Hello, I'm John Kitson, and this is my blog.

The above video is a message from Aviva & Railway Children in response to our 1 Day charity campaign which took place throughout June – for more information, please visit www.aviva.co.uk/1day

As we enter the final stretch of our 1Day charity initiative, we’ve been staggered by the amazing effort our brokers have made throughout the month.

We’re almost there – nearing our target of £80k.

Don’t forget, as well as 1%* of every sale, you can make a difference to children’s lives by signing up for our Recognition Wall  in which we’ll donate £10 to Street to School on your behalf (hurry – just over 100 bricks left!). If you wish, you can also make a personal donation by Clicking here.

Brokers have given our new Aviva Broker site the big thumbs up (thanks for all your feedback!).  You tell us that it’s great to find everything you need in one place, from product information and the latest news to Fast Trade, our fab new quote-and-buy facility. You also say it’s easy to navigate and you like the improved referral process and being able to get copies of quotes and documents in just two clicks.

On Thursday 2nd April we launched Facility 110*; a new, complementary business-placing facility that’s exclusive to Club 110 members.

It’s great news because members can now look to Facility 110 to provide underwriting solutions for risks that fall outside of Aviva’s remit.

If you reckon you could beat John Kitson in a penalty shoot out and you fancy a new iPod touch as your latest super-gadget, remember to play Flick It; our celebratory finger footy game!

To celebrate the switch to Aviva, we launched a great new game of finger footy, with a fantastic iPod touch as the prize.

Ta-daaaa, www.aviva.co.uk/broker, your new website is here. Take a look around. As you’ll see, it’s all about you. Your needs as a broker, what makes your job easier and which navigation works best for you.

Over 200 years, any insurance company is bound to have a few bizarre claims to investigate. We dug into the archives and found some extraordinary claims.

Our newly erected Aviva Tunnel

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The BIBA conference in Manchester was a huge success. Just imagine – 1,400 brokers under one roof. Awesome.

The aisles were bursting at the seams. There were brokers, insurers and other interested parties all getting the low down on the main events of the year.

Famous Norwich Union employees. Some surprising colleagues from the archives…

Ever wondered what your regular Norwich Union contacts do outside work? It turns out we’ve got quite a record of celebrity employees.

Norwich Union’s star-studded customer list. Who’s keeping your customers company on our books?

I discovered a few illustrious policyholders as I dug around in our 200 years’ worth of archives – so your clients are in good company. Churchill was a little worried about getting hurt in the army, and Newton seems to have been very aware of the physics of fire…

Insurance has been around for a lot longer than your customers might think. I’ve gone back to the start of it all – and picked out a few choice nuggets from Norwich Union’s 212-year history on the way.