It's official: Bermuda is to be swept up in a Latin fervour this September when hundreds of risk managers from across Latin America, Spain and Portugal descend on the Island to take part in the region's biennial insurance forum, this year bearing the tagline 'Viva Bermuda'.

It is good news for Bermuda, with the visit of the large international contingent bringing the prospect of millions of dollars in business for the Island as it prepares to be the staging ground for the sixth biennial congress of the Asociacion Latinoamerciana de Administradores de Reisgos y Seguros (ALARYS) at the Fairmont Southampton resort, from September 7 to 10.

It is the first time the event ? which brings together members from the largest Latin American organisation of its kind ? will be held outside of the region. Indeed, it could not be further removed from Argentina where ALARYS has held its forum on the last two occasions.

But the distance could prove an advantage, with predictions that delegates, many of whom are expected to fly in with spouses and family members, will see the trip as part business, part holiday.

In effect, the visitors are expected to give the Island's tourism sector a much needed cash boost as well as spelling long-term business opportunities with this market worth millions.

To this end, representatives from the Island's insurance, reinsurance, captive management companies and support services ? legal, accounting, banking and broking ? are all signed up to take part and will be out in full force to cull business opportunities from their booths in the exhibit hall.

The Island's business associations, including the Bermuda International Business Association (BIBA) and the Insurance Advisory Committee (IAC), are also behind the event.

Although exact numbers of those coming into the Island for ALARYS are not yet known, promotional officer for the event and newly appointed ALARYS director, Eduardo Fox, put the number conservatively at between 450 and 500 delegates, plus family members.

He pointed out that numbers could be much higher with anticipation that a further 100 or more delegates will jet in from Europe, Africa, America and Asia as part of a contingent from the International Federation of Risk and Insurance Management Associations (IFRIMA), which this year celebrates 20 years in existence.

IFRIMA is the parent organisation overseeing both ALARYS (which turns ten this year) and powerful US risk manager association, the Risk and Insurance Management Society, Inc. (RIMS).

RIMS will also be represented at 'Viva Bermuda' with attendance at the event by RIMS president Nancy Chambers.

On the Bermuda side, the event is being co-hosted by the Bermuda Insurance Management Association, which is a member of ALARYS.

Meanwhile, a sub-committee made up of Bermuda insurance market representatives has been busy getting the event organised since it was first announced as a possibility last year by the late Finance Minister Eugene Cox.

ALARYS president Jorge Luzzi, has also been coming to Bermuda, on average, every other month in the year running up to the event.

But no stone has been unturned in planning the perfect event, including professional translators being flown in to provide simultaneous delivery of all sessions in English, Portuguese and Spanish.

The Latin penchant for fun has also been taken into account, according to Mr. Fox, with plans for both Bermudian and Latin American entertainment during social events during the congress. Bermuda-based artists will also be invited to exhibit at the event.

"We want to have a true exchange of cultures," Mr. Fox said, adding that Latin people knew how to work hard but they also were fun-spirited, and could play as hard as they worked.

Although a coup for Bermuda, the conference coming here was something long in the making.

Mr. Fox said the first mention of having the forum held in Bermuda was at the inaugural ALARYS event in 1994, but it was then smiled on as little more than a whimsical notion.

In the years since, discussions turned serious and there have been numerous trips by representatives of the Bermuda market to ALARYS conferences through the years, pitching for the event to take place on the Island.

Mr. Fox, who originally hails from Mexico and is manager for the corporate and commercial practice group and trusts practice group at Bermuda law firm Appleby Spurling Hunter, has been instrumental in bringing the conference to Bermuda, having been one campaigning through the years for this to happen.And he said it may be fitting that the Island has been chosen as the locale for ALARYS 2004 as Bermuda is no stranger as a risk market to Latin American corporations.

There are by now numerous subsidiary offices set up in the region by Bermuda-based insurers, as well as the Island already having the most significant chunk of that region's captive business, according to Mr. Fox.

He said 50 percent of all Latin American captives are domiciled in Bermuda ? including the captive of leading Brazilian firm, Petrobras ? and that number is growing with expectations that it will be even higher by the end of the year.

"The market started to really open up to our area about ten years ago," Mr. Fox said, after a major effort was begun to promote Bermuda.

In fact three participants from the Bermuda market spearheaded efforts at the first ALARYS congress ten years ago with Bermuda Commercial Bank, Skandia (which has since seen a split, with captive managers carrying on in Bermuda under the name Quest) and Mr. Fox's firm, Appleby Spurling Hunter (then Appleby Spurling & Kempe) having booths. Mr. Fox laughed that the three companies had been lumped together and referred to that year as the "Bermuda triangle".

Now "Viva Bermuda" has become a quickly approaching reality with it being two months away.

This week Mr. Fox revealed that delegates are starting to sign up, for example, the registration in recent days of a 40-strong contingent from Brazil.

The event is also expected to draw some of the top brass from leading Latin American corporations, including executives from Petrobras and tyre maker Pirelli.

Mr. Fox pointed out that because of the distance, and novelty of this year's congress being held outside of Latin American and on a beautiful island, it was expected that many delegates would come for an extended period with family, mixing business and pleasure.

Mr. Fox said all of the delegates were "relatively well off," boosting the possibility of strong spending by the visitors during the week.

The Fairmont Southampton resort has also offered delegates wanting to make their visit an extended one, special rates on the week-end before and after the Tuesday to Friday forum.

For more information on the ALARYS-IFRIMA Seventh 'Viva Bermuda' 2004 Congress: www.alarysbermuda2004.com