Bermuda’s burgeoning insurance market is at the heart of a global industry that helps to underpin the world economy.

It is one cog in a huge machine that incorporates companies in numerous cities around the world, from brokers and catastrophe modellers to ratings agencies and insurers.

Young people working in the industry need to have a global outlook and an appreciation of those who operate overseas with the Bermuda market to make the world’s insurance industry function effectively.

That is the view of Neil Hitchcock, chairman of the Bermuda Under 35s Insurance and Reinsurance Group, which is organising a trip to London next month for a party of young professionals.

The Group was founded in May 2004 and was designed along the lines of the London Under-35s group, which has been organising educational, as well as social activities for more than 30 years.

“Last year, we wnt on our first tour, to Boston, Chicago and New York,” Mr. Hitchcock, who works for the brokers Swift Intermediaries in Bermuda.

“It was a chance to see what happens at AIG in New York or at the ratings agency A.M. Best in Chicago. It helps you see where Bermuda fits in.

“The companies we visited were very receptive and put on presentations for us and let us have a good look around their offices.”

Eight delegates toured last year, as the Under-35s visited AIR, Liberty Mutual, Sedgwick Detert Moran and Arnold, PWC, Gallagher Bassett, AIG, A.M. Best and XL Insurance.

Mr. Hitchcock hoped the numbers would increase for future tours.

“Companies in Bermuda were probably reluctant to allow staff members to go off on tour, because the Group is not yet established,” he said. “But there is real value in it, particularly for younger staff who don’t travel in their work, to see what goes on in the industry outside Bermuda.”

The Under-35s are planning a London tour for May 20 to 27, which will entail a visit to Lloyd’s and other centres of the industry, as well as meeting up with the London Under-35s.

Lloyd’s still does many transactions on paper, meaning that thousands of hard copies of documents are carried around the building in the course of a typical day, while similar deals have long been done electronically elsewhere.

“We would like to be able to sit in a box at Lloyd’s for a half a day to see how it all happens there,” he said. “It’s certainly a different way of working and it will be good to see it first hand.

“For many young people working in the industry in Bermuda, the chance to see a day in the life of a London underwriter is a chance they might not otherwise get.”

The Group tries to keep its expenses down to a minimum and is hoping for more support from companies, so they can raise the number travelling to around 15.

The ten-person committee which runs the Bermuda Under 35s also organise workshops, sporting events, informal lectures and social get-togethers. They stress that while the primary focus is on those in their 20s and 30s, all members of the insurance, reinsurance and related industries are welcomed to social events.

The first of the Under-35s’ regular, informal socials will be held upstairs at Splash on Thursday, April 5, from 5.30 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.