Having travelled in the last week or so to Manchester, the East Midlands and Birmingham on separate occasions it is a rarity to report that train travel in the UK is for once improving writes Andrew Tjaardstra, editor of PB.

I chaired a joint BIBA/CII event in Manchester last Wednesday where a passionate Chris Hanks, head of Allianz Commercial and new deputy president of the CII, called for more cross-industry collaboration on professionalism, imarket, graduate budgets, in fact just about everything. He also attacked insurers who were constantly restructuring saying this was a result of management failure, and that there had been too much pain and heartache in the industry, and not enough long term strategy. He added that climate change was the largest industry issue and that he was trying to work out the risks of insuring homes in southern England in forty years, for example.

Alasdair Stewart, head of business development, general insurance, at the CII, spoke at the event, but had a dilemma of how to travel. Trying to save money with the purchase of a standard class ticket for one of the new Pendilino trains that have made travel that much faster, he promptly upgraded his ticket after seeing Towergate's Amanda Blanc and Bluefin's Stuart Reid duck into first class. Money well spent Alasdair.

Talking of Towergate, Peter Cullum spoke at his very own conference yesterday and still seemed to be taking in the fact that his software house Open GI has £6bn of premium transacted through it each year. After repeating £6bn several times, it was easy to see the ambition of the man. He also said that given the current economic climate, he emphasised the importance of evolving your business and that technology was very much at the heart of the future of SME business.

In a roundtable in Birmingham last week in the run up to the PB Management Event on the 15 October, it was clear the area has been hit extremely hard by the recession. To find out more, look out for the October edition of the magazine.

13^th edition

In the interim, will hopefully have seen our special 13^th edition of the magazine sponsored by Aviva, if you have any comments or would like to enter the competition (on p.50 of the magazine) please e-mail pbeditorial@incisivemedia.com

Comment

If you would like to comment on this blog please post below or e-mail pbeditorial@incisivemedia.com

There has been much written recently in the media about the media, a subject close to all journalists heart, and an area which has undergone a dramatic transformation in the last few years in the way content is delivered writes Andrew Tjaardstra, editor of Professional Broking.

I have been fond of buying and reading national newspapers such as The Times and The Independent for years, and also have an Evening Standard card which allows me to pick up the paper for five pence as opposed to the 50p cover price. The last five years has seen a contradictory approach from publishers as the cover price of newspapers has risen steeply - you get little change from a £1 to buy one of the 'broadsheets' and yet at the same time publishers are giving content away for free on the internet. It is strange how newspapers embraced this approach so readily, but clearly they thought that advertising revenues would grow exponentially in this area. Instead, readers are still unlikely to spend as much time looking around a newspaper's website than if they had a hard copy in their hands. If newspapers feel they are worth £1 in the shop, why did they begin to start giving the content away for free?

Rupert Murdoch has decided this must stop but it seems a little too late to reverse such an important decision. Meanwhile, his son James Murdoch has identified the BBC's free news service as a threat to independent journalism.  Somehow newspapers are going to have to address the balance between what they charge for in the shops and what they charge online - and make sure they have more sustainable business models, but £1 is surely the limit people are willing to spend on a daily newspaper, and for many it is already way too much.

Another PB  

The September issue of PB should have hit your desks and we have been working on a special edition of the magazine with Aviva which will be ready next week. We hope you enjoy it and would appreciate your feedback.

Comment

If you would like to comment on this blog please post below or e-mail pbeditorial@incisivemedia.com   

Although it was press week, my week was dominated by my brother's wedding in Austria, a fantastic occasion in a lakeside town called Gmunden writes Andrew Tjaardstra, editor, Professional Broking.

Apart from the beautiful bride, the centre-piece of the Thursday to Monday bash was in a castle on the lake and the festivities included the release of doves, log sawing (Austrian tradition for the bride and groom), yodelling - on a mountain of course, and much swimming in the lake. There was much discussion about the differences between Austrian and German beer, why underwear in Gmunden is so expensive (10 euros for a pair of pants) after yours truly forgot some essentials and whether we should import to the UK a karaoke bar where literally the whole pub or bar can join in as the lyrics are displayed on a big screen (or perhaps there is one already?).

One of the most spectacular moments was walking across the castle's bridge and seeing the 5am Austrian night sky.

Back in the office

PB's new reporter Emmanuel Kenning (Emmanuel.Kenning@incisivemedia.com) has hit the ground running and has already written some interesting articles in the September edition of PB including a technology piece on PDAs and the latest Broking Success. The issue is now available online and should be hitting your desks soon.

And we've been working hard on a special edition of the magazine that is set to be ready for the middle of September and is being produced in conjunction with Aviva.

Training

There is still the chance to join up to the PB Leadership Training for Broker Managers in conjunction with Marlborough Training and which starts on 16 September. For more details e-mail brokerleaders@mtc.tc

Comment

If you would like comment on this blog please post below or e-mail pbeditorial@incisivemedia.com