Our news team always has much more fun talking about the quirks of the ILS market than it does traditional reinsurance deals.
After all, trying to figure out the origins of a cat bond name is far more fun than looking at a faceless reinsurance slip. This led us this year to declare our first Cat bond cat Transaction title of the year award: Cranberry Re. Another new concept we came up with this year was defining our own personal perils.
One of the foodies on the team felt she would definitely need to insure against excess-of-dimsum consumption, and I'm sure that anyone else who isn't a morning person would be with me on the hazards of the snooze alarm.
Obviously, the process of judging the actual nominations up for awards was somewhat more formal.
It involves a lot of work for our independent judges but they make the task of judging a pleasure by being so enthusiastic about it every year - so thank you to Trevor Bolt, Simon Cloney, Dan Ozizmir and Morton Lane.
I'd also like to thank all those who entered and to congratulate those who were shortlisted - your hard work certainly gave the judges a tough task.
Despite the work it involves, the awards celebrations are always one of the most social evenings our events team is charged with organising every year.
That is partly because of the community spirit that pervades in the young ILS market.
Our outstanding contributor of the evening, Paul Schultz, highlighted the privileges of being part of this market, one he described as "full of opportunities and new possibilities, really only constrained
by our own creativity".
"Collectively, we have made significant strides on our journey," he continued. "But it also feels like we are in some ways just getting started."
As the ILS market pushes beyond its current boundaries in search of further growth, Trading Risk will certainly be there for support on this journey.
To view the post-awards supplement, please click here.
Fiona Robertson,
Editor,
Trading Risk