Bermuda's top professional women will host about 200 business people at the 1996 International Conference of the Organisation of Women in International Trade (OWIT) at the Sonesta Beach Hotel.

Bermuda was chosen, virtually unopposed, for the three-day conference of corporate leaders, which is scheduled for November 1996 under the theme of "Hemisphere Integration''. Boston is the planned venue for 1997.

One focus at next year's conference will be "Bermuda, a Premier International Business Centre'' and speakers and seminar leaders are expected to come from around the world.

Just recently confirmed for membership of the Washington-based, not-for-profit organisation, the local chapter is registered as WIT-BD.

Managing director of Gulf Stream Securities, Ms Carolyn Hall, was one of a group that attended this year's conference in Miami during mid-October.

Sonesta Beach Hotel helped in the bid process at the conference. Later a video of the hotel, a Department of Tourism video and a Bermuda International Business Association video were presented to delegates.

Said Ms Hall of the 1996 conference theme, "The world is shrinking, and `Hemisphere Integration' means that business is no longer just with the neighbour down the street, but with someone across the world.

"And either way, it's just as easy to conduct with global telecommunications and other such services.'' Topics will include core business subjects, but will also feature such subjects as the need for more cultural sensitivity when dealing in a cosmopolitan market.

Ms Hall said, "We have been successful in attracting top Bermuda businesswomen to WIT-BD and look forward to broadening the membership. The international organisation is just five years old and scratching the surface of what it intends to accomplish.

"Bermuda will get a chance to play a significant role, as all chapters will, in broadening the diversity of skills and thinking that will be brought to the organisation as a whole.''