‘The party is over in Europe’: tough conversations in an age of Zoom

It might not be a renewals season like no other, but it is one with few precedents. Once again, the Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous that usually kicks it off has been cancelled, replaced by virtual sessions. Amid surging cases of the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 in many countries (not least in France) during March 2021, the risk industry decided that it should not go ahead. It is only the second year since the event was founded in 1957 that it hasn’t taken place.