Premier Jennifer Smith has sung the praises of Bermuda's insurance industry to delegates at the Risk and Insurance Management Society conference (RIMS) in Chicago.

On Tuesday evening she told guests at the Bermuda cocktail party that, despite its size, Bermuda was a solid and reliable framework within which to base a business.

She said that some of the brightest and most creative minds in insurance were based in Bermuda and that companies should consider it a dynamic choice of domicile for their captives. She said that part of Bermuda's appeal lay in its fair, responsible and unobtrusive government.

The Bermuda reception was well attended with more 600 guests enjoying 'Dark and Stormies', live music and refreshments. After the reception, the Premier and her entourage had dinner at a jazz club, the Green Dolphin Street.

Yesterday, Premier Smith visited the conference Lakeside venue and took a tour of the exhibition hall.

There she enjoyed celebrity status and even autographed a Bermuda bag and presented it to Lance J. Ewing, the new president of RIMS.

Mr. Ewing engulfed the Premier in a huge hug when she arrived at the Lakeside centre. He appears to be quite a fan of Ms Smith, who he met for the first time last year:

"She is such a delightful young lady. She really makes RIMS the premier event. Her presence here draws a crowd."

The Premier and her entourage made courtesy calls at the Lloyds booth as well as some of the other captive domiciles where she was warmly greeted. Bermuda is the only captive domicile whose government leader attends the event.

Ms Smith was impressed with the Bermuda booth and said: "The comments I'm hearing are about Bermuda's prominent booth, its prominence on RIMS TV and the professionalism of the marketing."

Also present were Tourism Minister Renee Webb, Acting Finance Minister David Birch, Financial Secretary Donald Scott and Assistant Financial Secretary Wayne Brown.

Sen. Birch said that he had prior experience of the insurance field having previously worked for GTE, a Verizon insurance subsidiary which was based in Bermuda.

Ms Webb explained that she was present to promote Bermuda's tourism industry.

"We try to incorporate the fact that people are interested in establishing captives with the vacation stand point," she said.

Asked whether she had a chance to meet some risk professionals, Ms Webb replied: "I went around and visited a number of companies that are on display. I spoke to a couple of brokers. We also spoke to companies with captives already incorporated in Bermuda who are looking at other opportunities there."

Minister Webb revealed that some RIMS delegates were considering having a smaller scale function of some sort in Bermuda next year.

"But we can't have something of this magnitude in Bermuda." She added that event driven tourism is something the tourism department is focusing on, but lack of large conference facilities in Bermuda is a problem.