Inside View - We all moan, but Monte Carlo is an essential event.

(From Reinsurance)

Byline: Henry Keeling, chief executive of reinsurance operations, XL Capital.

The cajoling "you'll-enjoy-it-when-you-get-there" line is a standard threat/promise in the parental arsenal for use against foot-dragging children.

And it is with the same chivvying zeal that I have to persuade myself on an annual basis that the Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous will prove worthwhile once I get there.

I have to say that, so far, I have found there to be truth in this, despite having reservations as I pack my bags for four relentless days of meetings and networking.

The problem is that when I come to think about why it is so worthwhile, I am less able to supply a convincing argument. Like many of you, I travel enough to see most business clients on a regular basis, and since so many people at the Rendez-Vous actually work next door to one another in either London or Bermuda, the argument that it provides an annual chance to catch up with remote business associates is not entirely accurate.

It is also a perennial frustration that half of any scheduled meeting will be spent trying to locate your counter-party and then an empty table in Cafe de Paris. Added to that, the fact that no real business is actually "done" at the event would seem to conclude the case for the whole thing being a superfluous decadence.