Theme Dinner held in New York on 16th September 1997
Introduction
On the night of 16th September The BSX hosted a gala dinner in New York city, with the theme of "Why Bermuda will be the Financial Center of the Cybereconomy". The dinner was co-ordinated by Mr Arthur Sculley (Chairman of The BSX) and was attended by over 200 leading members of the financial, legal, accounting and insurance community in New York. The dinner was a resounding success as a promotional event for Bermuda, as it seeks to position itself to be the offshore jurisdiction of choice for Financial Services, and for The BSX.
The dinner was co-sponsored by Bank of Bermuda, Cable & Wireless and AT&T.
Video and Premier's Welcome
The evening commenced with a cocktail reception followed by dinner. As guests were seated a 4 minute video about Bermuda was run. The video highlighted the extraordinary quality of the telecommunications infrastructure in Bermuda - a basic building block for the creation of the Information Island; the special partnership between Government and the private sector in Bermuda - which fosters the development of new businesses; and our new focus on the "Cybereconomy".
The Premier of Bermuda, The Hon. Pamela F. Gordon, then welcomed everyone to the event.
In her welcome, the Premier emphasised that Bermuda learnt to re-engineer itself "long before it became fashionable". Having pioneered and invented island based Tourism, Bermuda has gone on to perfect the use of an offshore jurisdiction for international business, such as our Insurance industry, she said. Now Bermuda is working to attract Financial Services businesses to our Island. The Premier stated that Bermuda has always understood that a good education for everyone enhances economic growth and the Premier emphasized her Government's commitment to ensuring that Bermudians remain a well educated and computer literate workforce.
It is this combination of state-of-the-art telecommunications and an educated workforce which makes Bermuda the "place to be", she concluded.
After Dinner Presentations
After dinner a number of key note speakers made short presentations, as follows:
Mr John Sculley, Partner of Sculley Brothers LLC
John Sculley's mother was Bermudian and John's first job was in Bermuda. John went on to become the CEO of Pepsi and the Chairman and CEO of Apple Computers.
Mr Michael Bloomberg, Founder and CEO of Bloomberg LLP
Mr Michael Bloomberg is the founder and leader of the information company of the same name and which is now the fastest growing multimedia company in the world.
Mr Roberto Mendoza, Vice Chairman of JP Morgan & Co
Roberto Mendoza was largely responsible at JP Morgan (in conjunction with Marsh & McLellan) for the successful launch of many of the insurance companies which are based in Bermuda including ACE, EXEL and Mid-Ocean Re (where he is still on the Board of Directors).
John Sculley's Presentation
Mr Sculley spoke to the audience from Tokyo where he was staying, via a video conference arranged by Cable & Wireless and AT&T.
John Sculley informed the guests that, in 1994, at the request of then Premier Sir John Swan, he had assembled a group of experts from the U.S. and the U.K. to come to Bermuda to have an offsite planning session on the Information Age with the Government of Bermuda. Subsequently, Government put into place a plan which included the deregulation of telecommunications in Bermuda, the formation of a Business and Technology Park at the Baselands and the formation of a subgroup of the International Business Forum to address the international business needs of information based companies.
John outlined the effects that "digitisation" of text, sound and images is now having on all our lives. He pointed out that Bermuda has a truly remarkable level of telecommunications infrastructure thanks to the facilities provided by Cable & Wireless (including two fibre optic cables) and the new fibre optic cable which has been laid by TeleBermuda International. The development of this infrastructure has been the first phase in the development of The Information Island. He noted that Bermuda has already had great success in attracting "Global HQ" companies such as the Insurance companies, Jardine Matheson and others. Now it is perfectly positioned to attract "Virtual Corporations". This is the second phase of the development of the Information Island and Bermuda is rapidly moving into this second phase. John highlighted The BSX as a prime example of what can be done from Bermuda in Financial Services using modern telecommunications and mentioned that he had earlier that day seen the CEO of The BSX being interviewed on CNN in Asia
Michael Bloomberg's Presentation
Michael opened by stating that Bloomberg has had a 10 year history of doing business in Bermuda and "all of our experiences with Bermuda have been positive". Picking up on the theme of John Sculley's speech, Michael emphasized that information technology now means that people "who used to have to live where their work was can now choose to live where they want to be". In this way, technology has freed us all from former geographical restrictions and shrunk distances to nothing.
Roberto Mendoza's Presentation
Roberto Mendoza opened by stating that it is very difficult to follow presentations by a Prime Minister, a leading visionary like John Sculley and Michael Bloomberg - "who is both a visionary and a prime minister!". Roberto mentioned that Bermuda had become a leading reinsurance center with an excellent worldwide reputation. Today, Bermuda has a group of highly sophisticated and innovative insurance executives living on the Island. This has created an unprecedented pool of "intellectual capital" in Bermuda and an assignment to Bermuda is now highly prized by international insurance executives
Roberto highlighted the complete absence of corporation/profits tax in Bermuda as being a key element in the choice of Bermuda by the insurance companies that are here AND one of the main ingredients in the tremendous financial success of those companies. As this remark drew spontaneous applause from the audience, Roberto added "I guess it is popular to be anti-taxes these days!".
BSX Presentation
The final after dinner presentation was made by Mr William Woods, CEO of The BSX, who described the recent growth of The BSX and suggested that The BSX is a good example of what can now be done in Bermuda using modern technology and telecommunications. He outlined The BSX's growth strategies including its focus on trading Asian securities and on adding value to the insurance industry in Bermuda. A demonstration of The BSX's new, fully electronic trading system was available after the dinner.
Closing Remarks
In closing the event, Mr Arthur Sculley announced that Roberto Mendoza had asked him to inform the guests that Mid Ocean Re had recently decided to seek a cross listing on The BSX.
Nine major international news organizations sent representatives to the dinner and several are working on follow up stories on the new business opportunities in Bermuda.
The feedback from the attendees has been extremely positive.