After a two-year break, Guernsey Finance made a triumphant return to Monte Carlo to attend Les Rendez-Vous de Septembre and host the perennially popular champagne reception.
Rendez-Vous is a key get-together for major players in the global reinsurance market, attracting lawyers, bankers, accounting and rating organisations and marks the beginning of the annual negotiation process prior to the renewal of reinsurance treaties. Here, WE ARE GUERNSEY Deputy Chief Executive Barnaby Molloy reflects on his time there.
It was my pleasure to travel to Monte Carlo recently as part of a delegation representing Guernsey’s insurance industry. Our trip was anchored around the Rendez-Vous des Septembre, an event which started in 1957 and over the past 65 years has established itself as the key annual get-together for the major players in the global reinsurance market. It brings together nearly 3,000 insurance, reinsurance, brokerage, and risk management professionals from 80 countries.
It also marks the beginning of the annual negotiation process prior to the renewal of reinsurance treaties. This means that it is very much a “must” in the diary each year and a place where Guernsey’s brand has become synonymous, thanks to our own event held at the prestigious Hotel Hermitage.
It was my first time in Monaco and for those few days, I was as struck by the luxury of the supercars, yachts and hotels, as I was by the way in which the insurance sector takes over the town. Smart casual professionals with big name brand lanyards were deep in conversation everywhere, either purposefully striding around in groups or at restaurants, bars, and hotel foyers.
It was busy, and you could see and feel it. Further heightened I am sure by the absence of two years due to the global pandemic, it all made for a very conducive atmosphere in business development.
Whilst there were plenty of meetings and exciting new connections made, the highlight of the trip for me was Guernsey’s own champagne reception held on the second day, an event we were delighted to put on with Guernsey’s International Insurance Association.
The venue was stunning and gave us the perfect platform, but what made the day was the record number of attendees we welcomed. A mix of new faces and existing connections always provides a great buzz, and the strength of Guernsey messages in the reinsurance space enabled some great conversations and introductions.
My big take away from the trip, other than seeing what a Business Development marathon it was for so many, almost pacing themselves at endurance athlete-like levels around food, drink and sleep, and constantly checking watches like its mile 23, was that Guernsey really has become part of the fabric in Monte Carlo.
One of the US practitioners I met explained that he couldn’t imagine the Rendez-vous without Guernsey and joked that he wouldn’t know what he would do if he turned up to the Hermitage and Guernsey wasn’t there. Testament to the hard work of the brilliant insurance experts we have in Guernsey who do a fantastic job in flying the flag globally.