began to pack up and head home after the 30th annual Risk and Insurance Management Society's conference came to a close here yesterday.

Any fears that Bermuda might not be able to perform as well as it has done in recent years were quickly put to rest.

More than 3,500 visitors were estimated to have come to the Bermuda booth -- a figure which was measured by the number of Bermuda bags handed out and the completions of a survey by booth visitors.

But the work is not over yet. A mailing lost will be compiled from business cards handed over and each person on the list will receive every two months a copy of the Bermuda Insurance Update, which is put out by the marketing committee of the Insurance Advisory Committee.

Chairman of that committee Mr. Robin Spencer-Arscott said the response received at the Bermuda booth was better than he had hoped. "One thing I've found here was there were many more serious inquiries than in previous years,'' he said. "Others on the booth said the same thing.

"People really wanted to know what services were provided in Bermuda, what the regulations were and exactly what they had to do to form a captive there.'' While it's difficult to gauge how much new business came Bermuda's way at the conference, Mr. Spencer-Arscott said that during the time he spent away from the Bermuda booth he may well have secured at least two new pieces of business.

"If everyone from Bermuda got one new piece of business here...Wow!'' he said. "That's an awful lot of new business.'' Nowhere was this success more visible than at Wednesday night's Bermuda Reception, where the several hundred people who showed up were greeted at the door by Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan and Finance Minister the Hon. David Saul.

Organisers catered for 600 people and bodies were spilling out of the reception room and into the hallway.

The theme was international with food from four different parts of the world in each corner and a giant ice sculpture moulded into the shape of the Bermuda crest in the centre of the room.

Earlier in the day, Sir John, along with Dr. Saul, Registrar of Companies Mr.

Malcolm Butterfield, and Mr. Spencer-Arscott, made a tour of the conference room with RIMS' out-going president Mr. Robert Esenberg and incoming president Ms Suzanne Crager.

They visited all of the booths with a Bermuda affiliation, some of Bermuda's competitors and ended at the Bermuda booth for a photo session.

Mr. Spencer-Arscott said Bermuda's captive managers could not claim all of the success themselves.

The Island had also been helped enormously by the formation of reinsurers ACE, XL and Centre Re, he said.

"Bermuda's more than just a captive insurance domicile.'' he added. "While captive insurance is the mainstay of our insurance industry, we cannot ignore the exposure we've gotten from the likes of ACE, XL and Centre Re. They've brought many people and a lot of awareness to the Island.'' He said the Bermuda group had pulled up its socks since a virtual flop at RIMS in Atlanta three years ago when the Bermuda booth virtually served as a meeting place for Bermudian attendees.

This year, he said, the booth -- a traditional Bermuda cottage topped with a white roof -- was bigger and there were at least four people manning it all of the time.

"It also helps when all the people on the booth are very enthusiastic,'' he said. "Everyone I've spoken to is very upbeat. I know we'll see some new captive formations out of this.''