CPCU Society Opening Session

Conferment Ceremony

Congratulatory Reception

The pu—a Hawaiian conch shell played like a fanfare trumpet—heralded the beginning of the CPCU Society Opening Session. Next, about 50 children in colorful costumes welcomed the nearly 7,000 attendees with a traditional dance, followed by a surprise performance by Na Leo, the biggest-selling female Hawaiian group in the world. Betsey L. Brewer, CPCU, the Society's 2006-2007 president, congratulated the CPCU Class of 2007, the second-largest graduating class in the Society's history. "To me, you are living proof of the enduring value of the CPCU designation. I know the lure of Hawaii was an incentive for many of you to finish your CPCU program this year. But I also know it's not the reason you began this journey. CPCU is the destination of choice," Brewer said.

At the end of the Opening Session, the famous King's Guard drill team gave a finely tuned performance, featuring precision drills and fast-spinning rifles.

Miller presented the Jack F. Derrickson Award for Outstanding Course Leadership to Robert T. Harrington, CPCU, The Travelers Companies, Inc. Class spokespeople Christopher Coon, CPCU, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, and Kristine Jimenez, CPCU, The Chubb Corporation, shared their personal experiences in achieving the CPCU designation.

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For him, summits are goals. "But in my life, and maybe in yours too, what has been more important than any one goal is what I would call vision. I see a vision as being deeper than a goal. It's where all our goals spring from. It's how we see ourselves living our lives and serving other people and impacting the world. . . . I think a vision is sort of like an internal compass that guides us through good weather, and more importantly through bad weather. And it tells us where we're going and why it's so important we get there," he said.

But whenever you reach out as a pioneer, you're bound to have setbacks and failures, he said. "You're bound to face challenges that could destroy the very foundation of your industry—increased storms and the threat of terrorism—there are all sorts of things that could tear us apart. . . . Sometimes to achieve greatness, we've got to square off with adversity. The small adversities that wear us down, that make us feel like we're treading water, but we're still drowning, right up to those giant adversities that threaten to crush us. We have to square off with them, and walk into their very midst," he said.

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Some people, whom he calls "alchemists," are able to "take all the lead that life piles on top of them and figure out how to transform it into gold," he said. "These people have figured out a way to actually seize hold of that storm of adversity that seems to swirl around us, to harness its power, and use it as fuel to propel themselves forward to places they that might not have gone to in any other way. . . . I would argue that they don't find a way to win despite adversity. They find a way to win because of it. I think if we want to grow, if we want to innovate, if we want to strengthen ourselves, the way we face and harness adversity may be our greatest advantage," he said. "Imagine if adversity was no longer an impediment, but instead the pathway to greatness."

Weihenmayer emphasized the importance of teamwork. "In an environment riddled with pitfalls, sometimes linking ourselves with good people is the best chance we have. Imagine yourselves linked together on that rope with your team, different ethnicities, and backgrounds and genders, different strengths and talents and insights. You know if you fall, someone stops you. If they fall, you stop them. It's just automatic. Imagine as part of that team adjusters and auditors and agents and brokers and risk managers and your clients and sometimes their clients and customers. People might have different motives, they might have different responsibilities, they might have different goals, but you link together behind one vision," he said. "The scope and the power of that kind of team is unstoppable."

He described his harrowing journey to the top of Mt. Everest in vivid detail, equating it to many of the experiences we all face. "I think the summit is that moment when we realize how important our lives are, that we can contribute to something extraordinary, that with the force of our minds, our bodies, our souls, with the power of our two small hands, that we can transform our lives into whatever we want them to be. And when we join our hands with those around us, we can do better than transforming our own lives—we can transform the very face of the earth," Weihenmayer said.

"I think leadership is contagious. We pass it from life to life. From body to body. And we give all those people around us the courage to do great things. Helen Keller, she said, 'I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.'"

Following Weihenmayer's presentation, the AICPCU conferred the CPCU designation on the CPCU Class of 2007, which consists of 3,949 new designees representing 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and 15 countries. More than 80 percent of the class was in Hawaii for the festivities.

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