“The association received any number of testimonials from the industry in favour of holding the RVS”, explained the committee in a short announcement which adopted a notably defensive tone.
This approach continued. “Numerous participants expressed their strong attachment to the annual event, which they deem both useful and necessary”.
Over three short paragraphs, it became apparent the announcement was as much about answering the question: “Do you think the RVS should still take place in a post-pandemic, hyper-climate conscious world?” as it was about announcing the dates (10 Sept-15 Sept 2022, incidentally).
One’s initial response was bemusement that the committee was answering an existential question that it had not even been asked. On reflection, however, it displayed self-awareness by the industry leaders who sit on the association board (see graphic below). They realise that is precisely the question their peers are asking after two years when the RVS has not taken place.
After all, their CFOs who sign off the costs will always be sceptical and the idea must appear self-indulgent to the outside world at a time when many remain fearful about covid and its spread.
Even before the pandemic, it was becoming increasingly difficult to imagine the industry – anxious to display its ESG credentials and climate relevance – would invent the Rendez-Vousnow if it didn’t already exist. And if they did, it would unlikely to be in the Principality.
Despite these negatives, the Rendez-Vous has begun on the second weekend in September since 1957.
It is durable because it works.
“The real reason delegates attend is that they appreciate it as a highly efficient way to meet your clients, counter-parties, brokers, rivals and colleagues from around the world”
Of course, the late summer sun, champagne and Casino Square glamour is an attraction for some. But the real reason delegates attend is that they appreciate it as a highly efficient way to meet your clients, counter-parties, brokers, rivals and colleagues from around the world and all at the same time. In 2019, the Rendez-Vous consisted of almost 3000 delegates from 80 different countries. It was bigger and more representative of a genuinely global industry than it had ever been before. It had, then, no genuine doubts about its future.
And back then it would be difficult to imagine that two years on and the organising committee of the grandest, most prestigious event in the industry’s calendar would be apparently wrestling with self-doubt.
Against this backdrop, the question is will the Rendez-Vous get widespread industry support if it takes place (covid permitting) next year?
Yes, is the answer. It will – just as the Q4 events this year such as Germany’s Baden-Baden or CIAB and APCIA in the US – were backed (numbers were down but all were a success).
“They will say the world of 2023 is very different to 2019”
But equally it should be noted that the Monte Carlo critics are more confident now. They have always been present but before their doubts were whispered and their influence modest.
Now, there are some firms and at least a few industry leaders – significant participants in the global reinsurance economy – actively looking for an elegant opportunity to down-size their involvement or even withdraw altogether. They believe the negatives now outweigh the positives.
However, these sceptics and their companies will still begrudgingly attend next year – assuming covid allows – because FOMO and corporate inertia will trump doubt and the aggravation of implementing change.
But we suspect a three-year absence would be different. It would be just the nudge the RVS doubters need. They will say the world of 2023 is very different to 2019. “We are managing perfectly fine without attending, so why go? It’s expensive, a burden on time, looks awkward, it’s a different time now etc etc.”
“If the world’s politicians and global elite can shamelessly converge en masse to Glasgow in their Gulfstreams to debate climate change at a time of covid, then we should still allow ourselves the opportunity to meet once a year”
It may even restart an attempt to create an alternative Q4 Bermuda reinsurance Rendez-Vouson the island – as was mooted earlier this year before being kicked into the grass (primarily because of covid uncertainty).
If some execs from, say, the US and Bermuda decide not to attend, it would not be Monte Carlo’s death knell. The grandees of continental European reinsurance remain steadfast (after all, it was they who created the event – brokers and the arrivistes from London and overseas only started showing up in the late eighties).
But it would still be a reduced Rendez-Vous and not as truly global or representative as it has become in the past twenty or so years. In fact, it would be retrenching to its roots. The danger is once it starts, it would be difficult to resist.
So, September 2022 is a crunch time. For those who retain a strong affection for the Rendez-Vous – and that includes this publication – then we very much hope to return next year with the global industry all present.
And for those concerned with the negative optics of an industry seen swigging champagne in a millionaire’s playground during a pandemic, we would say this. If the world’s politicians and global elite can shamelessly converge en masse to Glasgow in their Gulfstreams to debate climate change at a time of covid, then we should still allow ourselves the opportunity to meet once a year in the same place that the industry has done so since the 1950s…
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