Anyone in the insurance sector who is not aware of Bermuda will be after this week ? at least if they are attending RIMS, the industry?s pivotal annual event.

The RIMS conference is hosted in the US every year by the Risk and Insurance Management Society Inc. It draws thousands of insurance executives and this year more than 10,000 delegates have flocked to San Diego to attend. Of those, more than 200 have flown in from Bermuda.

For those who do not make their way to the Bermuda booth ? which is arguably the most handsome at RIMS with its own replica of Hamilton?s City Hall clock tower ? it would still be hard to get away without hearing or seeing something about the Island?s increasing reputation as a leading re/insurance market.

On Wednesday, there will be an all day panel discussion on Bermuda as a risk market to capture one?s attention, not to speak of Bermuda being the cover story for any number of insurance publications available at the conference.

RIMS kicked off last night with a casual ballpark-themed opening reception.

But earlier in the day the San Diego Convention Center, where the conference is being held, was already filling with delegates eager to get their entry passes and conference schedules for the event that gets going in earnest today and runs through Thursday.

On their way to registration booths, delegates were witnessed snapping up handfuls of publications ? at any number of kiosks that dot the hall ? offering the latest industry news free of charge.

In those publications, Bermuda could be said to have got the lion?s share of good press as an insurance market.

?Risk Transfer? magazine devoted two-thirds of the current edition to the Island with a wide-ranging line up of articles including an article on longtime Bermuda market executive Bob Newhouse, another piece called Bermuda by the numbers (showing that Bermuda?s reinsurance market was booming, at least through the first nine months of last year ), a profile of Bermuda-based Endurance Specialty and another article on the development of the Island?s insurance regulation, to name a few.

?IQ?, the insider quarterly publication from the Insurance Insider, similarly splashed with Bermuda, including reports on the wave of companies that set up in Bermuda in late 2001 and after to take advantage of improving market conditions after the void in capacity following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US.

But not all was good news. An analysis piece from UK-based publication ?The Review? looking at the possibly damaging impact on Bermuda from the smear campaign that US presidential hopeful John Kerry has been leading against companies based on the Island.

The article said that there had been no less than 30 separate mentions of Bermuda on Sen. Kerry?s official website.

?That?s no passing reference. And it is also the tone of the comments that should be causing alarm,? wrote Jason Groves in the piece.

The website was quoted as saying: ?He (Sen. Kerry) isn?t afraid to crack down on corporations that are hiding their money in Bermuda to avoid paying their fair share and will end special tax give-aways to companies that ship jobs abroad.?

The article concluded that it would be a ?pity if some of the lustre (Bermuda has) were tarnished by being an easy target for politicians looking for votes?

.

Premier Alex Scott, who will take an official walk around the conference centre tomorrow morning and host the Bermuda reception that evening, was himself on the magazine stand gracing the cover of

In that article, Mr. Scott defended Bermuda?s reputation as a leading business market and said he was prepared to defend the Island?s name at RIMS, if called to do so.

Mr. Scott, who is accompanied on the trip by Finance Minister Paula Cox, will also be making a stop-over in Washington D.C. to meet with US legislators after leaving California.