Cold again...and we arent even there yet. You have to laugh...you really do. Fear not, It wont be so croweded by the time we get there.
Even Eric Sprott hired assistants to hand out brochures at the packed mineral exploration conference in Toronto, which has attracted a record number of delegates this year.
When a mining convention becomes a mass of humanity, how do you stand out from the crowd?
That was the question facing 25,000 mining sector delegates as they gathered in Toronto Monday for the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) Convention.
“The short answer is get there early,” said Gerald Harper, a mining consultant who has been attending PDAC conferences for nearly five decades.
Harper said he can recall the days when trying to get media and government officials to attend the annual mining conference was “like pulling teeth.”
Not any more.
With a record number of participants in attendance, the morning session featured speeches by Canadian Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis and Laurence Golborne, Chile’s Minister of Mining. Television crews from the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and BNN business news showed up to interview mining officials and report on the highlights from day two of the convention.
The PDAC is now one of the few truly global resource conferences on the resource calendar. Over four days, it allows officials engaged in all aspects of mineral exploration to mix and mingle under one roof at the Toronto Metro Convention Centre.
A conference that draws people from 125 countries presents obvious problems for hundreds of exhibitors who have set up booths in the trade show halls in a bid to get noticed. “It’s like a population explosion, it’s getting out of control,’’ said Robert Young, a public relations consultant who was representing exploration junior White Tiger Mining Corp. (TSX: V. WTC, Stock Forum).
Some companies opted for tried and true methods of attracting attention.
Pele Mountain Resources Inc. , (TSX: V.GEM, Stock Forum) for example, hired two young models to hand out bright green shoulder bags, containing company brochures.