AME BC and Cambridge House agree to align January conferences

Beginning in 2015, Roundup and the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference (VRIC) will be held closer to each other in time and in place.

The events, which are two of the highest points of B.C.'s mineral exploration industry's business and social season, have been held within a week of each other in mid to late January.

In 2015, VRIC is scheduled for January 18 and 19 at the Vancouver Convention Centre West; Roundup has been booked for January 26 to 29 at the adjacent Vancouver Convention Centre East at Canada Place. A “bridge program"—details still pending—will link both conferences. 

In 2016, VRIC takes place January 24 to 25 and Roundup January 25 to 28, each one at its respective 2015 venue. Roundup pre-conference events have been scheduled for  the first day of VRIC. 

The two convention centres on the Vancouver waterfront are less than 100 yards apart and are connected by an underground tunnel.

Complementary conferences

The Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia 's (AME BC) Roundup and Cambridge House International Inc.'s VRIC each attract thousands of explorers, developers and investors from B.C., Canada and the rest of the world. Until the June 2014 announcement of the alignment of the conference dates, the events were planned independently of each other.

Jonathan Buchanan, AME BC's director of communications and public affairs, said Roundup has been held at the Westin Bayshore since 2003. 

“It was first held at the Holiday Inn Harbourside, now Renaissance, in 1984, and moved to Hotel Vancouver the following year,” Buchanan said.

“Aligning the conference dates just makes good sense for all delegates,” said AME BC president and CEO Gavin Dirom in an announcement. “This coordinated approach will simply provide more value to the delegates and increase their opportunities to network and showcase their projects or services, which are important and fundamental objectives of both conferences.”

Cambridge House president Jay Martin said the conferences belong closer together because they're complementary.

“The Vancouver Resource Investment Conference is for investors, and Roundup is more of a technology conference for people in the industry,” he said. ”Being able to attend both conferences will be of benefit to our international attendees.”

Martin said Cambridge House has been organizing VRIC for 20 years.

“It has been in the Convention Centre West for five or six years,” Martin said. “Before that it was in Convention Centre East. It has also taken place in the Hotel Vancouver and the Vancouver Hyatt.”

VRIC is open only to companies in the minerals sector. Martin said that in 2007 the show had more than 500 exhibitors. That number fell in 2011 to 500, and in January 2014 to 320.

“The number of exhibitors goes up and down with the market,” Martin said. “Because the market (for mineral explorers) has been weak, there have been fewer exhibitors.”

Cambridge House's Canadian Investor Conference, which took place this year in June, attracted 125 exhibitors, about 40 per cent of whom were from the technology sector.

“The June show has been taking place since 2004,” Martin said. “This is the first year it's been open to exhibitors from all sectors.”

Participant point of view

Vancouver-based mineral explorer Danae Voormeij, who has been attending both conferences for about 15 years, said they are quite different events.

“Unlike (VRIC), where there are many different talks, some of them highly promotional, taking place at the same time, the speakers at Roundup follow one after the other, so that everybody hears the same story,” Voormeij said.

She said she believes the changes to the timing of the conferences are a good thing.

“Because of the way the conferences have been scheduled, people from out of town who want to attend both conferences are in a bind,” Voormeij said. “How can they attend both?”

Industry veteran Tom Schroeter, president and CEO of Vancouver-based Fjordland Exploration Inc., said the AME BC-Cambridge House partnership agreement has been a topic of discussion “for at least 10 years.”

“Both conferences could see they were slowly losing business,” Schroeter said. “Years ago, many people from out of town and out of the country would come and attend both shows. But as times got worse, that wasn't feasible for many companies. It forced them to choose one over the other.”

Schroeter said both conferences are very useful.

“You never know when a contact you make or a talk you attend will come in handy,” he said. “Conferences and meetings are the lifeblood of the exploration industry. They're also good for people who are interested in the industry, such as students, but who are not yet inside it. There's no other way for them to get information about what might become a career for them.”