The Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX) has heralded as a success the recent B2B.Bermuda tour which sought to promote the advantages of conducting business in Bermuda.

The meetings resulted in very strong leads in companies interested in listing on the mezzanine market of the BSX. Representatives from four local companies travelled to Dublin and London last week in a marketing and public relations effort to attract new e-commerce, high tech and bio-tech start up companies to Bermuda.

The Bermuda Stock Exchange, Appleby Spurling & Kempe, investment bankers Voyager Financial Services and TeleBermuda International made presentations and answered queries from a group of 40 in Dublin and a much smaller group in London.

"The meeting in Dublin was extremely successful," said Joanne MacPhee, public relations officer for the BSX, "We had about 40 people attend our two hour luncheon and they included big names in the e-commerce business in Ireland."

Recognising that Dublin is already a sophisticated e-commerce jurisdiction, Ms MacPhee said the group focused on the ways companies in the two jurisdictions could work together.

"In our presentations we talked about the synergies that exist between Bermuda and Dublin." Ms MacPhee said that the attendees appreciated their angle and added that some had thought they were going to be told how much better business in Bermuda would be.

While pleased with the turnout in Dublin, the group, according to Ms MacPhee, were a bit disappointed with the attendance they received at their half-day seminar in London.

"Sadly there were less than 20 people there," Ms MacPhee said, "but most stayed with us through the whole seminar and seemed very interested and involved.

"They asked very good questions," she added. Ms MacPhee explained that one reason for the difference in numbers could be that the different types of business were attracted. All attendees at the London seminar were representatives of dot com start-up companies while the Dublin luncheon saw a much wider variety of interested participants.

According to Ms MacPhee venture capitalists, major legal and accounting firms, well established e-commerce companies and several entrepreneurial dot coms were among the attendees.

The group had cancelled a planned seminar in Tel Aviv owing to the unrest in the Middle East.