Part 2 of a 2-part Q&A transcript from last week's webinar, "Maximizing your PDAC Experience". 

Q: Can you please elaborate on what to do in terms of follow-up.  After PDAC what should a company do with all that information?  What should you be updating on your website?

A: For most companies everybody is out of the office during PDAC. so during the course of the conference, you maybe having a news release that goes out. If that press release is not uploaded on your website automatically, it has to be done manually and  you have to make sure that that news gets onto your website. At the end of the day, if individuals are coming to your website and it’s not there, they are missing out the full story on your company. So make the effort to ensure that release, for example, that are distributed during PDAC get onto your website. Other examples, additional fallout activities that you can do from your website perspective if you are introducing new maps, new what have you, at the show itself, make sure they are on your site. During the course of say a broker meeting, or a broker luncheon presentation, if you’re delivering a new investor presentation, that should be uploaded on your website as well. As Lumir talked about from the booth display, if you’re using new images and graphics, why not have them reflected onto your site at the same time? You can maintain that consistent look and feel so that the impression that people get at the show itself is also reflected on the website.

(Lumir) Like we said in the presentation that the booth has to be some kind of imprint or brand, so that everyone recognizes your company, the more frequently you repeat the same imagery, in all the collateral, on the website, you speed up that recognition.

Q:  You mentioned that there are 27,000 people expected at the show.  Should we be printing 27,000 fact sheets and presentations? 

A:  27,000 is a great number of individuals that are expected at the show. But printing 27,000 fact sheets is unnecessary and a waste of money. One luxury of these kinds of shows is that if you do print off 500 copies for example, and at the end of day 1 you are running low, it is easy enough to find a local printer to produce that for you in the Toronto downtown core.

Sunday and Monday are high traffic days. By Tuesday it starts to taper off a little bit so as you start Tuesday morning if you’re running low, and you run off a batch don’t run too many because you’ll end up carrying most back to your office.

NOTE: PDAC’s on-demand printer = Printbrain. Contact: Joshua Bnezrah, 416-304-41600 x101 or Joshua@printbrain.ca

Q:  We have a booth at the extreme corner of the show.  What do you recommend to get traffic in our direction?

A:  Don’t wait for people to come.  Use social media to let people know where you’re located, post it on your website. Reach out, put out those alerts.

On the floor itself, if you’ve got multiple individuals, have them walk the floor itself. If you run into contacts, let people know, ‘Hey we’re at that corner of the floor, come and stop by to see us.’

(Lumir) In this instance, the effort to make the booth attractive has to be even more intense. Perhaps consider a strong colour.  Visitors will be drawn to a confident, elegant, strong booth even if it’s in a corner.

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact Joe at jracanelli@equicomgroup.com or Lumir at lhladik@equicomgroup.com.To view a slidecast of the complete webinar, please visit "Webinar: Maximizing your PDAC Experience".  

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Part 1 of a 2-part Q&A transcript from last week's webinar, "Maximizing your PDAC Experience".  To view a slidecast of the complete webinar, please visit "Webinar: Maximizing your PDAC Experience".

Speakers:

• Joe Racanelli – Vice President, Resource Pod
• Lumir Hladik – Chief Creative Strategist, Strategic Design Group

Q: [Joe] talked about setting up meetings outside of PDAC and how it might be difficult.  Given the competition for this audience’s attention, how many meetings should a company realistically aim to set up?

A:  Over the course of three days, every banker is going to be approached for meeting setup.  It depends what stage you are. If you’re an early stage exploration company and you want to engage in some financing work in 2012, three to five meetings would probably be a realistic target. 

Don’t be discouraged if you don’t hit that mark because at the end of the day, you know every other company there is trying to target these same individuals. If you’re having a hard time setting up these meetings directly yourselves, leverage some of the contacts of your advisors, board members, etc… because even a 5 minute quick discussion starts that process of dialogue that you can carry out throughout the course of the year. 

Q:  [Lumir] talked about producing a booth. How long does this process typically take (design and production) and what should a company expect in terms of costs?

A: First of all there are different sizes of booths – I will talk about the minimum size, which we showed in the presentation (approximately 8x10).  If the hardware is supplied it could take from a few days to a few weeks depending on how complicated it is.  Few days, If you have the pictures available and if you have all the data available, but obviously the production takes longer if there are many images and… in many cases we have to up-rez the files because nobody shoots at “booth size”  size. And the cost? Just the design itself, no hardware, could be somewhere from 3-15k. Depends again if you have to buy stock photography. There are a lot of factors.

Having said that, there is still plenty of time for companies to look at their existing booths if they have one in place and think about doing a refresh. Ask some questions, does it look dated? Does it capture the information you want to convey?  Is the progress you recently made conveyed in the booth itself?

Q:  [Joe] talked about promoting a company’s presence at the conference via Waggle.  Can you tell me what that is?

A:  Waggle is a brand new social network set up by the TSX, designed to facilitate dialogue and the exchange of information between issuers and investors.  If you visit www.waggle.ca, you can get a good sense of the site’s capabilities- quite a few issuers that have set up profiles and are using it to supplement information that they are already disclosing whether it’s through their own websites and in SEDAR.   The site is free to use for issuers and investors. 

NOTE: For more information on how to get your company registered on Waggle, please contact Cheryl Mascarenhas, Waggle’s Community Manager, at (416) 815-0700 ext. 279 or CommunityManager@Waggle.ca. 

Q: Re: the elevator pitch. How do you make sure that you’re able to find a balance between keeping it high level but making sure you have enough meat?

A:  We talked about practice, practice, practice.  As you practice, you may want to consider delivering the pitch to individuals who aren’t that familiar with your company.  The reaction they will give you based on eye contact and types of questions that they come back with should give you an indication whether you’re on the right mark. 

As we’ve talked about, putting together an elevator pitch does take some effort and does in fact require a lot of revisions back and forth. So that balanced approach, practice it, deliver it, and see if it’s resonating with audiences and individuals. And if it is, you’re probably on the right track. You’re crossing that line of providing enough information and providing the information and details but still keeping it at high level and keeping it at 20 words or so.

...Stay tuned for Part 2 and the remaining Q&A transcript later this week!

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TMX Group Inc. recently announced December 2011 trading statistics for its diversified group of exchanges – Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), TSX Venture Exchange (TSX-V), Montreal Exchange (MX) and Natural Gas Exchange (NGX), as well as TMX Select, TMX Group’s alternative trading system.  Here are a few highlights:

• In 2011, MX achieved a new annual volume record with 61,981,406 contracts traded, a 43% increase over 2010.  Open interest at December 31, 2011 increased 42% compared to the end of 2010.
• Trading volume on TSX in December 2011 fell 20% from December 2010, and was down 3% compared to the previous month.  In 2011, volume on TSX fell 1% compared to 2010, though transactions and value surpassed 2010 levels. In 2011, TSX achieved an annual record of 209,975,913 transactions.
• Trading volume on TSX-V was down 48% compared to December 2010, though increased 13% compared to November 2011.Trading volume on TSX-V was down 4% in 2011 compared to 2010. Transactions and value traded in 2011 exceeded 2010 levels. 
• Trading volume on NGX increased 5% compared to December 2010, though overall volume in 2011 was down 7% compared to 2010.

To view the complete report, please visit http://www.tmx.com/en/pdf/month_stats/TradingStats_Dec11.pdf.

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TMX Group recently announced financing activity on Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and TSX Venture Exchange (TSX-V) for December 2011, as well as full year 2011.  Here are a few highlights:

• TSX welcomed 199 new issuers during 2011, up from 187 new listings in 2010 (+6%).  Total financings raised fell 7% from 2010 levels. 
• The number of IPOs on the TSX increased 8% to 128 from 119 in 2010, though IPO financings raised were down 38%. 
• TSX-V listed 216 new issuers in 2011, up 17% from 2010, when there were 185. Total financings raised exceeded 2010 levels by 2%.   
• 46 issuers graduated to Toronto Stock Exchange in 2011. 

To view the complete report, please visit http://www.tmx.com/en/pdf/month_stats/FinancingStats_Dec11.pdf.  

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Later this month, TMX Equicom will be releasing its 2011 Year-End Healthcare Report, our annual in-depth study of the Canadian life sciences sector. In advance of that release, here are some key preliminary figures from the report shedding light on sector financings for 2011:

• Gross proceeds of equity and convertible debt financings completed in Q4 2011 totaled $98M
• For 2011, the total gross proceeds for development-stage healthcare companies was $471M, compared to $498M in 2010 and $538M in 2009, down ~50% from the average raised during 2005-07

Check back here, or at equicomgroup.com, later this month for access to the full report, which will feature the following:

• Review of all major events from Q4 2011 in the Canadian Healthcare Sector 
• Comprehensive breakdown of all financings from 2011
• December 2011 survey results on the perception of Buyside and Retail contacts active in the healthcare space
• A look ahead at anticipated milestone events for 2012

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Happy New Year from the media-relations desk at TMX Equicom!  We ended a strong year of media hits with a flurry of activity in December.  Equicom clients were featured on television, in print and on the web in the final weeks of 2011.  Here’s a handful of highlights:

Dec 23 – SIR Royalty Income Fund (TSX: SRV.UN) got a nod of approval from The Globe & Mail’s “Small Cap Stocks to Watch” column after posting positive numbers for Q1 2012. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/small-caps/todays-small-cap-stocks-to-watch/article2281928/singlepage/#articlecontent

Dec 20 – In Saskatoon’s StarPhoenix, reporter Scott Larson wrote a feature about Karnalyte Resources Inc. (TSX: KRN), looking at Karnalyte’s progress on their Wynyard potash property. http://www.thestarphoenix.com/business/Karnalyte+advances+Wynyard+mine/5884704/story.html

Dec 20 – Robin Phinney, CEO of Karnalyte Resources Inc. (TSX: KRN), talked with Andy Bell, host of BNN’s Commodities, about plans for financing Karnalyte’s Wynyard carnalyte project. http://watch.bnn.ca/#clip588833

Dec 19 – Larry Sarbit, manager of the IA Clarington Sarbit US Equity Fund, talked with Kim Parlee on BNN’s Business Day PM about finding bargains in skittish markets. http://watch.bnn.ca/#clip589703

Dec 16 – John van Leeuwen, CEO of EcoSynthetix Inc. (TSX: ECO), discussed the benefits of biopolymers, with the Toronto Star’s cleantech reporter, Tyler Hamilton. http://www.thestar.com/business/cleanbreak/article/1103234--the-green-chemicals-opportunity-is-worthy-of-our-attention 

Dec 14 – Brad Radin, portfolio manager of the IA Clarington Global Equity Fund, talked with BNN’s Andy Bell, on Business Day PM, about savvy holiday-season investment strategies. http://watch.bnn.ca/#clip585793

Dec 14 – Kevin Norton, CEO of BIOX Corp. (TSX: BX), answered questions about the biofuels industry, during a live, online discussion hosted by The Globe & Mail. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-to-lead/building-innovation-in-canada/what-changes-are-driving-the-biofuels-industry/article2268204/

Dec 11 – Mad Money's Jim Cramer talked up SXC Heathcare Solutions Corp. (TSX: SXC), on CNBC.  http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000061450

Shaun Smith, Manager, Media Relations

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The New Year is upon us and it is time to start thinking about your 2011 annual report.  Check out this slidecast of November's webinar, "Maximizing the Value of your Annual Report", for tips on how to bring this year's project in on time and on budget.

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Despite attempts by the Eurozone’s credit crisis to completely monopolize the attention of Canada’s business media during the last few months, there has still been plenty of room to get stories out for Equicom’s clients. Here are a few of the highlights:

John van Leeuwen, CEO of EcoSynthetix Inc. (TSX: ECO), welcomed Prime Minister Stephen Harper to the EcoSynthetix plant in Burlington, ON, to learn about their innovative processes for manufacturing bio-based polymers. While there, Mr Harper sat down for an on-camera interview with CITY TV anchor Gord Martineau.  http://www.citytv.com/toronto/citynews/news/local/article/172609--exclusive-pm-harper-talks-jobs-toronto-with-gord-martineau

Alex Davidson, Manager of the JC Clark Patriot Trust, spoke to Financial Post columnist Jonathan Ratner about investment opportunities in blue-chip and other stocks. http://www.financialpost.com/news/Blue+chips+found+bargain/5834345/story.html

Meanwhile, IA Clarington’s newly appointed fund manager, Brad Radin, discussed global investment opportunities with BNN anchors Kim Parlee and Tony Keller, on Business Day. http://watch.bnn.ca/#clip575937

For The Globe & Mail’s “Building a New Canada” series on innovation, Dr. Paul Walker, CEO of Spectral Diagnostics Inc. (TSX: SDI), wrote an op-ed about the challenges of developing a treatment for sepsis. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-to-lead/building-innovation-in-canada/for-canadian-biotech-companies-thinking-small-and-smart-brings-big-rewards/article2260921/

In mining news, Alexander Massoud, CEO of Egyptian gold junior Alexander Nubia (TSX-V: ANN), spoke to Mining Weekly’s Matt Hill about ANN’s exploration projects in the Eastern Desert, and about Egypt’s emergence as a mining center. http://www.miningweekly.com/article/canadian-junior-has-big-hopes-for-egyptian-gold-2011-12-02

And Liberty Mines (TSX: LBE) CEO Chris Stewart talked to the Timmins Daily Press about plans to restart their three local nickel-mining projects in early 2012. http://www.thedailypress.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3388952

Shaun Smith, Manager, Media Relations

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Retail investors are an important audience to reach as part of an IR strategy.  A strong retail base can support your stock price and improve the liquidity of your listing.  But the retail audience can be a tough market to reach. Until now...

Introducing Waggle – a social network designed specifically to bring TSX- and TSXV-listed issuers and investors together. Best of all- it's free!

Stay tuned - over the next month, we will be posting tips and tricks on how to use Waggle to effectively connect reach the retail audience.  

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During our most recent webinar - "Maximizing the Value of your Annual Report" - we polled attendees to get a better sense of how the average issuer plans to tackle their 2011 Annual Report.  Here are the results:

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TMX Group announced its financing activity on Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV) for October 2011.  Here are a few highlights:

• TSX listed 20 new issuers ahead of the same month a year earlier, when there were 12 new listings. Of the new listings, 8 were from the mining sector and 7 were exchange traded funds.
• TSXV welcomed 13 new issuers during October 2011, compared to 14 in October 2010. Total financings raised increased 19% over September 2011, though they were down compared to the same month a year earlier by 47%. 
• There were 10 graduates to TSX. 

On a year-to-date basis, activity on both the TSX and TSXV continued to exceed 2010 levels for the number of new issuers listed, number of IPOs and total financings raised. 

To view the complete report, please visit http://www.tmx.com/en/pdf/month_stats/FinancingStats_Oct11.pdf. 

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TMX Group Inc. announced October trading statistics for its diversified group of exchanges – Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV), Montreal Exchange (MX) and Natural Gas Exchange (NGX).  Here are some of the highlights:

• Year-to-date, both volume and open interest contracts on the MX continued to surpass 2010 levels.
• Trading volume was down on both the TSX and TSXV compared to the same month a year earlier.
• Volume on NGX was up 18% in October 2011 compared to September 2011. 

To view the full report, please visit http://www.tmx.com/en/pdf/month_stats/TradingStats_Oct11.pdf. 

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The online Annual Report embraces new web technologies to present your investors with an engaging and interactive adaptation of the traditional Annual Report. Either as a stand-alone piece, or a cost-effective complement to your printed Annual Report, this product works in browsers and on mobile devices, to help your story reach the broadest possible audience.

Here are two great examples of one-page online annuals.  

Northgate Minerals

 Northgate Minerals is a gold and copper producer with operations in Canada and Australia.

Axia

Annual report season is fast approaching.  Check out a recording of our most recent webinar, "Maximizing the Value of your Annual Report", to get your annual report planning rolling. 

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Deloitte has issued its annual list of the 500 fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and clean technology companies in North America.

Canadian companies punched above their weight this year.  Seventy-five of the top 500 companies, or 15%, are headquartered in Canada.  In the previous five years the percentage had ranged between 8-to-11%.  Even more impressively, five of the seven fastest growing companies are Canadian.

The growth rates required to make the list range from remarkable to mind-boggling.  The 500^th-ranked company grew revenues a total of 134% from 2006 to 2010, while the top-ranked company grew by over 70,000% during the same period. 

Equicom has been fortunate to work with a number of this year’s Fast 500, including:  Avigilon (#4), GuestLogix (#50), SXC Health Solutions (#51), Nightingale Informatix (#290), BSM Wireless (#291), and Bridgewater Systems (#386).  We also had two clients – EcoSynthetix Inc. and BIOX Corporation – on the Deloitte Technology Green 15, which recognizes companies that are leading the way to create major breakthroughs in the field of green technology. 

Through our work with these companies, we have gained some insights into how they have achieved their successes.

·         Avigilon (the top-ranked software company out of 194 on the list) made the bold decision to spend several years and millions of dollars to design the world’s first HD video surveillance system based completely on IP technology, leapfrogging much larger competitors who were tied to older analog technology.

·         GuestLogix recognized that airlines could generate significant incremental revenue by deploying onboard retailing and merchandising technology, and became a world leader in the space by signing a lengthy roster of air carriers and rail operators.

·         SXC Health Solutions has expanded its business model from its base in healthcare information technology to a full service pharmacy benefit manager (PBM). Along the way, SXC has made a series of acquisitions, starting in 2008 with NMHC to build-out its scale and skill and emerge as the leading mid-market PBM in the sector.

·         Nightingale foresaw the trend towards medical records becoming stored and accessed electronically, and developed a web-based EMR offering with broad appeal to everyone from small primary care providers to large regional health networks.

·         BSM Wireless took a niche technology it had developed for law enforcement agencies, and successfully customized it for a range of specific industry verticals that could benefit from remote monitoring and fleet and asset management services.

·         Bridgewater (recently acquired by AmDocs) recognized early on that the explosion of mobile devices and services would require specialized software to allow telecom carriers to manage and monetize all the added data traffic.

·         EcoSynthetix has developed bio-based polymers that provide customers in the coated paper and paperboard markets with an alternative to materials based on volatile, expensive petroleum feedstock.

·         BIOX produces biodiesel from low value feedstock using a proprietary continuous flow process that achieves higher yields with lower energy and chemical inputs.

Interestingly, only 33% of the Canadian companies (25 of the 75) on the Fast 500 are publicly traded, compared to 51% of the overall 500.  Perhaps (one can hope) this is an early indicator of a growing pipeline of IPO candidates in Canada.

Jeff Codispodi, VP, Technology Group

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