GIRO Convention

It stands for General Insurance Research Organisation... GIRO is probably the most prestigious conference for general insurance actuaries in the UK... even though it's held annually, the conference rotate between a location in the UK and somewhere abroad alternately...

Since my department is quite large, it has been an unspoken condition that you have to be a qualified actuary for the company to sponsor your trip to the conference... and even amongst those who are qualified, you have to submit a business case to be selected for the conference... and usually those who qualified in the year are allowed to go...

I guess I'm lucky enough to qualify in the year where the conference is held abroad!!! And this year's GIRO location is the exotic SORRENTO!! :)

So... there... my first business trip out of the UK... all the way to the Bay of Naples... I have to admit that lady luck is smiling on me...

The venue for the conference is Hilton Sorrento Palace... it's supposed to be a 5 star hotel! The hotel sure did live up to its reputation...

I really did like my sea view room.... hehehe... it's a good thing that I didn't book my room early enough as they ran out of the normal rooms (i.e. cheaper rooms) and I was allowed to stay in the executive double sea view room... hahaha....

Just look at the views from my room... I guess that's why it's a whooping 235 euros a night!

The conference was really enjoyable for me... although some bits of it was really boring but that was more than made up by the fun that I had with my colleagues and the food that they fed us... I made some new friends as well... met some Malaysian actuaries from all over the world at the conference and they were even two guys who flew in all the way from Malaysia... one was from Kurnia Insurance and the other one from Bank Negara...

Felt like I was on a 4-day holiday instead of "working"... well... theoretically, we were "supposed" to be working by networking with clients and trying to sell business to them... oh well...