The newly promoted RSA director applauds the networking frenzy that was Biba 2011

In the past, Biba has been a great event and 2011 didn’t fail to deliver on expectations.

The atmosphere this year was particularly notable. With much of the UK general insurance industry flocking to Manchester, filling the local hotels and bars, it felt like the whole city had been temporarily overrun by insurers.

As always, Biba 2011 was great for networking, with plenty of meetings, interaction and catching up taking place. In the days since, the people I have spoken to continue to comment on how useful and insightful the conversations were.

It was also a special Biba for me as it was my last as RSA's commercial managing director in the UK. But I’ll be taking forward many of the messages and conversations that took place into my new role.

The conference was also a great opportunity for me to reiterate RSA’s message that we value our relationships with brokers and that without them we wouldn’t be the business we are today.

Finally, it was a pleasure to hear that Manchester will once again be overrun by the insurance industry next year, as the Biba conference will be held there again in 2012.

Hope it was as good for you as it was for me.

Paul Donaldson is group broker relationship and sales director at RSA.