2022 IING President's Message

2021 Continued to be a year of managing programs due to the Covid reality which had first affected us in 2020 and adapting to everchanging government regulations along with companies imposing new rulings and policies around Covid requirements. Who would have thought that such uncertainty would continue worldwide around such a pandemic, so many facts and myths, one had to do serious research to know which was which.

During all this, the IING committee continued to be resilient and impactful within our market, adapting event planning as was necessary due to current Covid situations, bringing great CPD content, an awesome day in the sun on the golf course, and for the first time since 2019 hosting our Year-End Gala Evening at The Barnyard with massive success.

I applaud my entire team for their commitment and service to ensure we could remain relevant to our valued members.

A heartfelt Thank you to each of you, and also the continued support of our members.

I am happy to say that we continued to present professional online training sessions due to the lessons learned in the previous year and our education team did a great job in sourcing and providing interesting and relevant CPD training for our members.

In 2021 we offered 8 CPD hours across 5 training events.

On the sports front, we were able to host our first Presidents Golf Day since 2019, and what a day it was. A full field booked with some reserves who unfortunately were not quick enough to book one of the limited spots available, and a superb turnout from our wonderful hole sponsors. A big thank you to each of you, and a special thank you to Johan and his team from Hollard for the continued support as Primary Sponsor of the event. Everyone’s support is highly appreciated.

A wonderful evening was had by all at our Year-End Gala Event held at The Barnyard Theatre in Menlyn, an 80’s themed event with great music and even better company. Our honoured guests Ms Thokozile Mhlangu (CEO IISA) and Ms Kopano Radebe (Exec Manager: Professional Development) had a great evening and were still raving about it at the IIG function a week later. Thank you to our social team for such a well planned and orchestrated event.

In my first year as president, it was an easy transition for me to take over a team that was already in the “groove” of the new way of doing things following the strong leadership of my predecessor Natalie Graham who steered the ship during the first few waves of this Covid Storm. Thank you, Natalie, that you were always only a phone call away if I needed any guidance.

I have learned a lot during my first year as president and each day I continue to learn from my committee, our members, our industry and the country as a whole. I have nothing but praise for the professional manner in which this committee has continued unphased by the situation to continue to manage and adapt so that our offering to our members remains relevant.

As we continue on this Covid journey, we continue to learn and adapt our requirements in alignment with government regulations that prevail at the time of each of our events. Our first priority has been and will continue to be the health and safety of all our members attending each of our events. With this in mind, we thank you for your support in complying with the requirements presented for each event.

Stay safe.

Adrian Burmeister

President