by Erika Guarino

Pru Life UK President and Chief Executive Officer Peter Grimes sure knows how to take care of the “stars” of the Company.

Dubbed as the “chief architect” of the recently concluded International Sales Convention (formerly known as Star Club International Convention), he recounts some of the highlights of their London trip and shares his thoughts on the way things turned out—volcanic ash fall and all.

On giving the qualifiers a more-than-the-average- tourist experience of London: “Some of the places we went to for food were somewhat off the beaten track and really, you wouldn’t find yourself in those kinds of places if you were just on a normal delegation or even if you were there as an individual on holiday. And knowing how Filipinos like their food, that was a good thing because we had pretty diverse meals in different types of places. Certainly, the feedback that we got from the majority of people was that the effort we went to in trying to find these slightly more unusual things to do, places to go, restaurants to eat in, and so on and so forth, was really appreciated.

On meeting the Chairman of Prudential plc: “Having the opportunity to spend the best part of an hour with Harvey (McGrath) was great...he said some very nice words about the success of our business and the Star Club [International Sales Convention] delegates. And then obviously we had the opportunity of having afternoon tea with him and plenty of photo opportunities for all of the guys as well. I think that was a real highlight for everyone.”

On the volcanic eruption: “Over the first 24 to 48 hours, my view was (that) it wasn’t going to really affect us. I thought it would blow over in a couple of days and everything would be fine by the time all of us were actually going to get a return flight. One of the main challenges really was making sure that everybody felt that the situation was always under control, which it was!” On being stranded: “Looking back with hindsight now, I guess a lot of people think it was kind of an adventure now. I guess the worst that happened was that everybody had a few extra days in London that they did not expect. And, as I pointed many times, there are worse places in the world that you could be stuck in than London. It’s one of the most interesting cities. We did a little more work, and (we had the) opportunity to have some discussions and meetings that we didn’t exactly plan. We had an opportunity to see extra sights that weren’t part of the original itinerary and with London being very famous for its theater, a lot of the delegates and one or two of the staff took the opportunity to see plenty of shows…So out of adversity, good things often happen and by the following weekend, everyone was home safe so all’s well that end’s well.“

On visiting the city of Bath and relieving fond memories: “I thoroughly enjoyed our day out in Bath. Bath is a beautiful city. It was an absolutely gorgeous, almost summer’s day, blue skies and warm. It’s a city that I’d lived and worked in previously and so you know I was able to kind of share some personal memories with the guys about places where I’d lived and worked in the past. And we actually stood outside a building where I once stayed. I think the current occupiers were probably a bit fed up with 70 people standing in front of their doorstep taking photographs but you know, just some personal touches like that was great.”

On riding the London Eye: “I’m not particularly good with heights so at the top of this thing, I was feeling a little bit uncomfortable. But that was great fun and thoroughly enjoyable.”

On prospects for the future of the International Sales Convention: “The feedback that we got was very, very positive. We want to reward qualifiers with a high-quality, luxury, star-like experience but we want to try to take them to places as well that are little different and that aren’t just the five places that tour companies or travel agents take everybody to…I am hoping that we will see a significant growth in the number of Star Club [International Sales Convention] attendees.”

On Helsinki: “My message to the Star Club [International Sales Convention] delegates that were on the trip in London is don’t miss Helsinki because we just plan to continue to try to make it an even more memorable experience.”