The two BIBA social events are always a popular component of the conference experience. Both nights are very different but both are great fun and excellent value for money.

Wednesday May 19.

Bowling Evening

On Wednesday, and open to all delegates and exhibitors, we will be taking over All Star Lanes Bowling in Brick Lane for a night of friendly competition, with good food and wine and some musical entertainment.  But forget your pre-conceptions of bowling venues – All Star offer top quality lanes, a night club atmosphere. They call it ‘Boutique Bowling’!

Tickets: £55 plus VAT. Available from the conference website, or from Lindsay Campbell on 020 7397 0221

Thursday May 20.

Gala Dinner

The Gala Dinner, sponsored by AXA, will be on the Thursday night, at ExCeL. This black tie event is a great way to round off the conference, with excellent food, plenty of wine and some great entertainment. This year we will be entertained by comedy newcomer, Jack Whitehall.

At just twenty-one years old, Jack Whitehall has made a remarkable impact upon the comedy world. In August 2009, he was nominated for the Best Newcomer Award at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards for his debut solo Fringe show, Jack Whitehall: Nearly Rebellious. The show received rave reviews and completely sold out, with an extra date added due to public demand.

With a host of competition titles and an array of live appearances under his belt, this so-called ‘newcomer’ recently co-write and hosted TNT Show on Channel 4. He also hosted Celebrity Big Brother’s Big Mouth for its three week run live on E4 and other recent television appearances include You Have Been Watching, 8 Out of 10 Cats, Would I lie to you? and Mock The Week.

To complete the line-up we’re in for a real treat, courtesy of Trevor Chance’s Legends, Since 1990, Chance Promotions have been world leaders in the tribute industry, creating the UK’s first ever live show featuring a full production, with top class artists emulating the biggest stars in the history of popular music.

Since Legends began, Chance Promotions have only ever featured the very best look/soundalikes in the world, flying a Michael Jackson and Madonna from the USA to Dubai for a one night appearance, and a Shirley Bassey to play for Royalty.

Legends has toured the UK many times, New Zealand twice, played Barcelona, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, The Seychelles, Ireland, Dubai… the list goes on.

Tickets: £85 plus VAT. Available from the conference website, or from Lindsay Campbell on 020 7397 0221.

For more information on BIBA 2010 click here

At least two further sessions will be available to all visitors to BIBA 2010, including Exhibition Only visitors. Details are available on the conference website, but at the time of writing both Fortis and Allianz had announced plans.

Allianz welcomes Sir Steve Redgrave

Allianz’s special guest at BIBA 2010 is the greatest Olympian of all time, Sir Steve Redgrave. Sir Steve will be on our stand on Wednesday 19th May and will also be involved in the Fringe Session that we are hosting where, accompanied by Allianz senior management, he will take part in a Q&A session for delegates and exhibition visitors around the theme of professionalism.

Fortis’ magic formula for commercial success. Discover the secrets to keeping your customers spell bound…

Fortis is committed to the commercial lines sector and is seeking to replicate its personal lines success and service excellence. It is imperative that we stay in touch with you to deliver the same levels of service that you have come to expect from us.

We’ve conjured up an informal networking session with drinks and canapés as we unveil how we can help you to address your commercial customer needs.

Find out how our commercial proposition is evolving with the addition of exciting new products including Fleet Guard and enhanced eTrading, making it easier and more efficient for you to do business.

All brokers who attend the Fortis fringe session will be entered into a free prize draw. The broker drawn out of the hat at end of the session will walk away with an enchanting weekend stay at a magical castle.

Bookings can be made from the conference web site accessed via www.biba.org.uk . Click on the BIBA 2010 conference logo and go to the Delegate part of the site.

Last year in Manchester a number of celebrities could be seen enjoying the BIBA hospitality – we noticed Jeremy Guscott, Victoria Pendleton and Mark Selby.

This year promises to be just as interesting – at the time of writing we had heard that Steve Davis, the snooker legend, would be taking on all comers at the CII stand, Sir Steve Redgrave will be on the Allianz stand on Wednesday, and Ab Fabs ‘Patsy’ will be seen at the Markel stand. On the QBE stand they’ll be having guests from the one of the two teams in the Guinness Rugby Premiership finals, So if you’re a fan of the oval ball don’t miss stand E16!

On the Rok stand () they’ll be featuring demonstrations from the Rok handyman, giving their top ten tips on avoiding household maintenance problems. The handyman will be around between 3pm and 4pm on Wednesday and between 11am and 12am on Thursday.

On the Harris Balcombe stand, David Lewis, the TV caricaturist will be on hand to record a special conference memento for you. David, who has been at the last 14 BIBA conferences, is happy for anyone to bring pictures of their children or animals if they want them incorporated in a sketch. To avoid disappointment, make an appointment before the show, by emailing Nick Balcombe on nick.balcombe@hariisbalcombe.com

For more information on BIBA 2010 click here

This year’s seminars have once again been selected by BIBA for their topicality and relevance to the broker market. The two sessions of three concurrent seminars allows us to balance the programme between technical insurance subjects, web based content and general interest.

More details on the CII’s Professionalism debate

The make up of this session, which will be on Thursday May 20 at 10.30, has now been finalised and we can announce a very strong line up of industry leaders will be on the panel. Anthony Gould, Editor in Chief of Post Magazine will chair the session and the panel will comprise:

Chris Hanks, General Manager, Allianz Commercial

Julian James, Chief Executive Officer, Lockton International

Stuart Reid, Chief Executive, Bluefin

David Slade, Chairman, Perkins Slade

The panel will consider the problems and opportunities posed by the low entry requirements for practitioners coupled with the growing need to demonstrate professional standards and ethics. With professional qualifications helping to evidence a broker’s capability, is Chartered Status the ultimate statement of a commitment to professionalism?

Wednesday’s insurance subjects

Stream 1 on Wednesday will be a must attend event for all brokers interested in motor claims. Claims Wars!, chaired by Motoring Journalist, Quentin Willson, will pit a broker, an insurer and an accident management representative on the same panel to discuss the latest issues in motor claims. Patrick Smith, Chairman of BIBA, will represent the brokers, Philip Bird, Director of Claims, Groupama, will represent the insurers and David Sandhu, CEO, Ai Claims Solutions will be representing the accident management companies. Don’t miss this one! 16.10 on Wednesday May 20.

Stream 3 on Wednesday features a case history based session on disaster recovery, presented by Cunningham Lindsey’s Jonathan Clark and Harry Roberts. Jonathan and harry will be asking two questions – What solutions are out there to minimise the impact of any disaster? And what can we do to influence the outcome?

 For more information on BIBA 2010 click here

The British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) has announced its business focused seminar programme for its 2010 conference and exhibition to be held on May 19 & 20.

The six sessions, which all BIBA members can attend free of charge, include a debate on motor claims chaired by Journalist Quentin Willson, the launch of a government initiative to help brokers get online, the use of social networking sites as an online marketing tool, a session on business recovery and resilience, a CII session on professionalism and a presentation on working under pressure from an ex-army bomb disposal expert.

BIBA Chief Executive, Eric Galbraith, said: “I am really pleased to announce such a strong line up of seminar sessions.  The sessions are all focused to provide brokers with business knowledge and support that they can take back to their office.  With free entry for BIBA brokers to the conference, I’m looking forward to welcoming many members to Excel in May.”

The seminar programme follows the earlier announcement that the keynote speakers for this year’s BIBA conference have been confirmed as Joe Plumeri, Chairman & CEO of Willis, the BBC’s World Affairs Editor, John Simpson and the much loved actress Joanna Lumley.

There will also be a keynote debate on the Thursday, chaired by Jonathan Dimbleby which will include, Robert Brown, CEO, Aon; Peter Cullum, Executive Chairman, Towergate, Phillip Hodson, CEO, Oval Group; Sandy Scott, CEO, CII and Richard Ward, CEO, Lloyd’s.

This year’s conference and exhibition, held over two full days at ExCeL London on May 19 & 20, will feature four keynote sessions for the first time.

The BIBA conference & exhibition is free to all BIBA members. Other brokers or intermediaries may attend the exhibition for free. Upgrades to a full conference ticket are available.

Registration will be open shortly. To book a place log on to http://www.biba.org.uk/ and click on the conference icon.

-ends-

Notes to editors

1. For further information please contact :

BIBA press office:
Leighann Burtrand, Communications Manager
020 7397 0223
burtrandl@biba.org.uk

2. About British Insurance Brokers’ Association

The British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) is the UK’s leading general insurance organisation representing the interests of insurance brokers, intermediaries and their customers.

BIBA membership includes 1700 regulated firms. Insurance brokers and intermediaries distribute nearly two-thirds of all UK general insurance. In 2008, insurance brokers and intermediaries generated £1.5 billion of invisible earnings and they introduce £22 billion of premium income into London’s insurance market each year.

BIBA is the voice of the industry, advising members, the regulators, the Government, consumer bodies and other stakeholders on key insurance issues.  BIBA provides unique schemes and facilities, technical advice, guidance on regulation and business support and is helping to raise, and maintain, industry standards. BIBA works closely with the Chartered Insurance Institute to provide training to those working in the industry and actively participates in helping the industry and its customers deal with some of the major issues of the day.

BIBA members provide professional advice to businesses and consumers, playing a key role in identification, measurement, management, control and transfer of risk.  They negotiate appropriate insurance protection tailored to individual needs and operate to a very high standard of customer service with the aim of ensuring peace of mind, security, financial protection and the professional advice required.

To find your nearest BIBA broker visit the ‘Find A Broker’ section of the BIBA website, www.biba.org.uk or call BIBA’s consumer helpline on 0870 950 1790

The Keynote speakers for this year’s BIBA conference have been confirmed as Joe Plumeri, Chairman & CEO of Willis, the BBC’s World Affairs Editor, John Simpson and the much loved actress Joanna Lumley. Recently voted by The Times newspaper as the ‘Briton of the Year 2009’, Joanna Lumley has received praise and respect for her success in defending the interests of the Gurkha soldiers who have fought for Britain.

This year’s conference and exhibition, held over two full days at ExCeL London on May 19 & 20, will feature four keynote sessions for the first time.  Joe Plumeri and John Simpson will speak on Wednesday, and on Thursday morning there will be a top-level debate about the challenges facing the industry in the new decade. Chaired by Jonathan Dimbleby, the panel will comprise Robert Brown, CEO Aon, Peter Cullum, Executive Chairman Towergate Partnership, Phillip Hodson, CEO Oval, Sandy Scott, Director General CII and Richard Ward, CEO Lloyd’s, with Joanna Lumley closing the conference.
BIBA Chief Executive, Eric Galbraith, said: “I am absolutely delighted to be able to announce such an interesting line up of top-level speakers. Despite these difficult economic times, BIBA and its sponsors are continuing to invest in the premier insurance event of the year, showcasing the value general insurance brings to the UK economy.
“The exhibition continues to be fully supported and the conference programme will be first class, offering a wide range of seminar subjects. With free entry for brokers, there’s something for everyone!”
Registration will be open from the middle of February. To book a place log on to www.biba.org.uk and click on the conference icon.
The BIBA conference & exhibition is free to all BIBA members. Other brokers or intermediaries may attend the exhibition for free. Upgrades to a full conference ticket are available.
-ends-

Notes to editors

1. For further information please contact :

BIBA press office:
Leighann Burtrand, Communications Manager
020 7397 0223
burtrandl@biba.org.uk