Gossip from the industry - Another euro headache

It has been another busy month following the insurance broking sector - an editors' dinner with Brit, a trip to Parliament, an interview with Adrian Colosso and of course the Biba conference right at the beginning (yes it ended on May 2). If you have been following our PB Week blog (go to profesisonalbroking.co.uk and sign up to the e-mail alerts on the left-hand column) you will have heard that Groupama's Scottish dancing party at Stirling Castle was king of Biba's parties; Overheard, however, remains true to its word - 'what happens at Biba, stays at Biba'!

Looking forward to the summer's sporting events, we asked the following pundits which team will lift the trophy in the European Championships:

Elliot Lane, CII's PR master, thinks Spain will triumph, as does RSA's PR guru Simon Kutner. Simon Cooter at Brit believes Czech Republic will lift the tile while Paul Samways of Kerry London says his "best guess is Portugal" and that it won't be England. If broking doesn't work out for you Paul then we are sure there is a career at Sky Sports waiting.

Towergate's Marc Don Francesco, basking in the glory of his World Cup prediction, unsurprisingly plumped for l'azzuri of Italy, with Mark Bishop of Allianz backing Croatia "but only because they are managed by Slaven Bilic, an ex-West Ham defender". Jamie Marchant of Groupama was especially cryptic in his answer: "Strategically, I suppose I have to say France but the romantic in me says Portugal." It was David Smith, head broker honcho at Zurich, who probably called it best of all: "What European Championships? It's now an irrelevance until next World Cup."