The insurance industry commemorates its fourth Diversity and Inclusion (Dive In) insurance festival in more than 27 countries around the world from 25 to 27 September.

The South African insurance industry honours the event on Wednesday 26 September at the Bowman Gilfillan Auditorium in Sandton where the industry giants partnered with Lloyds of London and other international insurance giants to bring the festival alive in South Africa.

The global festival was launched in 2015 in the United Kingdom. Since then it has been celebrated in London, Perth, Zurich, Bermuda, Amman, Tokyo, San Antonio, Wellington and a number of other cities. Last year’s event attracted 7 856 attendees to 95 events in 17 countries.

Themed “Time for inclusion”, this year’s festival has a strategic focus on technology, talent and customer base within the industry. Time is crucial to the theme and festival’s aim as is time to act on inclusion, and time must be assigned to create inclusive spaces.

The festival highlights the business case for diverse and inclusive workspaces and provides practical ideas and inspiration for how to bring about positive change.

As global as the festival is, solutions and approaches must have a local influence. The aim is to ensure sustainable transformation that not only impacts today’s industry, but has a lasting legacy for the future of insurance in South Africa.

Professor Cecil Bodibe is the guest speaker for the day. He is the author of Salt and Pepper: the challenges of diversion and inclusion, among other books. He is well versed on issues of diversity, inclusion and transformation challenges.

The line-up also includes panel discussions headed by experts within the industry, as well as a personal motivational speech from Frank Magwegwe founder and managing director of Thrive Financial Wellness. He has come a long way from 1992 when he was broke, homeless, unemployed and separated from his family.

This year, the South African insurance industry has also decided to mark the start of a two-year campaign called “Awareness into Action” which aims to harness the energy garnered in the past three years of the festival to promote implementation.

The industry believes that it is truly time for inclusion if it is to remain relevant with enough edge to make a dent on future markets and beyond.

Inclusion and diversity are two very powerful tools to attain this, not tomorrow but today.