Thursday, February 18 2.15 p.m.-3.45 p.m., Atlantic Room C Moderator: Harry Wilken On the final afternoon of the World Insurance Forum 1999, the Thursday, delegates will have In Atlantic Rooms A and B, they may attend a symposium entitled "Excessive Excess'', in which strategies for a `soft' market will be discussed.

In Atlantic Room C, they could instead attend a symposium called "Bermuda Beyond Insurance'', where the depth and future of the Bermuda market will be in focus.

The subtext at each symposium may end up being much the same, for two reasons.

For one thing, the only way out of the current soft market conditions, almost everyone agrees, will be through innovation: finding new ways to address risk and, consequently, new products to help clients manage it. The need for innovation affects Bermuda-based insurers in exactly the same way as those trading from other jurisdictions.

For another, Bermuda's growing eminence in the global insurance sector suggests that if the problem exists in Hamilton, so too must the solution. To see how Bermuda has already played its part in the wave of innovation which has led to a redrawing of the traditional demarcation lines between various types of capital, one need look no further than Centre Solutions and the financial risk industry it has spawned.

Harry Wilken, president of Jardine Matheson International Services Ltd., will act as moderator for the "Bermuda Beyond Insurance'' discussion.

Jardine's, one of the very first Hong Kong-based companies to move to Bermuda in anticipation of the return of China of the former British colony, is a good example of a company which has discovered Bermuda-based solutions to market pressures.

For his panelists, Mr. Wilken has selected representatives from components of Bermuda's international business sector whose competition is very much out there in the world beyond the Island's shores.

John Cunningham is a barrister and attorney with Diel & Myers, a local legal practice with a growing international element; Oscar Lewnowski is chairman of Olympia Capital (Bermuda) Ltd.; Eugene Shutler is president of Global Telesystems Ltd.; and William Woods is chief executive officer of the Bermuda Stock Exchange.

To make the point that Bermuda's international business sector is not comprised solely of insurance, Mr. Wilken explained that "since there are other business sectors in Bermuda in which the insurance industry participates or those with which it co-operates, the panel discussion will set out to explore existing links and identify those with potential for the future''.

He cites the Bermuda capital markets, the Bermuda commodity exchanges, the Island's telecommunications providers, and the services of the Bermuda Stock Exchange as prime examples of ways in which Bermuda's non-insurance international sector can complement and enhance its insurance business and the entire market.

One question Mr. Wilken intends to have the panel discuss will be whether "those business centres in Bermuda which operate beyond insurance are being as dynamic and innovative as the insurance sector in order to keep the overall Bermuda market's momentum going into the 21st Century''.

Insurance is traditionally recognised to provide between a half and two-thirds of Bermuda's overall international business. With this concentration, and with the recent expansion of Bermuda's share of the Lloyd's market to 20 percent, insurance tends to grab the spotlight when Bermuda's international business sector is in the spotlight.

But progress in the industry can only continue if the capital markets, telecommunications and the peripheral industries such as banks, finance houses and investment managers continue to thrive in tandem with the insurance and reinsurance sectors.

Although he anticipates that the discussion on excess insurance may prove a greater crowd-puller, Mr. Wilken expects Bermuda Beyond Insurance to provide a stimulating discussion on some of the broader aspects of the Bermuda market.

CONFERENCE CON