One of the most prestigious conferences to be held in Bermuda, The Bermuda Angle, is to be postponed until December and will now be held in the United States.

This is the fourth conference to become unstuck due to the ravages of Hurricane Fabian - and will mean that for the first time in the 12-year history the event, which is aimed at insurance analysts, will be held off Island.

Most of the key events during the invitation-only conference were to be held at the Fairmont Southampton, which is now due to be closed for between two and six months after sustaining $10 million worth of damage during the storm.

Event organiser Starla Williams of Select Sites, on Friday confirmed that the event had been cancelled.

“The Bermuda Angle has been postponed and will be now held in December in the United States.”

And she said that they were moving the conference due to the fact that the Fairmont Southampton would not be ready in time for the Angle to have the meeting in Bermuda before the end of the year.

But she added that she could not give out additional details until Tuesday of this week - when she will be able to say where the conference will be held.

The website on Friday also had a message saying the event had been postponed and moved to the US. “The Bermuda Angle 12th Annual Conference will be postponed from September to be re-scheduled in early December 2003 and will be held in the United States,” said a note on the website. “Details will follow week of September 15. Registration for the conference has been closed at this time and will re-open with new details. All hotel reservations at the Fairmont Southampton have been cancelled as the hotel as now closed for at least two months.”

On Friday The Royal Gazette reported that Bermuda International Business Association (BIBA) had postponed its two day event planned as part of International Business Week due to take place at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess on September 19 and 20.

And the event, which was supposed to feature world-renowned motivational speaker, James Malinchak, may even have to be cancelled.

The Mar/Hedge Conference, which was due to start at the beginning of last week, was cancelled at the last minute - just hours before Hurricane Fabian struck the Island with its full force.

More than 700 delegates plus their families were to fly in for the event which was supposed to be held at the Fairmont Southampton.

But organisers of MarHedge who were on the Island early to make sure everything went smoothly, pulled the plug after the Sonesta was closed and the winds started to batter the Fairmont Southampton.

The Sedgwick “Hot Topics for the Bermuda Insurance Market” due to be held last week was also postponed.

The event was scheduled to take place last Wednesday at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute.

The event, organised by law firm Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold LLP, was mainly aimed at the Bermuda insurance market, but organisers decided to cancel following the storm.

They said they did not feel it was appropriate to go forward with plans for the seminar given the “trauma everyone on the Island is going through right now”.

The closure of Fairmont Southampton and Sonesta has cast into doubt the future of other seminars, such as the Hawksmere 17th International Reinsurance Congress, due to take place in October and the World Insurance Forum in February.

There is limited space in Bermuda for large conferences and most look to one of the two - if not both - to hold their delegates and their families.