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Are Small-Cap Investor Conferences Becoming Less Relevant?

Posted by AGORACOM at 3:23 PM on Monday, June 16th, 2008

I don’t have any empirical evidence yet but anecdotal evidence over the last 6 months is clearly indicating significant attendee drop-off in small-cap / micro-cap investor conferences across North America. Quite frankly, I am not surprised given the following factors:

  • Online Research Dominates – The majority of research into new investment ideas by small-cap investors is done via the web.
  • Too Big – With upwards of 400-500 pubco booths under one roof, investors typically can not make it through an entire show.
  • Lack Of Focus – With so many companies from so many different fields under one roof, investors don’t know where to begin or how to separate the wheat from the chaff.
  • Inconvenient – To attend a conference, you either have to take off a day of work or give up part of your weekend. Not too many people want to do either these days.

I believe the biggest challenge facing small-cap and micro-cap conferences is the temptation to keep getting bigger. Bigger is great from a revenue point of view but terrible from an attendee experience point of view. The answer is actually smaller but more frequent conferences targeted towards a specific audience. If you need any proof of this, just look at how TechTarget ate COMDEX’s lunch by providing smaller but more targeted conferences, resulting in greater revenues and fantastic attendee experiences.

QUICK SURVEY

I’d like to hear what investors think. You can simply post your comments below, or take part in our simple, 4-question survey.

UPDATE:  The survey results are in and can be found here.

INDUSTRY CONFERENCES ARE STILL VALUABLE

To be clear, Investor conferences are not to be confused with industry conferences that are strictly meant for professional networking and knowledge. For example, the Reverse Merger conference taking place in Los Angeles this week will bring together investment bankers, attorneys and other key professionals from across the world to learn about changing legislation and conduct great networking. In addition, the targeted nature of the event means attendees get a lot bang for their buck.

Regards,
George

Posted in AGORACOM News And Events, All Recent Posts, Small and Micro-Cap Space, Web 2.0, 3.0, ... | 11 Comments »

AGORACOM Mourns The Loss Of Oliver Martin In Senseless Double Murder

Posted by AGORACOM at 2:51 PM on Saturday, June 14th, 2008

THE SAD PART

It is with great sadness, shock and anger that we report the senseless loss of our friend, Oliver Martin, pictured on the left. Oliver was murdered just after midnight on Friday the 13th, along with his childhood friend, Dylan Ellis, while sitting in their Range Rover waiting for a friend after watching the Celtics/Lakers NBA game. Both were just 25 years old.

Me and the AGORACOM team first met Oliver at our Bay Street Hold ‘Em networking events, where he immediately stood out as an up and coming member of the Canadian finance scene. Oliver was a cool, polite, sharp-dressed and fun guy that we always invited back to our invite-only event. He also had a great poker face and actually placed in the top 3 at one of our events.

What I will remember most about Oliver were the incredible ties he always wore as part of his impeccable attire – and our inside joke that I would constantly try to buy them from him at our events.

Oliver was the youngest and only boy in a family of 4 children. Oliver and Dylan were inseparable childhood friends.

THE SHOCKING PART

You can read all the details of the murder via the extensive media coverage but by all accounts Oliver and Dylan were sitting in their truck in front of their friend’s condo just off the Toronto business district. They had just finished watching the game, actually left the area but came back for an “innocent reason” and were waiting for their friend to come down and meet them. Perhaps one of them forgot a cell phone, or returned to pick up the friend to go out for drinks? UPDATE: They were retrieving forgotten keys.

In any event, within seconds of pulling up, they were murdered in what police believe to be a botched car jacking. Police have gone out of their way to let everyone know that neither of the two were known to police and lived nothing short of exemplary lives.

THE ANGRY PART

Oliver and Dylan are dead because they drove a fucking Range Rover. We lost two exemplary citizens, children, brothers, buddies, colleagues over nothing more than a fancy truck. A random, senseless murder that could have been any of us. A crime that exemplifies the path of this city. One in which gutless “gangsters” run around with guns – and in which an even more gutless mayor governs with impotence.

Criminals in both Toronto and Canada operate without fear. Law abiding citizens have become nothing more than Zebras crossing the Mara River knowing full well some of them are going to be picked off by crocodiles. At least in Africa it is part of the natural food chain. In Toronto it is nothing more than a crime chain where hard working, law abiding people are made to feel as if they owe something to petty thieves.

I don’t know what is going to happen but the situation has to change and it has to change now. Criminals have to start living in fear. Criminals need to start getting picked off. If politicians can’t get the job done, the time may have come for angry white-collar men to take care of business themselves.

We work hard, we abide by the law and we pay our taxes. We owe nothing to the criminal underclass except for what now may be shaping up as a good fight. I know I speak for many who feel the same way. We’re sad that Oliver is gone but the manner of his passing requires a reckoning.

Posted in All Recent Posts | 11 Comments »

NEWS – AGORACOM Launches IR RSS Feeds For Clients

Posted by AGORACOM at 1:00 PM on Friday, June 13th, 2008

AGORACOM is proud to announce the launch of Investor Relations RSS Feeds for each of our clients.

MORE THAN JUST PRESS RELEASE ALERTS

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) now provides shareholders with the ability to receive any IR communication (press releases, industry bulletins, event information, media updates, executive addresses, interviews) as soon as we publish them. If you’re on the shareholder list for any of our clients, you’ll receive e-mail alerts about press releases and some other information – but not the information that is not considered “material”.

WHY SHOULD YOU USE RSS?

RSS has been around for a while but largely the domain of techies and early adopters of technology. As such, if you are like most most small-cap investors, you probably don’t use RSS feeds – yet.

RSS is a really big help for investors, analysts, fund managers and brokers that use feed readers to keep up with the plethora of market information. If you don’t use a feed reader – or “personal newspaper” as I like to refer to it – then my post on the subject is a must read for you.

The advantage of receiving RSS feeds into your “personal newspaper” is that it keeps information from multiple sources neatly organized.

This is especially true given the fact you receive information about multiple categories (small-cap stocks, large-cap stocks, general economy, health, travel, etc.) via e-mail. Your personal newspaper thus allows you to review your information by category in one location. This is a big advantage over e-mail that shoots info to you as it happens – but provides little, if any, ability to organize and review all of your incoming information at a glance.

ANOTHER INVESTOR RELATIONS FIRST FROM AGORACOM

After a review of our biggest peers, we’re proud to say that AGORACOM is once again a pioneer of great investor relations tools. We were the first (and only) to create monitored discussion forums and the first to introduce search engine marketing, podcasting and webcasting to the world of small-cap investor relations.

Now, we’re the first to introduce IR RSS feeds for small-cap companies.

Why do we keep pioneering online investor relations?  The reason is quite simple.  It is what investors want.  They want you to provide information on their terms.  The days of forcing investors to visit your site for information are over.  Your website is no longer relevant.  Investors are no longer hopping around from site to site.  They’re aggregating all of their information into one place and consuming it on their terms.  Companies who don’t realize this will die.

If you want more information on this, read my post here.  It is perhaps the best and most valuable lesson you will learn as a small-cap CEO.

HOW DO YOU START USING AGORACOM RSS FEEDS?

For now, simply visit any one of our client’s hubs and look for this . You will find it above the executive address in the right hand margin of the HUB. Alternatively, go to any HUB Home page and look for this in the “Recent Updates” box:

In the next couple of months, we are going to create an RSS page on AGORACOM where you can select any RSS feeds you want from one page.

I LIKE IT BUT I DON’T HAVE A PERSONAL NEWSPAPER .. HOW DO I SET ONE UP?

This is the question most of you are probably asking. Stay tuned. We’ll be posting an easy “how to” later today.

In the meantime, if you want to read more about RSS feeds, take a look at the Wikipedia entry for RSS.

If you don’t want to read more and aren’t interested, keep this post on file. You will begin using RSS feeds intently over the next 24 months.

Regards,
George

Posted in AGORACOM News And Events, All Recent Posts | Comments Off on NEWS – AGORACOM Launches IR RSS Feeds For Clients

AGORACOM Sponsors And Provides IR Keynote Speech At Reverse Merger Conference 2008

Posted by AGORACOM at 11:23 AM on Friday, June 13th, 2008

[UPDATE:  Thanks To All 200+ People That Attended My Keynote.  Due To My Laryngitis Issue, I will Be Re-Taping The Keynote And Making It Available On The Web For Everyone To Wach.  Expect To See It In The Next 2 Weeks!]

AGORACOM is proud to announce that we are once the Investor Relations Sponsor of the Reverse Merger Conference. The Conference is being held at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles and is the largest event of its kind. To register or find out more information, please go here.

KEYNOTE INVESTOR RELATIONS PRESENTATION

We’re also happy to announce that we will once again be providing the keynote investor relations presentation on Day 1 (June 18th) at 12:05 PM. It is right before lunch and I know some will be restless, which is why I always bring a strong and energetic presentation to the stage. This year, my topic is as follows:

================

Reverse Mergers: New Company, New Management, New Vision
12:05 – 12:25 PM
Reverse Mergers face the challenge of communicating a new identity and vision to a brand new audience of shareholders. Press releases are limited, expensive and fail to accomplish the task. This presentation discusses how to build a digital community of global shareholders using powerful tools such as audio, video and photos to communicate beyond text.

================

If you’d like to watch a couple of my previous presentations, please take a look at the following:

  1. PIPEs Conference 2006 – E-Mail Is Dead. How To Conduct Great IR In A Web 2.0 World
  2. PIPEs Conference 2007 – How To Use The Web To Find New Investors And Turn Them Into An IR Machine

We are very proud to be a part of these great Deal Flow Media Events and encourage you to participate if you fall into one of the following categories:

  • Structured Finance and PIPE Investors
  • Investment Bankers
  • Investor Relations Professionals
  • Private Company Management Teams
  • Accountants
  • Attorneys
  • Equity Analysts
  • Venture Capitalists

See you in Los Angeles.

Regards,
George

Posted in AGORACOM News And Events, All Recent Posts | 1 Comment »

US Consumer Price Index Out – All Life Necessities Higher. Fed Is In Checkmate

Posted by AGORACOM at 10:39 AM on Friday, June 13th, 2008

Good morning to you all. US CPI numbers are out and the news isn’t good except for those buying furniture, women’s clothing and PC’s. Otherwise, the scene is pretty bad. If you like to eat, drive, drink, get an education and get medical attention when sick, life just got a whole lot more expensive.

Rather than giving you raw data, a graph is worth a thousand words:

(Thanks to Barry and Jake for the great graph)

This isn’t a pretty situation. The economy isn’t growing, yet inflation is on the rise. The government can report inflation “ex-food, ex-energy” to soften the blow – but they can’t hide the fact your pockets are still getting depleted every time you step up to the cashier and the pump.

The Fed continues to delay check mate but the fact of the matter is increasing interest rates to control inflation is only going to continue hitting real estate where it hurts. This isn’t good when foreclosures are up 48% in May and 1/483 households received a foreclosure note in May.

In addition, the resulting stronger dollar is only going to weaken exports and further slow the economy, which by most accounts (except for cheerleaders) is in a recession.

So will the Fed increase rates? Fed Funds Futures are now pricing in:

  • A 100% chance that the Fed raises rates by a total of 50 bps by the October meeting.
  • A 24% chance of a 75bps increase by October.
  • By the January 2009 meeting, we have a 98% chance that Fed Funds rate will be raised by a total of 100 bps

In my opinion, I don’t think they have the guts to do it for the very reasons I outlined back on January 3rd. Here is the key excerpt:

Unfortunately, you can’t fight inflation and a credit liquidity crisis at the same time. Fighting one only makes the other problem worse. In this case, cutting interest rates will also lead to higher inflation. Afterall, the purpose of interest rate cuts is to get people to spend. Anybody want to guess what happens to gold when inflation starts climbing?

If you are a chess player, you understand the analogy that the Fed is about to sacrifice its Queen to save the King. Unfortunately, cutting interest rates to help save the real estate market is only going to delay the inevitable pain the US economy must suffer for years of excess and greed. They have picked their poison and thy name is inflation. Checkmate.

For now, the dollar is gaining strength and gold is off on sentiment that interest rates will have to increase. I think it’s far from a foregone conclusion. The Fed can argue”Core CPI” is in line with expectations – but the public outcry is going to buy it and should result in significant political pressure. Let’s see.

Regards,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts, US Economy | Comments Off on US Consumer Price Index Out – All Life Necessities Higher. Fed Is In Checkmate

AGORACOM Financial News TV – Breaking Small-Cap And Micro-Cap Financial News At The Open (Jun 13/08)

Posted by AGORACOM at 10:33 AM on Friday, June 13th, 2008

Good morning to you all. Please find enclosed a summary of the breaking small-cap and micro-cap financial news we highlighted on our TV show this morning. It’s June 13 and we’ve found 3 great press release from both sides of the border to report on at the open. Another great day for the small-cap and micro-cap world.

If you are new to the show, it is a daily, fast-paced, edgy report that we put out at or before the open everyday that strictly reports on the best small cap and micro cap news of the day in 3-5 minutes. You can watch AGORACOM TV right from our home page .

If you miss an episode or want to search for your company in our archive, you can visit our industry leading Small-Cap Podcast site at any time:

If you want to subscribe to our Small-Cap RSS Feed or download our podcast everyday via iTunes, or your favourite podcatcher, just use the following:

As always, don’t forget to visit the AGORACOM Marketplace where we list compelling summaries for over 85 great small-cap and micro-cap companies that you can sort by exchange and industry to suit your personal investing tastes.

TODAY’S SMALL-CAP AND MICRO-CAP BREAKING FINANCIAL NEWS BEFORE THE OPEN

Our daily show focuses on content over form so that you can get profitable information into your hands as fast as possible. The same holds true for these entries in our small-cap, micro-cap news blog, where I simply cut and paste my TV notes for your benefit, without any editing, so don’t give me a hard time! :-)

Now, onto our show notes for the day.

** Denotes an AGORACOM Client. AGORACOM TV Only Reports News From AGORACOM Clients That Meets The Same Newsworthy Threshold Of All Other Press Releases.

  • International Barrier Technology – TSX-V:IBH, OTC BB:IBTGF $0.16
  • GrayMark Healthcare – OTC BB:GRMH $7.00
  • Gamma Pharmaceuticals – OTC BB:GMPM $1.60

Posted in AGORACOM Small-Cap TV | Comments Off on AGORACOM Financial News TV – Breaking Small-Cap And Micro-Cap Financial News At The Open (Jun 13/08)

AGORACOM Sponsors Vancouver Cambridge Conference 2008 (Summer)

Posted by AGORACOM at 10:00 AM on Friday, June 13th, 2008

AGORACOM is very proud to announce that we are once again sponsoring a Cambridge Conference. This time, we are sponsoring the World Resource Investment Conference on June 15-16 in Vancouver. With metals prices hitting on all cylinders, we expect to see record attendance this year, so this promises to be an incredible conference for both investors and public companies.

AGORACOM is ideally situated in the middle of the action at booth #922.

If you are a public company, you should stop by for the following reasons:

  • Get real-time stock quotes
  • Have AGORACOM publish your press release on Globe Investor, AOL Finance and Blackberry
  • Conduct a 3-minute interview that will be broadcast on YouTube for all shareholders that live outside of Vancouver and could not make it
  • Get a last-minute invite to our Pan Pacific Bay Street Hold ‘Em Tourney where we are giving away $2,500 in cash, plus food and drinks.
  • Introduce yourself to AGORACOM Members that will be buzzing around the booth all day long.

Regards,
George

Posted in AGORACOM News And Events, All Recent Posts | Comments Off on AGORACOM Sponsors Vancouver Cambridge Conference 2008 (Summer)

US Dept Of Energy Investing $30M For “Plug In” Hybrid By 2014

Posted by AGORACOM at 2:22 AM on Friday, June 13th, 2008

Here is the actual intro from the article:

The Department of Energy announced a $30 million effort Thursday with Ford, General Motors, and General Electric to bring to market by 2014 plug-in hybrid electric cars that drive 40 miles on a single charge.

Now, is it me or does $30m sound like a drop in the bucket?

Furthermore, Toyota is planning to release a plug in hybrid by 2010.

Is this a day late and a dollar short?

Either way, this is great news for companies like Avalon Ventures – an AGORACOM client.

Regards,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts | Comments Off on US Dept Of Energy Investing $30M For “Plug In” Hybrid By 2014

China To Triple Wind Power By 2010

Posted by AGORACOM at 1:35 AM on Friday, June 13th, 2008

China plans to triple its wind power capacity by 2010 pursuant to the central government’s goal of promoting both clean energy and more sustainable economic development.

This has become almost desperately urgent for two reason:

  1. China’s growth has made it an energy consuming machine. Oil is now over $130. You do the math.
  2. China hosts 20 of the 30 most polluted cities in the world, thanks to its heavy reliance on coal.

The latter point is of particular importance, when you consider the fact the melting of glaciers in Tibet and Xinjiang and increased temperatures in western China threaten to reduce the rain-fed rice yields. Also, China’s coastal areas have also suffered from extreme storm surges in the past few years that have been attributed to climate change.

If you know of any really good wind, solar or renewable energy small-cap companies, make sure to comment here please.

Regards,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts, China | Comments Off on China To Triple Wind Power By 2010

Biz Blogger Awards To Barry Ritholtz and Paul Kedrosky

Posted by AGORACOM at 12:57 AM on Friday, June 13th, 2008

Congrats are in order for two of my most highly cited business bloggers, Barry Ritholtz and Paul Kedrosky, for having their blogs selected as #1 and #2 respectively by Pension & Investments. For those of you that aren’t yet believers in the power of blogs, or don’t yet have an opinion on them, make sure to read the article to discover the kind of heavy hitters (fund managers, etc.) that are starting to rely on blogs.

Regards,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts | 3 Comments »

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