The impact of the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the continued softening of the insurance market will be among some of the hot topics on delegates' lips at the 2008 RIMS (Risk and Insurance Management Society Inc.) conference held in San Diego this week.

That is the view of Tony Bibbings, managing director of brokerage firm Beecher Carlson (Bermuda), who also reckons the effect of Brian Duperreault's appointment as CEO at Marsh and the latest US tax laws will be debated by risk managers at the conference.

But he believes the sub-prime crisis will be at the forefront of most people's minds, with many still hoping that they have turned the corner.

"The numbers are so big already that I would be surprised if there is a large number of reserves yet to be taken," Mr. Bibbings said. "But if the country enters a recession, then, yes, there will be more to be seen.

"It is beyond the sub-prime stuff and I do not know why they did not see it coming — there are going to be a lot of directors' and officers' claims coming out of the sub-prime crisis with people losing money on the stock markets and financial institutions have been hit quite hard."

Mr. Bibbings reckons the best thing about RIMS is the chance to meet a wide range of people from across the world all in the same place.

"On a typical business trip I would see 20 brokerage operations in three to four countries all together, but at RIMS I can visit three to four people in the same place," he said.

"Beecher Carlson (Bermuda) has got a lot of US clients, and we have got clients from Japan as well, and we can see them at the same time. You can also see people you have not seen before.

"I will be on Bermuda booth duty in the Bermuda show and Beecher Carlson (Bermuda) booth duty and I will see as many clients as I can."

His main focus will be on doing business and developing relations with Beecher Carlson's US clients at the conference.

"Beecher Carlson has, for the last two years running, been the largest growing brokerage operation in the US, and we have got a lot of new clients that we have never met, so this is a great opportunity to get together and meet them," said Mr. Bibbings.

From a Bermuda perspective, Mr. Bibbings believes it is important for the Island to use the event as a platform to promote itself on the world stage.

"Bermuda has grown so much in the last few years, so I think brand identity is very important, so we have spent quite a lot of money on the advertising and brand image," he said.

"I, for one, will be walking around in a pair of Bermuda shorts in San Diego, which is very distinctive, and many people that attend the conference would know that you belong is the Bermuda contingent if you do that."

And, in the year of the US presidential election, Mr. Bibbings sees Barack Obama's plans to shut down tax havens as one of the key talking points among attendees at the conference this year.

The location of the 2008 RIMS conference in San Diego was also particularly relevant considering last year's California wildfires, but the decision was taken some time ago according to Mr. Bibbings.

"The local RIMS chapters have a big influence on where it is held," he said. "It has been held in New Orleans, San Diego and even Hawaii in the past. You need a place that can accommodate thousands of hotel rooms during that week, and San Diego is quite a good location for the west."

Mr. Bibbings, who has only missed one RIMS conference since 1994, believes it combines all of the aspects of risk management from insurance, banking and accountancy, to specialists such as catastrophe modelling organisations like RMS, and even the use of practical items, such as non-slip shoes.

Mr. Bibbings, who hails from Canada and is a Chartered Accountant, moved to Bermuda in 1987 to work in captive management and underwriting with Aon, Scandinavian Re and Swiss Re among others for more than 10 years, before relocating to Atlanta for a year-and-a-half, and then returning to the Island to work for Beecher Carlson (Bermuda) in 2000.