Bermuda's growing international role in business has led to the changing of the format for the next Bermuda Insurance Symposium (BIS), to be held next February at the Southampton Princess Hotel.

The BIS executive meets today to pinpoint the planned sessions and identify the high-powered panel of speakers, with a view to having them confirmed by next month.

The changes may also signal the maturation of the BIS into a calendar event that more international delegates would seek to attend.

Organisers were marketing the four-day conference to the international insurance industry as The World Insurance Forum, during the RIMS Conference last month in San Diego.

BIS committee chairman Robin Spencer-Arscott said, "The first two symposiums (1993 and 1995) we didn't attract very many risk managers. Last year, we attracted quite a few.

"We want to attract those interested in captive insurance, but also buyers of reinsurance. We've got to cover all aspects of the business. We will do a great session on captives, but we will also want to attract insurance managers who are buyers of reinsurance.

"Our last event was a turning point for us. We held the event in February, instead of May, which was better for timing for delegates. And we had great speakers and more sessions.'' The conference is expected to take a higher profile in the insurance market place and draw larger numbers than in the past three biennial efforts with more insurance and reinsurance buyers.

The conference also comes amid substantial restructuring and consolidation in insurance, and in other industries related to insurance. It comes as the alternative market, in which Bermuda has played a key role, has gained increasing, and universal, acceptance.

It also comes as a new generation of integrated products are emerging through the convergence of insurance and the capital markets, with Bermuda expected to be a leader in the next wave of such products.

As pointed out by an advanced flyer for the next symposium, Bermuda is home to some of the most innovative insurers and reinsurers in the world. These are subjects that by next February, people will want to hear more about.

And it is here in Bermuda that many in insurance and related industries will come for answers.

The next BIS almost becomes an urgent, must attend, event when marketed as the World Insurance Forum.

Insurance industry leaders, insurance and reinsurance buyers, capital managers and industry service providers are all interested in the changing times, and Bermuda's role.

The leaders of major companies are expected to discuss the new world of the insurance business, together with other topical events.

A mock legal trial, anticipating a worst case scenario of Y2K (or the millennium bug) exposures and consequential litigation, may be staged.

Other topics to be addressed include the impact on international business of the European Monetary Union; the usefulness to buyers of market consolidation; what concerns there should be for the current buyers' market and soft pricing in insurance; developments in computer modelling and products in the catastrophe market; the re-emergence of Lloyd's; and, the securitisation of risk.

BUSINESS BUC