Monday, May 3, 2010

A Reason to Shop

Until about a week ago, I knew virtually nothing about the insurance industry...in fact, I still know very little. But last week, I attended an industry banquet as the wife of a vice-president of an insurance underwriting firm.

I dressed up a little and, despite being horrible with hair styling (see this post! ), I even made a stab at doing something a little different with my usually-straight locks!  Lest I again be accused (Sheldon!) of never including a photo of myself in my blog, here's a shot of me late that evening - post all of the festivities, looking a little greasy, and already in my jammies...but with some wave to my hair!!


It was a nice enough event, though a few times I couldn't help but think that the insurance industry (or at least the host association) is fairly, well, confident.  For example, when we all sat down for dinner, an announcement was made that the executive team of the association was about to enter the banquet hall.  Everyone in the room stood again (and clapped) while the elite walked amongst the tables to the front of the room; they were led by a flag-bearing olympic athlete (who looked like she didn't quite understand why she was heading up a parade of insurance brokers...neither did I), and accompanied by the "I Believe" olympic theme song.  Really???

There were a few examples of this kind of organizational self-confidence.  Good for them, I suppose.  Despite the 'show,' I'm glad we went, not only because singer-songwriter Sierra Noble sang and played for us (and she was terrific!), but mostly because it gave me a chance to meet a few of the folks that Geoff now works with in his new role, and they seem like genuine and lovely people.  I have this feeling that, now that Geoff is part of the insurance industry, we've going to be attending these types of shindigs on a somewhat regular basis.  Hmm, I guess the advantage of this is that I'll positively have to purchase some new, dressier clothes...I can't possibly keep wearing the dress I wore last night, can I??

3 comments:

  1. My sense of insurance brokers is that they have a tendency to flirt with the rah-rah, think positive, law of attraction kind of thinking, similar to selling real estate and other sales jobs where success is linked to the sellers mental state. So the pomp and circumstance would resonate with the attendees. But having never been in insurance, that's only my take from the sidelines so I could be way off base.

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  2. I think that if you are anything like most of the moms I know, you probably don't own much that qualifies as semi-formal so some shopping will be in order for sure. The rah-rah parts sounds like some of the mortgage broker events I used to attend with Mark. He isn't big on them and stopped attending...not his scene but I kind of liked going because of the food.


    P.S. the hair looks pretty and it's nice to see pictures of you more regularly!

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  3. Great picture Ruth
    What a smile to start my week with
    the hair looks great ! ( maybe you can do more with girls hair than you first thought )
    Here's to a good week.
    Shannon
    ps hope your toes are feeling a bit better.

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