Futureproofing the AICD

This month, the AICD will host the 14th annual Essential Director Update (EDU), which AICD members consistently rate as one of the top benefits of membership.

This month, the AICD will host the 14th annual Essential Director Update (EDU), which AICD members consistently rate as one of the top benefits of membership — a one-stop shop for the latest developments in governance, regulation and directorship. Our complimentary EDU is fundamental to building the capability of AICD members. We have streamed this event before to our regional members, but this will be the first time it will be exclusively online in a series of webinars ending in live panel sessions, which will provide even deeper content and insight in an easily accessible format.

Graham Bradley AM FAICD and Lisa Chung AM FAICD have recorded presentations that address the sweep of events and the rapid change in our landscape over the past year, including crisis governance, the financial challenge, particularly in the not-for-profit sector, the future world of work, oversight of culture post-pandemic, and lessons from AMP and Rio Tinto. James Shipton will provide ASIC’s perspective on the past year, and discuss the learnings from the Corporate Governance Taskforce and ASIC’s priorities. These video presentations will be made available to members in the first week of October, to be followed on 7 October by virtual panel discussions where Graham and Lisa will discuss these issues with local directors from the AICD’s state divisions.

The AICD continues to transition more of its services online — a strategy accelerated by COVID-19. We registered more than 17,000 webinar enrolments in the last quarter of the past financial year, as much as the previous three quarters combined and more than two-thirds of the total for the prior financial year. The online version of our flagship Company Directors Course, launched in July, has already had close to 200 registrations. An online version of our Foundations of Directorship course for new directors will be available shortly. We also now offer a number of our short courses and have added a new suite of micro-courses on current issues facing boards.

In coming months, we will launch a new website, which will make it easier to find the resources that are relevant to your particular needs as a director, whatever your sector or stage of career. The website will feature a refreshed member portal, replacing MySite, where you will be able to manage your member profile, your AICD subscriptions and track your Director Professional Development units with a simple to use interface.

We are constantly evolving the next steps in the digital transformation of the AICD’s services, but we do not want to lose what is special about the AICD network and in-person interaction. The relationships developed and knowledge shared at events, courses and in AICD spaces over the 30 years of our history have made invaluable contributions to the careers of many members and to good governance broadly.

Where we can, we have begun holding courses on AICD premises again. To run courses with the necessary social distancing we need the Business Centre and Member Lounges, so they remain closed. We are currently reviewing how to reopen the lounges. We sought feedback from members in September on their experience and perceptions of the lounges and whether they would be comfortable continuing to use shared workspaces in a post-COVID environment. We will shortly update members on the results of this consultation.

Our goal is to create options for members so that the AICD’s services are available in a way that suits their individual needs. We are currently planning for the 2021 Australian Governance Summit to be both a live event in Sydney and an online event, which you can attend from anywhere in the world. This is an exciting opportunity to bring our flagship event — which sets the agenda for the year ahead — to more of our members. It is a great example of the efficiency and scale of digital solutions, which allows us to provide more for our members.

Last year, in our report Driving Innovation: The Boardroom Gap, the AICD called on the director community to do more to prioritise innovation. At the AICD, we are taking calculated risks to evolve our member offering. Not everything will work out. Not even successful initiatives — from the perspective of member impact and financial sustainability — will suit every member.

However, the status quo is not an option if we are to support our members confronting serious governance challenges, struggling with a prolonged economic downturn and adapting to a society that has been transformed by technology. We are focused on developing the member services and digital capabilities necessary to build governance knowledge and skills, with greater and more timely access to our benchmark content and education materials and opportunities to connect and learn from each other.