, how they are building community profile and support and the way, as the sector’s mutual, we are responding to a challenging risk financing market. The conference will allow participants to see what’s new in addressing key strategic risks, and how creative and innovative solutions are working to keep the sector in the forefront of technology, research and teaching as well as training the professionals of the future.

To hear what people gained from attending last year’s Unimutual conference, watch the video below: