Penny black's insurance week

What have Towergate Underwriting chief Clive Nathan and the editor of Newswireless.net Guy Kewney, got in common? Well it turns out both have been left sitting in a reception somewhere whilst someone else was unwittingly grilled about a subject they knew little or nothing about. Mr Kewney was the journalist the BBC wanted to talk to about the Apple vs Apple court case in 2006 and ended up with Guy Goma, a graduate from the Congo who had turned up for an interview about a data support cleanser job he applied for. Well on a recent trip to RSA, Mr Nathan was left waiting in the reception when the person who came to collect him wrongly led a "Bernie Ecclestone" look-a-like upstairs to be grilled by the UK CEO Adrian Brown et al about the recent results. It turns out that the person who was seated in front of the RSA executives was in fact the photocopier repair man. Mr Nathan would not reveal what role the unsuspecting person had had in negotiating its recent terms or whether he has been given a job at Towergate.

Elsewhere, Penny was amused at the Institute of Insurance Brokers' annual parliamentary reception when its chief executive Barbara Bradshaw was greeted to the lectern with an almighty squawking from some seagulls outside the room.

Penny also enjoyed the tale of the RSA commercial bod who decided he needed a break, but on turning up at his resort in Portugal was greeted at dinner on the first day by his boss Paul Donaldson who was also there on vacation and on the second day by a party of Bluefin execs who had chosen the location for its annual conference.

And, finally, at the Swinton cocktail party, Penny was greeted by one motor insurance exec who in the same breath as moaning about the lack of profits in the market, offered a waiter £10 to get him a bottle of beer. He must have plucked the note from its reserves.

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