The RIMS Apprentice: Day 2

Wow, all of these insurance people are a lot crazier then I expected!

Yesterday, all of the Temple students headed over to the convention center to finish our registration. Just from registration alone, I can tell how huge this event is! Everyone loves the spray hand sanitizer ... the way to reel in students is definitely with freebies!

After registration, we walked around the Gas Lamp district and went shopping. A few of us went to a bar called Whiskey Girls for lunch, then our adventure began! We found a guy who told us how to get to Pacific Beach and he put us on a trolley. One of the girls with us didn't realize you needed a ticket (in Philly, you pay once you are on the train) and almost got us a huge fine. We met a guy on the trolley who told us we should get on this one bus, so we jumped on there.

The buses in San Diego are FILLED with crazies! There was one 90 year old guy dressed up like a sailor with a a pirate eye patch, a guy looking at some ... questionable ... material in public, and another who followed us off the bus and down the street! About 45 minutes later we FINALLY made it to the beach, just to have to turn around and go back to get ready for the opening reception.

The reception was AMAZING! It was so neat to see all the cirque dancers, and the food and drinks were exquisite. I met so many people from all over the country, and the world! My friend Erica and I met some guys from Argentina, Brazil and Italy so it was nice to speak some Italian and Spanish with them.

After talking with them, I am definitely moving to one of the aforementioned countries! An open bar definitely brings out the best in the higher ups. Some of the stories they told me were hilarious! We were invited to so many parties, it was hard to make it to them all, so sorry if we met and I didn't make it out to your event!

After the reception, we followed the masses over to the AIG Dessert Party, where my life became complete. Mini cheesecake ... fondue ... tarts ... ice cream cones. I was in heaven! While indulging my sweet tooth, I mingled with people from many different companies. I don't know if anyone saw, but I kicked butt in the batting cages; I didn't miss a single pitch! We also met and danced with the Friar, and mingled with everyone.

I was very excited to meet Peter Ambler from Towers Perrin Claytons in London. I accepted at Towers for the summer and he told me many great things! I also met David Fuhrman from Willis, who invited us to his party tonight. Willis does a lot of recruiting from Temple University, but not on the West Coast, so we are trying to change that. This may be a shameless plug, but Temple University has one of the premier programs in the country. We have more than 450 students majoring in Risk Management, Actuarial Science and Healthcare Management. Last summer, we had over 160 interns all over the country. If any of you out there are looking for summer interns and want the cream of the crop, you should definitely contact me at CBalerno@gmail.com, or our faculty advisor R.B. Drennan at RBDrennan@aol.com.

But enough of that! We left the AIG party for a bit to go to the SMARTDRIVE party on the roof deck bar of the Marriott. It was quite a sight: there was a giant fire pit and amazing views of the whole city! I met many more people there, and hopefully SMARTDRIVE will be hiring some of our interns.

All of the guests decided I was the most social actuary and made quite a few jokes about how us actuaries are all nerds. Not true! I like math, I'm an actuary, and I am fun!

We went back to the AIG party to round up more of our troops, and ended up rediscovering the fondue room. Who can say no to free flowing fruit and chocolate! Once the party started closing up shop, we went to a bar down the road that was giving salsa lessons and had a few cocktails and a few dances.

Overall, it was an amazing night. I met so many incredible people from all different walks of life. Thank you to the fine people from the following companies for sharing your stories with me:
Towers Perrin, BDO Consulting, Consentium Search, Advisen, Aon Global, SMARTDRIVE, Scania, Adara, Pirelli, Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis, Willis, AIG, Marsh and any others I may have left out.

Today, I am going to head over the the convention center and attend some sessions. I will probably go to the awards luncheon as well.

At 4:00, we are going to the Miller party at Hotel Solamar Around 5:30 I am going to the Willis party at PETCO Park From there, the night is pretty open. I will probably find out the dirt from this blog, or from people I meet at the parties!

I will be able to access my email for a bit longer, so e-mail tips to CBalerno@gmail.com!

Hopefully I will have time to write before leaving for the parties, otherwise I will write late tonight or early tomorrow morning.

See you around!