London Calling: Graeme Trudgill on Biba 2010

For some reason things always get busy at Biba when our chief executive Eric Galbraith goes on holiday and this year is no different.

Preparation for this year’s Biba conference has been hampered by volcanic ash disruption, the arrival of the new electronic motor certificate legislation, members’ queries about a certain Irish insurer, the launch of the PI book revealing the facts about limitation of liability and… cats in trees!

The phone did not stop ringing as my attempt to write the preparation brief for Quentin Wilson (who is hosting the ‘Claims wars!’ motor session at the conference on Wednesday afternoon at about 4.10pm). I kept getting interrupted by confused journalists asking questions about ‘Acts of God’ and how surely a travel insurance policy was meant to cover this.

Detailed discussions about the definition of ‘weather’ followed and Biba’s Tokio Marine travel scheme confirmed they would cover all valid delay and cancellation claims for existing clients. You can visit Tokio Marine at the Biba conference on stand K2.

After a couple of late nights with Sky News, BBC and Radio 5 Live I realised that not only had I still not written anything for Quentin but I had not seen my children for three days. That really struck a chord when I arrived home one night to find my youngest daughter (age 4) with tears in her eyes and pointing upwards to the trees in our garden. “Daddy, my cats are stuck in the trees,” she said. I looked up to see all of my daughter’s ‘cuddlies’ high up in the branches of a tree in our garden, placed there by her older sister. I think I need to spend a bit more time at home!

Contemplating the surreal sight (see picture, right) I wondered whether the fire brigade rescued stuffed cats in trees and if my life insurance was up to date. I decided to do the fairest thing of all and send the guilty five-year-old up the tree to retrieve her younger sister’s cats!

Now, back to Quentin Wilson and the conference session.

This will prove to be one of the most controversial motor sessions we have ever had as we have a broker (Patrick Smith, Swinton) facing up to an accident management company (David Sandhu, Ai Claims Solutions) and an insurer (Phil Bird, Groupama), going head to head about claims control and income.

This is a not to be missed session. I hope you come along. We are hoping for lots of audience participation and I may need your questions in case I don’t get enough time to write any for Quentin!

This will be my 9th Biba conference and I look forward to seeing you all there (volcanoes permitting).

Graeme Trudgill is technical and corporate affairs executive at the British Insurance Brokers' Association (Biba).