PB Week: It must have been BIBA
Walking around lost in Manchester looking for a wine bar where a broker is hosting a party in the middle of the day with a PR, two journalists and a broker, it must have been the BIBA conference, writes Andrew Tjaardstra, editor of PB .
Have you recovered yet? It certainly was a lively conference and there were more brokers than usual. Manchester had a real buzz, no doubt partly because of the proximity of the venue, Manchester Central, to the bars, hotel and city centre. Also, being in the middle of the country must help with the rail link between London and Manchester taking only two hours, although a surprisingly large number of delegates had chosen to fly.
The stands had their usual eclectic mix of attractive features, including, of course, large amounts of alcohol. Special mentions to CII's pool table with snooker champion Mark Selby; Fortis's juke box; and Broker Network which had turned their stand into a . . . pub.
On the Wednesday evening, Provident entertained a crowd of brokers and media in a tapas bar and before we knew it were all up on the dance floor performing some cocktail infused salsa; great fun. After eight meetings in a row on the Thursday, including one in a wine bar (the Bollington boys), and fighting off sleep depravation and a hangover (the evening had finished at three the previous morning with a whisky on the rocks) I managed to relax in the Radisson hotel with a glass of champagne courtesy of APC's Brian Russell, and then later at the Malmaison, this time with champagne provided by RSA's PR team. At this time I was thinking, we might be in Manchester but this BIBA has a familiar feel!
So congratulations to the BIBA team for a thoroughly enjoyable conference and we look forward to next year which is at the London Excel, in the Docklands and the venue of 2007's BIBA, and will take place over two days: the Wednesday and Thursday, on 19-20 May, as opposed to the usual three. Start booking your hotels now.
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