Bermuda’s services are likely to be stretched to the limit during the America’s Cup finals next year.

That is the view Steve Cosham, Bermuda’s national disaster coordinator, expressed to a group of risk professionals last week.

The America’s Cup will take place over a month-long period between end of May and June in 2017. Mr Cosham said the logistics of having various other sailing regattas taking place during the same period, in addition to the increasingly popular Heroes’ Weekend, meant that all services will be stretched to the maximum.

Mr Cosham was a guest presenter at a business continuity management round table hosted by IRM Bermuda Chapter, which is the regional group of the London-based Institute of Risk Management.

The round table was held at the Bermuda offices of Zurich International, and brought together 19 risk professionals, including chief risk officers and chief operating officers from the finance, insurance and reinsurance sectors.

The interactive discussion started with an introduction by Mr Cosham. He spoke about the national disaster coordinator role that was created after Bermuda was struck by hurricanes Fay and Gonzalo in 2014.

Mr Cosham also serves as national events planning coordinator as well as Emergency Measures Organisation coordinator. He described various national plans that Bermuda is currently reviewing including hurricane, pandemics, oil spills, cruise ship incidents, air crashes and tsunami.

Mr Cosham conducted a national tsunami exercise for the Bermuda Government earlier this month; that exercise was sponsored by the IRM. The Bermuda Chapter expressed hope that its expertise could assist Bermuda in national disaster efforts.

The local chapter was formed in 2011 and is currently chaired by Jonathan Groves, QBE Equator Re’s chief risk officer.

The organisation encourages efforts to collaborate across industries and to enhance networking opportunities in Bermuda in the field of risk management.

Many of the local members come from Bermuda’s insurance and finance community, but the IRM welcomes students and members from many different sectors. The organisation meets monthly to discuss various risk related issues and hosts regular webinars and round tables throughout the year.

The next event will be a webinar on cyber and data security and the importance of understanding the constantly evolving risks as well as the practical tools and techniques available to address them.

The webinar will be hosted at Deloitte on May 5 at 5.30pm. Anyone interested in joining is urged to contact Mr Groves at jonathan.groves@bm.qbe.com.