More than 300 delegates will converge on Dubai next week to see what is effectively a Bermuda insurance market roadshow.

The World Insurance Forum (WIF) will open at the Dubai International Financial Centre next Monday.

This will be the first time in the 14-year history of the event, which is organised by the Whitfield Group in conjunction with the Bermuda Insurance Symposium Company, that it will have been held outside Bermuda.

Some of the biggest names in the Bermuda insurance market will be there, including XL Capital chief executive officer Brian O'Hara, Axis Capital CEO John Charman and chairman Michael Butt, RenaissanceRe CEO Neill Currie, Catlin Group CEO Stephen Catlin and Flagstone Re chairman Mark Byrne.

Other top CEO panellists will be American International Group's Martin Sullivan, Swiss Re's Jacques Aigrain and Aon Corp.'s Greg Case. Lloyd's of London chairman Peter Levene will join them in a discussion on the state of the insurance industry.

The Bermuda connection will be strengthened in a discussion on man's impact on the environment, featuring Anthony Knap, director of the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, and British futurologist James Martin, who has a home in Bermuda.

The theme of the event is west meeting east and there will be representation from companies operating in the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, China, Japan and Malaysia. Deputy CEO of the Bermuda Monetary Authority, Jeremy Cox, will sit on an international regulatory panel.

The opening statement will be delivered by Omar Bin Sulaiman, governor of the DIFC, and two "statesman" — yet to be named — will speak on gloablisation.