Hard Assets Investment Conference in Las Vegas (Sept. 9 – 12, 2008)

Las Vegas may be about business, but it isn’t for business.

This week I had the pleasure of attending the Hard Assets Conference in Las Vegas which took place on Sept. 9th and 10th.  The conference focused on investment in resources and metals.  There was lots of information about Gold, Silver, Uranium and Oil, as well as coverage of other metals.  The speakers were great and provided some excellent insight into the elements driving the commodities markets and economies and how they are connected.

After the long slump that gold had during the 1990’s I thought most of the gold bugs had morphed into other kinds of bugs.  But, having the uranium and gold bugs in the same room it became clear to me that a gold bug is a gold bug and a uranium bug is a uranium bug.  And that both are vibrant, thriving and enthused as ever with the prospects for both gold and uranium investments.

The conference facilities in Las Vegas are among the best in the world.  They are megalithic, modern, spacious and overly abundant in number. Surrounded by a vibrant city of diversified activities and services, it’s very strength is what establishes the city’s greatest weakness. 

I’ve attended many conferences in my career in many cities and therefore am fortunate to have a good reference point.  Althought I’ve visited Las Vegas for pleasure twice before, this time it was for a conference and I got to see city from a different perspective.  Before I begin, just let me say that I was not impressed and here is why:

1. I stayed at the Luxor located next to where the conference was being held.  Coming out of my hotel room, I was overwhelmed by the ashtray odour which is prevalent throughout the hotel.  Coming off the elevators, I was already beginning to cough because of the cigarette smoke that filled the place.

2. After 15 minutes of walking through the connected casino’s to get to the conference centre I found myself lost.  The information board, though had over 20 events listed, didn’t list my particular conference and out of the dozen centre employees I asked, none knew where the conference was taking place.

3. Heading back to my hotel after a business dinner at the centre I decided to stop at a bar for a refreshing vegetable drink, the closest I came was tomato juice (apparently the bar tender considers a tomato to be a vegetable).  So, as I’m listening to the live band sipping my juice this absolutely stunning young lady approaches me and is quite direct in her intentions.  I should have suspected something was up right then and their.  Within 5 minutes she had given me her sales pitch, including menu and price.  I’ve been approached by professionals before, but never have I had to say ‘no thank you’ so many times.  I finally had to leave with my juice in hand in order to get away from her.  Not quite ready to go back to my room, I decided to sit at a slot machine and have a show down with the legendary one-armed bandit.  After all, I was in Vegas … should I not try the Vegas culture?  Before I could pull the arm the second time, I beautiful young lady sits next to me with drink in hand and eye-to-eye contact.  You guessed it…another pro.  This time I just stood up and said, “I need to get going, do you mind playing the rest of my coins for me”.  It was a small price to pay.

4. Staying connected is not possible in Las Vegas, but it certainly isn’t cheap.  Be prepared to spend at least twice as much if you want access to the internet.

My point is this – if you want to do business then go someplace that is safe, clean and makes it easy to do business.  Las Vegas is a great place to go if you’re looking for something specific like gambling or a night life.  But, if you’re a non-smoker be prepared to be surrounded by smokers everywhere.  Even on the streets.  You can not avoid second hand smoke in Las Vegas.  Someone pointed out to be that the same personality that is a gambler is also a smoker.  Usually they go hand in hand because of the compulsive-addictive qualities.  I can see what they mean.

On the other hand, I had the opportunity to see a show while I was in Vegas and it was fantastic!  I can not begin to express how great this show was.  Sure, I can describe it is the feelings it invoked inside me which truly make it great.  Ironically, the show had nothing to do with Vegas or Vegas culture, it is a show created by Canadians.  What is the show?  … Cirque du Soleil’s “O”.  See it if you can.

Why can’t the investment community have a conference in Mont Erice, Sicily like the scientific community does?