Testimonial: Bill Cara

I already knew they were world-class communicators. What I did not expect, however, was the almost perfect educational experience I witnessed from Rick Rule the Conference’s frontman. I was actually stunned at how good he is.

Last week (July 22-25) I attended the Sprott Natural Resources virtual conference.

I enjoyed my time immensely, and I came away with a new assessment of some of the keynote speakers and a couple of the Precious Metal miners, mine developers, and prospectors.

In the post-conference survey, attendees’ opinions and recommendations were requested, and I gave mine.

Firstly, virtual meetings technology, while not yet perfected, delivered a maximum presentation of speakers, exhibits, and real-time exhibitor discussions (verbal and text) with people who were participating from all over the world. In this case, I preferred the virtual experience to my experience over the years of having personally attended over 50 of these hard money shows in several North American cities.

The #1 benefit was personal productivity in that for the first time I got to hear all the main presentations and was able to thoroughly research all the ones that interested me and drop in on any of the others with a click of the keyboard. The second was the much lower cost of attending, especially if that required flights, hotels, meals, etc. The fact that I was able to attend in pajamas was a bonus.

This was my first time at a Sprott Conference, and I must admit that for many years the Sprott organization and a few of the presenters have been on my Preferred List – as in Prefer Not to Deal With. As you know, the hard money industry is a small one. The same people have been meeting the same people for many years. The connection is marketing, something I have little interest in. I happen to be an investor and trader based on facts, not narratives. It’s not that these people are bad; it’s just a case of my not caring to hear their bad stories.

Having said what you know to be true in any case, I want to sincerely report that I had a change of mind almost from the opening moments of the conference. Rick Rule, who is the President of Sprott USA and the key person at this Conference, is someone I met at a hard money show in California in the mid-1980s. I see him in attendance at all the hard money shows, but we have not met since the one time we talked while I visited his booth some 35 years ago. I read his words a lot now like I do Eric Sprott and others from this organization because frankly, they have become world leaders in natural resources investing. I already knew they were world-class communicators. What I did not expect, however, was the almost perfect educational experience I witnessed from Rick Rule the Conference’s frontman. I was actually stunned at how good he is. If any newbie wants a mentor who is an expert in Natural Resources investing, then I will now be recommending Rick. Heck, I would add lessons on life, on growing up, to that.

The Sprott Conference producer, Albert Lu, also impressed me greatly. He interviewed all keynote speakers and major guests with such style that I think he puts the Fox Business, Bloomberg, and CNBC crowd to shame. Referring as I did earlier about productivity, I found that following Albert through four days was an incredible payback for the investment of my time. So, kudos to Albert and Rick.