The World Insurance Forum (WIF) may alternate between overseas locations and Bermuda after the event was staged largely successfully off the Island for the first time in its 15-year history - although not without logistical problems.

That is one of the options that will be discussed by WIF's Bermuda-based organisers when the dust has settled after a thought-provoking event that attracted some of the biggest names in the industry to the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).

Insufficient air conditioning on last Monday's opening day left many delegates perspiring in the "bubble" where the speeches and panels were staged.

And the announcement the week before the event that the fourth day, which was supposed to feature a tour of the DIFC, was actually a public holiday, came as a surprise to organisers.

The date of the holiday, held to mark the birthday of the prophet Muhammad, changes from year to year on the Gregorian calendar because it is based on the Islamic lunar calendar.

As well as forcing the DIFC tour to be squeezed into the first three days of the event, it also forced the rearrangement of a Wednesday social event, the "Arabian desert dinner", held at an open air restaurant an hour outside the city, as the night before the holiday, no alcohol can be consumed, purchased or even displayed.

But with some lively panel discussions among industry leaders and fascinating speeches by Lord Patten and futurologist Dr. James Martin, in particular, the event got a thumbs-up from most of the 400 or so delegates.

"I'm happy we've done it," WIF Advisory Committee chairman Michael Butt said. "The feedback we've had has been very good.

"We underestimated the logistical complexities of doing it here and all of the complications that could arise. We're not a professional organisation, we're a thinly staffed group.

"We've basically achieved a large number of our objectives, including getting our people to see Dubai, as an important regional financial hub, and for East to meet West, though we did hope to see more people from Asia.

"We are going to review the whole experience as a group and then we will decide how to take the World Insurance Forum forward.

There has been a proposition that we alternate it between Bermuda and overseas. We're going to need more resources, a lot of local support.

"We have learned a lot from this."