PDAC 2013: shooting dead fish in a barrel or opportunity...ProEdgeWire

PDAC 2013 has just come to an end and more than one person has commented to me on their liver status. I told my son early last week as I am on a health kick that I was going to attempt to not drink at this year’s event marathon and he responded with: “Mom, even the Pope drinks at PDAC.”

True, and in the spirit of this year’s revelry, the #1 resource event of this year — the annual idiot of the year maneuver is being awarded to the gentleman at the PDAC Gala, who, apparently, turned his head away from his friends only to end up projectile vomiting and ‘hitting’ a woman in a gown. As repugnant as this action was on every level, it pales to last year’s near death experience when someone literally fell over the mezzanine at a well-known downtown hotel, breaking both of his legs. While my experience was relatively uneventful I did provide two interventions at sobering up esteemed colleagues and one of my girlfriends’ husbands was held back from taking out a well-known Bay St. chap who slapped his wife on the derriere.

My PDAC perception this year was summed up most accurately by my ex investment banking partner aka “Fred” who observed that there were “more ties than cardigans” in this year’s audience. Yes indeed, there were more dealmakers on the floor than retail audience and there were more booths manned by C-level players versus booth babes and/or booth bunnies, depending on your preference.

One of my clients sent me the article shuffling around on how about half of the 1,300 listed companies in Canada have less than $200k in working capital and suggests that they will potentially collapse if unable to secure funds in the next 3 months. Ah yes, just in time for summer – but let’s look further…

My Tuesday tour of the Investors Exchange exhibitors was cut short after I could not consistently receive qualified answers to basic investment questions. One company representative after another told me how awful last year had been. Attempting to secure qualified persons who could even nail their market cap was a challenge and I started longing for a ‘Tony Robbins style’ type with large teeth and big hair that would smile and give me a confident overstated selling style of ‘don’t you wish you could be just like me?’ Instead, I was met with earnest over explaining, mixed with confusion and, might I add, a spice of desperation: and so — I just left.

Look – adversity brings opportunity; and right now the time is ripe for those with innovative creative strategies to explore what are some unprecedented and arguably extraordinary opportunities to shine through. Starting tomorrow, I am going to run a series on opportunity leaders and am challenging our editorial team to match my picks with their own.

(Photo special thanks: Gene Arensberg, the “Vulture Stock King” and editor of the Got Gold Report)