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Mancini's Musings on the 5th Annual Reactions Awards
Dinner (More lighthearted post-event frivolity from Chris Mancini, CEO, captive.com) New York City Early in August, our friends in Dublin e-mailed me, graciously inviting me to be their guest for the Fifth Annual Reactions Awards Dinner on the 29th of August at the Westin Times Square in New York City. For those of you who do not subscribe to Reactions Magazine, this is a reinsurance publication that serves both sides of the pond, and as far back as 2001, has boasted a subscriber base of over 15,000 copies per month. I do not know their current numbers at this point, but I would assume it has grown since then. The magazine reaches chief executive officers, chief financial officers and other senior executives of insurance, reinsurance and broker companies as well as risk managers and chief financial officers of FTSE 500 and Fortune 500 corporations, and has a global focus. So began my decision-making process on whether to hop on Metro North and head for Grand Central Station or stay in the office and work. Hmmm, lemme think -- a spectacular dinner celebration with good friends known previously only through e-mail, in the greatest city I can think of? A no-brainer! I'm there! No matter that the day featured frog-strangling rain, and that, 5 minutes outside the train station in New Haven, CT, I realized that I had neglected to pack my dress shoes. After uttering a few unladylike expletives expressing my thoughts on this situation, my husband, applying his usual calm logic, sighed and said, "Do you want to go back home to get them?" Back to earth, spazzoid woman. "Nah," I said, "I don't want to miss the express train. Besides, this is New York City where shoes abound even in the rain, right?" Turns out, shoes do indeed abound -- 9 blocks and two blisters away--in the ongoing deluge. Nonetheless, the shoe problem was ultimately resolved at Macy's with a 17% discount, courtesy of the Westin. Ah, yes, yet another pair of black dress shoes now adorn my closet! Have you ever scoped out the Macy's in New York City? It's an experience. The store is a hulking, multi-story behemoth, occupying half a dozen or so city blocks. I entered Macy's in the men's store (no not to be confused with a men's "shop" -- we're talking a whole, massive store here), and headed full speed ahead for the women's store (same story), which was a couple of miles away. Up on the 4th floor, in dumbfounded amazement, I found a dizzying array of shoes that would do Imelda Marcos proud. There were probably 3 or 4 invisible clerks somewhere on the floor to serve five thousand rabid women who competed possessively for their attention. I suppose the shoes on the floor were stylish, in a New York sort of way. I used to think my feet were pretty normal-looking, but based on those shoes, that is clearly not the case. My feet are kind of squared off at the toes. They certainly do not come to the long point that virtually every shoe on the floor featured! Thus were most shoes disregarded from further consideration. Another problem: those of you who know me would understand that the last thing I need is an additional 5 inches of height. So much for the most of the remaining shoes. Two pairs met my discriminating standards -- cute, strappy, black sandals with a heel not to exceed two or so inches. I commandeered a delightful sales clerk, and, with considerable groveling, explained, "I have a reception at 6:30, which would be tasteless to attend shoeless. I need to leave here in 5 minutes or less with one of these two pairs of shoes in my hot little hand." One out of two were indeed available in my size. What were the chances of a fit? There must have been an angel on my shoulder, because those cute little sandals fit perfectly! I was good to go! Attempting to retrace my steps through Macy's, I jogged back through the tunnel, through the men's store, huffing and puffing from this marathon aerobic feat, and exited the building...apparently not from the same door I entered. I think I was still in New York, but I was definitely NOT on a recognizable street. The rain still pounded down in sheets. With every pedestrian's umbrella still up, the resultant "ceiling" ensured that no landmarks typically observed by looking skyward could be seen. Finding my way back to the hotel proved to be quite a challenge. I was up to the task, and somehow made it to the event on time. Phew... The Reactions Awards Dinner (the serious part) Over the last several months, readers of Reactions Magazine took a look at how the insurance industry fared over the last 12 months by participating in a survey to identify the shining lights in the industry. Most exciting for our niche, captives were given a prominent place within the awards structure. We are excited to report that Dublin received the Reactions Award for Best European Domicile. Amid the excitement of the evening, I asked Sarah Goddard, CEO of the Dublin International Insurance and Management Association (DIMA), for her thoughts immediately following the awards presentation. Said Sarah, “Dublin is delighted at receiving the inaugural Best captive domicile in Europe award. Our industry peers voted Dublin to this position, which makes the award even more valuable in our eyes. We are currently building on the last 17 years of captive experience to develop an even more competitive marketplace, and this award comes just as we are about to see the next steps forward in the continuous development of Dublin as a leading captive domicile, bringing together the innovation for which Dublin is recognised and the best practice which is the central tenet of the market.” Congratulations to Sarah and everyone in Dublin who brought this well-deserved award home. Watch captive.com's Domicile Showcase and Captive Associations pages for much more on Dublin, very soon. We also applaud our other captive industry friends and colleagues for receiving the following awards:
Alas, the list is incomplete. There were a few additional captive awards, as well as numerous awards in the broader insurance industry, but enough already. I wanted to cover the biggies. To view a photo of the Dublin group in the hotel lobby following dinner, follow this link. Sarah and I apologize wholeheartedly for standing adjacent to one other with our passionately-printed clothing. Clearly, the fashion police were not present to notice this offensive photographic transgression, and we hope we have not caused any permanent retinal damage to those of you who viewed the picture. Perhaps worse, after all that walking to buy appropriate shoes, the photographer cut off our feet, so you can't even see them! That said, you can count your blessings that this photo was taken BEFORE we hit NYC’s Irish pubs for a delightful night on the town that kept us partying until 3:30 a.m. Trust me, a photo at that hour would have been far worse than the one you viewed here. Post-script Much of this article was originally written for an e-mail message to our captive.com subscriber list. Our e-mail program, which has operated flawlessly for years, hiccuped, and the list received my note not once, but FOUR times! Such an embarrassment -- my wholehearted apologies to our subscribers for any repetitive motion injuries that may have befallen your delete key finger in the aftermath of this perplexing situation. To solve the mystery of what happened to our mail program,
we employed the services our Captive.com crack investigative reporter,
Lou Slipps, who uncovered a dastardly plot directed against us. It is
now clear that Sir Gaul Blatter from an un-named renegade captive management
firm representing the now-infamous floating
captive domicile mounted a brazen attack directed against captive.com's
mail program last Friday. Said Blatter, "The attack went perfectly!
Our actions were in direct retaliation against those supercilious elitists
at captive.com who consistently refuse to grant our floating domicile
a link from their website. We're hopping mad." Developing...
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