Members of Bermuda's insurance industry brought a bit of sunshine to Chicago this week. There was snow on the ground outside, but inside the Lakeside Center the Island's RIMS contingent wore their Bermuda shorts and handed out bright yellow beach bags to delegates.

Rhona Emmerson of AAC Saatchi & Saatchi always organises the Bermuda booth.

"It's the most popular gift. There will be 3,500 `Bermuda' bags on the streets of Chicago this week!"

This is an important conference for the insurance service providers. This is the largest forum for risk managers and as such it provides an opportunity to target the insurance buyers for Fortune 500 companies.

This year, as ever, Bermuda is going all out to promote itself as a jurisdiction. Last night there was a Bermuda cocktail reception and this morning Premier Jennifer Smith and her entourage will visit the exhibition center.

"It's a chance to show that we are unique" said Robin Spencer-Arscott, president of RSA Services and chairman of the Bermuda RIMS Committee: "Unlike all the other captive domiciles, we are also a commercial insurance and reinsurance center."

Bermuda is the oldest and largest captive centre with 1,630 international insurers registered at the end of 2002.

The "other" captive domiciles are the Caymans, Barbados, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Turks & Caicos, Hawai and Vermont.

It is fair to say that of all the captive centers, Bermuda's booth was the most prominent.

It takes up six booths, whereas most exhibitors have only one and it is located in a prime spot close to the entrance of the exhibition hall.

Mr. Spencer Arscott said: "We've been doing it a long time. Our seniority has got us nearer the front to the prestige positions."

During the course of the week, the Bermuda booth will get thousands of visitors who can take away leaflets, copies of the Bottom Line, Bermuda Business and ID roms containing an inventory of all the insurance services available in Bermuda.

As well as the souvenir hunters there are a lot of serious enquiries, says Raymond Medeiros, a Partner at PriceWaterhouseCoopers and deputy chairman of the Bermuda RIMS committee.

Mr. Medeiros explains: "Some come up and say I've got issues with our D&O and I'm thinking about setting up a captive. What do I do?"

According to Mr. Spencer Arscott, increasing numbers of delegates attend the Bermuda cocktail party. "At our very first reception we only had about 50 attendees. Last year we had 650."

The cost of the booth and the reception is funded jointly by the Bermuda government and the Insurance Advisory Committee marketing division.

Other Bermuda-based companies such as ACE, the Bank of Bermuda, XL, Bank of Butterfield, Quest and AIG are also representing the jurisdiction.

"This is the busiest RIMS I've had," said Roger Gillet, executive vice president at ACE Bermuda. He said that they have been inundated with queries at the ACE booth about what sort of capacity is available in Bermuda. Risk managers are recognising that Bermuda is a market place that is constantly evolving.

"We've graduated from the `laboratory', a place for creative solutions. Now we are the world's Risk Capital."