Dear friend,
I've chaired a lot of roundtables over years but this is one of the most lively I have been involved in for ages.
Actually, scrub that. It's the most lively since the last time we had Stephen Catlin sitting around the table.
In Monte Carlo a couple of years ago a vigorous exchange that took place between him and a reinsurance broker was the talk of Casino Square and has since become the stuff of market myth and legend.
So, naturally, I was excited at the prospect of Mr Catlin making an appearance.
Plus, the timing couldn't have been any better. The market had spent all of the late spring in a state of shock, trying to get its head around the impact, logic and longer-term consequences of the Aon-Berkshire Hathaway 7.5 percent Lloyd's following market facility.
Then, the day before the roundtable took place, we had just broken the story of the audacious Willis Global 360 plan to process up to 20 percent of its London business in a similar way.
Unsurprisingly, these were the lead topics for our discussion. Mr Catlin didn't disappoint and his clarity of expression inspired other participants to greater levels of candour than might otherwise have been the case.
Once again, The Insurance Insider reporter in attendance rushed out of the room to take his observations straight out of his mouth and onto the front page.
But we didn't just talk about bulk underwriting.
We asked whether the London market can keep its entrepreneurial spirit and lust for innovation as corporations in the sector become ever larger.
We also discussed the dangers of an overzealous incoming dual UK regulatory regime trying too hard to make an impact and scaring business away as a result.
And we asked whether the UK's eternally ambivalent position on the fringe of the European Union is damaging its global trading position or, indeed, if it was the EU's hostile attitude to the financial services sector that was the problem.
And now we invite you into the room with the London market leaders.
What follows reads much more like the crackling, breathless dialogue from a film script than a formal discussion halfway up an office tower on a cold late spring morning in the City of London.
Take this from Matt Fairfield of ANV. He said that the Aon facility "gives absolute power - and you know the rest of that phrase, right?"
How would you have finished his sentence had you been lucky enough to be in the room?
Read on and you too will find yourself shouting out the answers...
Mark Geoghegan
Editor
The Insurance Insider
Please click here to download The Insurance Insider London Market Roundtable 2013.