Bankers, insurers and captive managers are among the dozen in the Bermuda contingent attending the 1998 International Alternative Insurance Symposium at Indian Wells in California this week.

The conference, which began yesterday with some 500 people at the Hyatt Grand Champions Hotel under the theme "Forging New Alliances'', ends on Wednesday.

It is presented by the Captive Insurance Companies Association, Inc. and the National Risk Retention Association.

Additional symposium sponsors include the Bermuda Insurance Management Association (BIMA) and half a dozen other captive management organisations from competing captive jurisdictions that include Barbados, Hawaii, Illinois, Cayman, Colorado and Vermont.

Altogether, nine associations are representing major captive and alternative market interests, providing a wealth of expertise and networking opportunities.

BIMA executive committee member, Mike Hardy, will be making a presentation to the conference and marketing efforts for the Island will be underway at a Bermuda booth in the exhibit hall.

The keynote speaker for the event is popular political satirist, P.J.

O'Rourke, whom Time and The Wall Street Journal have called the funniest writer in America.

Best known for several best selling books and his years at National Lampoon, he has written for many publications, including Esquire and Car and Driver.

Vogue described him as one of the five men you'd most want to sit next to at a dinner party. His best sellers include Modern Manners, The Bachelor Home Companion, Republican Party Reptile, Holidays in Hell and Age and Guile, Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut.

Adept at the art of political bashing, he has been quoted as saying: "Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.'' The featured speaker of the week will be Claude C. Lilly, discussing the question "Can the Underwriting Cycle be Revived?'' Mr. Lilly's views on trends and cycles in the business of insurance are widely sought by both educators and industry professionals. He currently holds the James J. Harris chair of risk management and insurance at the University of North Carolina Charlotte and has been a professor in insurance and risk management at several US universities.

As an author, his articles have appeared in Best's, National Underwriter, The Journal of Commerce, CPCU Annals, Journal of Risk and Insurance, Journal of Insurance Regulation, Journal of Reinsurance and CPCU Journal.

He serves as editorial consultant for many of those publications and is highly regarded in the industry.

He has authored or co-authored more than 20 books or monographs devoted to risk management, self insurance and related topics.

BUSINESS BUC