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The Calandra Report: NYC & San Francisco Hard Asset conferences call it in from the grave

Thom Calandra, www.thomcalandra.com

1 Comment| July 21, 2014

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THE CALANDRA REPORT: Sample & Subscribe

July 21, 2014

Official. The Hard Assets conference entity in NYC and San Francisco is dead.

Is dead "plural."

The organizer of the two slipshod shows posted the obituary on its web site, confirming our TCR reporting.

https://www.metalsandmineralsevents.com/ehome/index.php?eventid=81641&

The two shows got worse each year, along with the waning interest of mining companies and their followers since 2011 or so. The organizer, which gets the award for using the most names as company or conference moniker, also tried to do Chicago. [Don't even want to know what happens there.]

Josh Brous, who handled the NYC and SF and I believe Chicago shows for organizer Summit Professional Networks, drops us a line to say he washes his hands of the matter.

"I am not involved in the Hard Asset shows in NY or SF. Those events lived in our mining division headed up by Jonathan Moore. In addition, I am not involved in Mining Indaba or moving over to the new company." This is what he says Monday.

Okay, then. The new-co, by the way, is Euromoney Institutional Investor, and it just issued an FAQ for Africa's February Mining Indaba, which has experienced declining attendance in recent years and is facing a 2015 challenge like none other.

See:

https://www.miningindaba.com/ehome/indaba/PressRelease1/

Mining Indaba is a shadow of the throbbing show it was when Sandy Lawrence, my friend and a remarkable Florida and now California businesswoman, operated the Cape Town conference in the late 1990s and into 2004 or 2005. The Zulu word ín-dàbà references a council affair: a group meeting of the minds.

She accomplished that, and more. Inside the hall. I hear so much about Mining Indaba's energy outside the conference halls.

Indaba is in February. More than a few investment banks and wanna-be Indabas have taken a stab at competing with the now-expensive show. I'd love to hear from Mr. Moore at Mining Indaba about how he intends to restore the event's popularity and connectivity inside the halls.

In North America, the metals and mining shows that are very much intact and getting brisk company sign-ups and attendance this year of 2014 look to be Precious Metals Summit in early September in Colorado; Cambridge House Toronto in late September and New Orleans Investment Conference in mid-October.

Each of them have sidestepped the depressed metals markets in recent years via a number of strategies. These include vibrant one-on-ones at the Colorado event -- Precious Metals Summit; technology, life sciences, real estate and start-up activity for Toronto; a fresh partnership with a large North America newsletter service in New Orleans.

I'll be checking them out, and appearing as a speaker and panelist at two of them: New Orleans and Toronto.

Let us not forget the Denver Gold Show, probably the grand-daddy of institutional events for the mining industry's largest companies and characters. That one, and Precious Metals Summit, excel in recent years in the real-time relays of speakers and company presentations via webcasts.

Both of those Colorado ones are directed to asset managers, to executives and to media. Denver Gold Group, unlike the others, is a trade group with a wide industry membership.

It is a truism that when competition for companies and investor attendees ramps up, well, the live wires light up, too. Or die -- like NYC and SF.

This includes the food, the audio systems, the webcasts and on and on. They all are quite good at the North America shows in this mini-review.

What they all have to work on, though, is compelling panels with real (not canned) debate and audience interaction;, vivacious and off-the-cuff speakers from ALL walks of life and industry, not just metals (Charlize Theron for a start on her investment choices, or Nic Cage, he's a real wild-card); moderators who are willing to cut off bloated speakers and light fires; and something else, something mandatory: a quintessence, if you will: a vibe -- even in this cloudy night for prospectors and miners.

Speaking of vibrating: Sysorex Global Holdings (OTO:SYRX, Stock Forum). Please see our subscriber-only update on the weekend gathering and plain-as-day forecast for the computer systems integrator's stock price. ... Considering purchasing this week -- aspirin. ... Looking at RedHill BioPharma (NSC:RDHL, Stock Forum); Apollo Minerals (AON in Australia); and IDM Mining (TSX:IDM, Stock Forum).