RIMS chairman David Mair.

Mr. Mair, who accompanied Ms Smith to the Bermuda booth, said: "It is a wonderful honour for us to have the Premier join us. She is such a delightful representative of Bermuda and Bermuda is such a major presence in the risk and insurance management market place.'' Ms Smith was joined by Finance Minister Eugene Cox and Telecommunications Minister Rene Webb during her tour of the massive exhibition hall.

After chatting with people on the stand the team moved off on a walkabout visiting various other stands including ACE, Business Insurance, Turks & Caicos, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Barbados, XL Global and Lloyds. The Premier stopped for a cup of coffee at the Lloyds stand, reliving for a moment the original Lloyds coffee shop of 300 years ago where it all began.

Premier Smith appeared to really enjoy meeting all the different people and it was obvious they enjoyed talking with her. Afterwards she said: "The exhibition is very good and there is a very upbeat mood. I received some very positive comments about Bermuda.'' BUSINESS BUC