On April 9-11, the 2008 IGP Seminar was held at the Marriott Hotel in Prague, the "city of a hundred spires", with its dazzling array of sites, magnificent cityscape with the 1,100-year-old Prague Castle, cobbled streets, ancient courtyards and the compact but charming medieval centre.

Close to 150 representatives from multinational corporations, international advisors and IGP Associate Insurers exchanged views on international employee benefits around the world.

The main part of the programme consisted of a wide choice of country panels, with the main focus on European countries. Sessions on India and Latin America were also offered.

In addition, we offered a variety of plenary sessions and special interest sessions, presented by several well-known speakers:

• Jozef De Mey, former Member of the Executive Committee of Fortis who has been active in the insurance industry for 40 years, looked back at how this sector has evolved and what he sees happening over the coming years.



• Fernand Grulms, CEO of Luxembourg for Finance, and Geoffrey Furlonger, Head of EU Practice, Aon Consulting Worldwide, discussed the topical issue of
  Pan-European Pensions. Rather than embedding new pension rules and regulations in the national structures of all the EU member states, the EU Council set out a general framework for the operation of pan-European pension schemes. Is the time right for the implementation of a pan-European pension scheme, and what are the real hurdles to be faced - these were some of the issues raised during this plenary session.



• The Special Interest Session on Employee Benefits Trends for IMEs focused on benefits trends and practical issues related to International Mobile Employees with regard to risk benefits, medical benefits and pensions issues.



• During the session on Captive Reinsurance, the attendees received information from two perspectives: a detailed explanation of the IGP captive reinsurance programme, including the advantages of covering your own risk and the implementation and management process; followed by testimony from Barry Perkins of HSBC Insurance, who discussed the development and use of the HSBC captive insurance company for their employee benefits.



• Victoria Gibbard, Regional Benefits Director at PepsiCo, shared her experiences implementing PepsiCo's policy on Corporate Benefit Guidelines - a strategy to have a more centralized employee benefits approach, combined with an increased awareness of pooling.

On Thursday evening, we concluded the celebrations of IGP's 40th birthday during a gala evening at the Convent of St. Agnes of Bohemia: a beautiful and exclusive venue for an elegant dinner followed by an exciting evening of casino-style entertainment.

The 2008 IGP Seminar provided a wealth of information on international employee benefits and an excellent forum for the exchange of experiences between HR experts, compensation & benefits specialists, risk managers and other industry professionals.

Testimonies from the attendees were once more overwhelmingly positive - the following are only a few extracts:

"Thank you for the organization of a great event. I really enjoyed it a lot. I learned a lot and gained insight through sessions and the exchange with different people during breaks, etc."

"Thank you very much for a wonderful event!"

"A very useful, enjoyable and well-run conference."

"Just wanted to thank all of you for the enjoyable couple of days in Prague, the high standard of the Country Panels and Special Interest Sessions and, most importantly, the flawless organization and hospitality!"

"Thank you very much for a great seminar at a great location in a great city. I really enjoyed the past days, have met so many interesting people - it was excellent."

"Just wanted to say "thanks" for the invitation to a great conference. The sessions were interesting, the location fabulous and the people were engaged throughout."