ICAP Charity Day

My good friend, model, finance broker and super wife/mom Mikaela Lagdameo-Martinez invited me to attend this year’s ICAP Charity Day. I was more than happy to be a part of it, especially since all of ICAP’s profit (worldwide) for that day was to go to charity. If you’re not into finance (like me) then that doesn’t sound very impressive. But let me tell you, what ICAP earns in a day amounts to millions of US dollars/British pounds!

This is how it works: ICAP invites celebrities to answer calls and make deals worth millions, and all the earnings for that day go to charity. This year, ICAP Philippines chose LINK Center for the Deaf and SAGIP to be their beneficiaries.

Of course, I answered calls not really knowing what was going on. ICAP’s brokers were there to coach me on what to say, but it was all meaningless phrase words (“mine”, “yours”, etc.) and mainly, a repetition of numbers. As I found out, transactions were done in seconds and if you were a finance broker you had to talk very fast and be very sharp. I simply followed their instructions and repeated what they said, and to my amazement they told me I struck deals worth 10 million or more!

Overall, I had a great amount of fun. I spoke to investment bankers and thanked them for supporting Charity Day. They were cool too, but obviously didn’t have time for chit-chat. Every second counted here, and it was still business as usual for the rest of the world. Nevertheless, I was thrilled to be part of this event, especially after finding out ICAP was able to raise 11 million British pounds worldwide! I’m glad I was able to help raise a couple of millions of pesos just by answering calls.

Balloons made the ICAP office look bright and festive.

Glad I was able to be part of ICAP’s 20th year of Charity Day.

Brokers doing their thing. These t-shirts are also part of Charity Day (they don’t really dress like that lol).

I cant even imagine how US$100 million looks/feels like. ICAP was able to raise this much for charity. Galing!

What was in front of me: a telephone, microphone and keyboard, all linked to the finance database/communication system.

A few years back, Prince Harry participated in ICAP’s Charity Day. I know Kate Middleton was supposed to be part of this year’s event, but was hospitalized due to severe morning sickness.