A visit to Bermuda in December can at times feel like an exercise in voyeurism.
And in an unforgiving marketplace for reinsurers, the temptation to linger around Hamilton's bars in search of downtrodden underwriters drowning their sorrows after another round of painful negotiations is difficult to resist.
Thankfully The Insurance Insider is a little more professional than that. Instead we took it upon ourselves to assemble a cast of the great and the good from the island in more civilised surroundings to canvass views on the crucial 1 January renewals and the evolving reinsurer model.
Scheduled just a couple of weeks before the close of the January renewal season, the conversation foretold an outcome that was weighted heavily in favour of buyers in a deepening and broadening soft market for reinsurance.
There was little indication that the bottom had been found in property cat reinsurance, in part as a result of an even softer retro market, which was allowing reinsurers to pursue arbitrage strategies to mitigate the impact of falling rates on their inwards business.
A similarly challenging position for underwriters has spread to the casualty side of the business, with further increases in ceding commissions paid to insurers and rates softening on non-proportional business.
Beyond price the focus was naturally on terms and conditions, with underwriters around the table willing to consider broader coverage within existing limits.
Despite the power resting firmly in the hands of buyers, brokers emphasised the importance of not pushing reinsurers too hard, and the value many of their clients continue to place on strategic long-term relationships with their counterparties.
Nevertheless, with squeezed margins for reinsurers and brokers the discussion inevitably turned to the future for both and what that might mean for Bermuda as a major industry hub.
Conclusions were wide-ranging, but while there was hope that by working together the reinsurance industry will be able to create more demand for its product, market pressures mean diversification, consolidation and efficiency drives are likelier to dominate the near-term outlook.
While that may lead to significant changes for many of the companies based on the island and those they employ, the future of Bermuda - at least in the eyes of our cadre of executives - seems secure.
For three decades Bermuda has been the home of dynamism and flexibility in the (re)insurance world. It has drawn waves of new capital as incumbent companies adapt and regenerate and new ventures incubate and are then born in a favourable tax and regulatory environment.
And that position has helped it emerge as the centre for much of the non-traditional capital flooding into the sector over the last few years too...
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David Bull
North American Editor, The Insurance Insider