RIMS, the annual insurance conference held by the Risk and Insurance Management Society Inc., is once again set to be a stage for Bermuda to show commercial insurance buyers what this market has to offer, an organiser said yesterday.

The 2007 conference, scheduled to take place in Honolulu, Hawaii from April 23 to 27, provides information to the risk managers of North America's largest corporations ? a key target of Bermuda's billion dollar insurance market.

Roger Gillett, chairman of the Bermuda Insurance Development Council, told RIMS 2007 will feature the traditional line-up of Bermuda events. It will also incorporate special sessions for risk managers to get more information about buying insurance in the Bermuda market.

In a longstanding tradition, delegates from the Bermuda insurance market, as well as Premier Alex Scott and other Government delegates, annually make the trek to RIMS to take part in an annual Bermuda 'walkabout' around the exhibit hall, man the high-profile Bermuda booth and take part in a special Bermuda reception.

Bermuda sessions were added to the line-up of events two years ago, with RIMS officials saying the Bermuda market was something their membership were eager for more information on.

In 2007, the Bermuda sessions will, as in previous years, the session will include the participation of three parties key to a commercial insurance transaction: an insurer, a broker and a risk manager.

Risk managers are responsible for buying insurance to help protect a corporation from the costly losses that can develop from numerous events ? from property damage in a hurricane to expensive legal actions. And brokers generally act as an intermediary, advising risk managers on how to meet their risk needs, and which insurers to buy policies from.

The first Bermuda session: 'Contract Certainty ? An imperative or an impossible dream' will look at the time it can take for an insurance policy to be issued, and what issues need to be solved to quicken the process.

The issue of how long it can take for an often complex and carefully worded insurance contract to be finalised has become a high profile one because of drawn-out claims disputes. And some disputes have become compounded by disagreements over what was covered under an insurance contract that was still in the process of being finalised.

Taking part in this session are: David Cash, chief underwriting officer at Bermuda insurer Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd., Henry Scully, president of Willis (Bermuda) Ltd. and Diane Labrador, risk manager for Intel Corp., the world's biggest maker of computer microprocessors.

A second Bermuda RIMS session on finite risk is also tentatively planned, pending confirmation of panel participants. Finite risk came under regulatory fire in 2005 after some companies were found to have used the policies to mask losses. The product, largely pioneered in the Bermuda market, typically offers buyers the opportunity to recoup some of their policy payment, plus interest, if a low experience of loss is recorded under the contract.

Mr. Gillett said it wasn't yet clear whether Bermuda attendance ? with it customary for hundreds to flock to RIMS from the Bermuda market ? will be on par with previous years. While some delegates may forego the 2007 conference because of it being held 'halfway around the world', others are happy to go precisely because the event is being held in far-distant Hawaii, he said.