It started out in 1993 as a conference that aimed to take advantage of investor interest in diamond exploration in Canada’s Northwest Territories.
In every year since, Cambridge House International Inc. has adjusted the focus of its Vancouver resource investment conference to fit with whatever is making headlines in the mineral exploration world.
This year, the conference kicks off with a two-day critical metals symposium that also caters to investor interest in rare earth elements exploration.
A roster of high profile newsletter writers will also discuss the outlook for gold exploration in the Yukon where Kaminak Gold Corp. (TSX: V.KAM, Stock Forum), Atac Resources Ltd. (TSX: V.ATC, Stock Forum), Valley High Ventures Ltd. (TSX: V.VHV, Stock Forum) and Kinross Gold Corp. (TSX: T.K, Stock Forum) are among the key players.
The list of speakers includes John Kaiser, of the Kaiser Bottom Fishing Report, Resource Opportunities Publisher Lawrence Roulston, and Thom Calandra, author of Stockhouse Media’s daily Ticker Trax column.
It is this ability to change with times that has enabled the conference to survive and prosper in spite of the highly uncertain nature of mineral exploration and boom and bust cycles in global commodity markets, said Cambridge House Chairman Joe Martin, during an interview with Stockhouse.
“Basically, we are like a living magazine,’’ said Martin. “ Instead of having to read a magazine and read a writer you like, you come to our shows and you listen to them talk,’’ he said.
As he prepared to welcome 8,000 attendees and 45 speakers to a four-day show that began on January 21st in the Pan Pacific Hotel and moves to the Convention Centre on January 23rd, Martin was quick to emphasize the difference between this particular conference and some of its rivals.
Unlike the larger Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) conference in Toronto, for example, the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference event is not strictly a mining conference.
“We are an investment conference that focuses on mineral exploration,’’ he said.
While Cambridge House puts on conferences in other North American cities, including Calgary, Toronto and Pheonix, the Vancouver show remains the largest.
This is due to the fact that roughly 60 per cent of all mineral exploration in the world is done by Canadian companies. “Approximately two thirds of those companies are head-quartered in Vancouver,” Martin said.
It therefore seems appropriate that Cambridge House is based in the old Vancouver Stock Exchange building on Howe Street.
A native of Saskatchewan, who moved to Vancouver in 1969, Martin sees his role as a natural progression from a previous career in magazine publishing. He is the founder of BC Business Magazine, a Burnaby, B.C. publication that he owned from 1973 to 1985.
It was while he was publishing the now defunct World Investment News -- a magazine set up to cover the Vancouver Stock Exchange – with the help of editor (at the time) Ellsworth Dickson, that the idea for a small diamond investment conference came up in 1993.
“We did a little show with about 18 exhibitors and brought in a bunch of geologists to speak,’’ he said.
Bob Bishop, the retired editor of the Gold Mining Stock Report, was the star speaker that year.
Looking ahead, Martin said he expects that revenues will be up by about 20 per cent this year, in comparison to 2010. The forecast includes revenue not only from Vancouver, but also from the other conferences that Cambridge will host this year.
“After the 2008 [global financial] debacle, we lost a lot of mineral exploration companies,’’ Martin said. “Every time one of those companies merges, or changes direction, or goes under, that is a loss of a client for us,’’ he said.
“What we are seeing now in 2010 going into 2011 is the re-emergence of new companies, new properties, and new developments. So our client base has expanded.”
The new developments include a renewed emphasize on rare earth elements, that is being driven by the threat of export restrictions in China, the source of 95% of the world’s production.
“Right now there is a whole bunch of new guys looking for rare elements,’’ said Martin.
Key players in the rare earth elements space include Avalon Rare Metals Inc. (TSX: T.AVL, Stock Forum), Quantum Rare Earth Development Corp. (TSX: V.QRE, Stock Forum), and Matamec Explorations Inc. (TSX: V.MAT, Stock Forum).
But if Cambridge is eyeing higher revenue from exhibitors who pay from $5,000 to $7,000 to set up a booth at the conference, it is also facing potential competition from two former employees.
After leaving Cambridge last year, Howard Fitch and Neil Lock launched Market Edge Media, a company that is promising to take a “fresh approach” to conference production.
Market Edge’s first investor relations conference in Vancouver was held on the eve of the Cambridge show on January 20. It promised to address the intricate needs of investor relations officers and their public companies.
Joe Martin’s son Jeremy said Cambridge doesn’t see Market Edge as a threat. “We focus on getting investors to public companies,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, Cambridge is also gearing up for another Vancouver conference on June 5th. The World Resource Investment Conference will focus on investor interest in oil and gas, green technology and green energy.