Throwback Thursday: Biba’s City conference and Sweetmail
Insurance Post’s Throwback Thursday steps back in time to January 1985 to remind you what was going on this week in insurance history when the British Insurance Brokers’ Association Conference was a far smaller affair and Sweetmail cover was on offer.
31 January 1985: Biba’s City conference
The Brewery in Chiswell Street, London, was announced as the venue for the British Insurance Brokers’ Association’s exhibition and national conference.
Post reported the exhibition would take the form of a “shell scheme of 19 stands and several poster display sites” attended by around 600 people with “it is hoped” Norman Tebbit, secretary of state for trade and industry delivering a keynote speech.
Biba has clearly come a long way and #BIBA2025 in Manchester on 14 and 15 May 2025 will be considerably bigger than Biba 1985 was.
Sweetmail and fanatics offer
Lloyd’s broker Bain Dawes produced cover for “sweetmail”, blackmail where there is no extortion, but an organisation still suffers a financial loss.
The cover came as a result of “single issue fanatics” striking Mars, the Safeway supermarket chain, Christmas turkeys, Israeli oranges and water supplies in the US.
Whatever happened to single-issue fanatics?
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