e-Learning reaches participants worldwide, it is not linked to a fixed schedule and does not require class room facilities. These are just a few of the reasons why it has been on the rise in the past years, with steady growth rates in many countries, and likely to be the reason why IUMI’s webinars have been well received by our members, affiliates and friends. Since the launch of our webinar programme in June, eight sessions have taken place. They covered a wide range of topics from the SOLAS weight verification requirements to the new York Antwerp Rules to insuring perishables, current issues such as the Hanjin insolvency, and an introduction to the Paris MoU. The most recent webinar on project cargo was so successful that an additional session is under consideration. One more webinar is scheduled for this year: Project cargo on RoRo vessels on 13 December. Several sessions are being organised for 2017, including one on offshore energy and one on Carriage of Group A cargo – mineral ores that are prone to liquefaction.

We are proud to announce that we have hosted 1,200 participants from 46 countries for our webinars so far. The majority of our viewers are from Europe and North America, though participation in Asia is increasing. This rise is partly due to new time slots which accommodate viewers in different time zones. We invite our readers to share information about our webinars with colleagues around the world.

The age demographic of our participants is predominantly in the range of 41 years and above who account for 59%. The 31-40 year olds and below 30s account for 16% each (for those wondering about the other 9%, they were too shy to say). This analysis shows that we need to improve our reach to the younger underwriters – and again we invite you to pass on our invitations within your team.

If you haven’t joined any of our webinars yet and are curious, you can sign up for the ones coming up soon or have a sneak peek where the recordings and slides are readily available