Patrick Smith: Just who said insurance was boring?

Just over a week to go before my second Biba conference as chairman and I’m looking forward to it with even greater pleasure than last year!

What never fails to amaze me are the levels of creativity shown on the stand designs; although insurance is an intangible, and some would suggest, a fairly mundane subject, a visitor from space (or the EU!) dropping in on the exhibition hall next week would be excited and very impressed by the scale and ambition on show.

Going round the exhibition makes me proud, both of BIba and of all the participants who put on such a fabulous show. As one of the judges of the best stand awards and someone who will be presenting the prizes to the winning exhibitors, I’ll be looking out for the unusual and the dramatic. I fully expect to have a few very difficult decisions to make!

I'm always impressed by the striking innovation all around. Inspiration can strike anywhere – in the hall, during the keynotes, in one of the seminars or even during the social functions. The best way to approach a Biba conference (I’ve discovered over many years) is to get as much sleep as possible the week before, don’t eat too much and expect the unexpected!

One thing I will be promoting as I wander around the hall meeting brokers will be the need to work together to achieve the best with the Biba team. The recent exercise lobbying the Treasury on the FSCS confirms what we all suspected – Westminster only takes notice if there is pressure from industry and from MP’s constituents.

So if you’re one of those intermediaries who come along to the insurance industry’s largest event but aren’t members of Biba, what are you waiting for? We can only make things happen for your benefit if you join up and join in!

Finally, two housekeeping points the team want me to make – don’t forget to take advantage of the Biba App for BlackBerry and iPhone users. You will be able to sign up at the show but it would be better to do so beforehand.

And keep looking out for ‘smileys’ – there’s a prize of an iPhone 5 going to the best entrant and so far the competition isn’t fierce! All you have to do is find (okay, create) a smiley – preferably one we haven’t created already, photograph it and send it in. How difficult can that be?!

Patrick Smith is chairman of Biba.