Microcaps Mostly Missing from Prestigious JP Morgan Healthcare Conference

The J.P. Morgan Chase Healthcare Conference, held annually each January in San Francisco, is the world’s largest healthcare conference and arguably the most prestigious. Next year’s gathering, to be held Jan. 10-13 at the Westin St. Francis Hotel, is the 29th annual event.

While the conference has a colorful and prestigious history, it wasn’t always staged by JP Morgan. It was started by the now defunct San Francisco-based investment bank Hambrecht & Quist, which is actually the firm mostly responsible for building its reputation. And under H&Q’s management the conference used to be an important venue for small, up-and-coming micro-cap stocks. That has changed, too.

This coming January, of the 300 presenting companies, only a small percentage have market capitalizations under $500 million. That’s largely because JP Morgan bankers focus mostly on larger companies, while the old H&Q had many smal healthcare companies as clients. In recent years JP Morgan has suggested it would maintain a roster of the smaller companies, but that promise seems to have fallen off the shelf.

Still, there are a few microcaps on the conference roster, including:

Cranbury, NJ-based Amicus Therapeutics (Nasdaq: FOLD, http://www.amicustherapeutics.com/) is one of the smallest companies at the conference, based on its market cap of $110 million. The biopharmaceutical company develops small molecule oral drugs, called pharmacological chaperones, for the treatment of various human genetic diseases. The company just won a second $500,000 grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research to develop a pharmacological chaperone to treat Parkinson’s disease. Barron’s recently named Amicus as one of the small biotechs to watch in 2011. The stock traded at about $4 in mid-December.

Carlsbad, CA-based Genoptix (Nasdaq: GXDX, http://www.genoptix.com/), a diagnostics laboratory and diagnostic services company whose shares surged $3 to $20.98 on Dec. 14 based on a Bloomberg report that it was putting itself up for sale. Shares of Genoptix have lost half their value since reporting a disappointing quarter in early May. Genoptix market capitalization of $370 million makes it one of the smaller companies presenting at the JP Morgan conference.

Mountain View, CA-based Hansen Medical Inc. * (Nasdaq: HNSN, http://www.hansenmedical.com/) designs and manufactures medical robotics and catheter-based technologies for the electrophysiology and vascular surgery markets. The stock has been on a downward slide for the past year, from more than $3 about a year ago to its current price of about $1.44. A new CEO experienced in medical devices, Bruce J Barclay, was named to lead Hansen Medical last summer.

Franklin, TN-based BioMimetic Therapeutics (Nasdaq: BMTI, http://www.biomimetics.com/) a biotech company that develops regenerative products for treating bone and skeletal injuries. It has a $322 million market cap and its stock price has been trending upward, from just over $8 last summer to more than $11 in mid-December.

Lexington, MA-based AMAG Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: AMAG, http://www.amagpharma.com/) is a biopharmaceutical company that creates therapeutic iron compounds to treat iron deficiency anemia. Its stock price has been sliding for the past year but got a nice boost in late November on news that the company had reached agreement with regulators over the addition of warnings to the labeling of its anemia treatment. Still, the stock was trading at just over $16 in mid-December after having been more than $50 last January.

* Denotes client of Allen & Caron, publisher of this blog

Random Observations from the Winter MedTech Conferences

The second week of January found San Francisco, once again, abuzz with folks engaged in the business of medicine. The 28th annual JP Morgan Conference held the spotlight, packing the Westin St. Francis tight and the OneMedPlace and OneMedTV (www.onemedplace.com, www.onemedtv.com) crowds held court in impressive fashion across the way at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel.  A repeated nod to Brett Johnson who has constructed his OneMedPlace organization out of whole cloth and in a few short years has entered the consciousness of the industry.

From high level, the theme of this year could have been, “Things are Clearly Better – Right?” Many conversations held that thought or some close derivative as banker after banker expressed optimism, but couldn’t exactly put a finger on why. An unscientific sampling of private companies found that that those with the best VC pedigrees are finding funding while those with second tier sponsorship or that may have fallen behind original development schedules seem to have been forsaken by the system. A “down round” seems to be the best possibility for this group and many have either taken very expensive strategic money from large corporate players or have simply gone dark.

While the IPO market is still expectant (but not delivering), smaller banks seem to be doing deals at a good pace. The deal machine at Rodman & Renshaw chugs along at a good pace and regional players seem to have accelerated their deal flow as well.  Craig Levine, a banker at Chardan Capital Markets (www.chardancm.com) indicates that their deal flow – both financing and strategic – is picking up in Asia and the US.  In speaking to management teams in atendance, it seems that the anticipation of a better financing climate is leading many bankers to suggest shelf registrations for their small public targets.  This could be as much a marketing move to lock up a relationship as anything, but the shelf idea seems to have fresh legs this winter.

Despite the absense of hard evidence, the pall that hung over the 2009 version of the events has lifted and the players are smiling – we will have to see if the dollars follow the mood.

50 Emerging CleanTechs Each Year: An Interview with Mungo Park of CleanEquityMonaco

We had a conversation with  our old friend, Mungo Park, on Friday the 23rd, primarily to talk about the annual CleanEquityMonaco conference (http://www.cleanequitymonaco.com/) hosted by his company, London-based boutique investment bank, Innovator Capital (http://www.innovator-capital.com/).  The 2010 edition of CleanEquityMonaco* is set forMarch 4-5, 2010, and it will follow the established mandate of finding 50 of the most innovative and potentially world-changing emerging technologies in the cleantech/greentech world. 

 

Innovator Capital's Mungo Park, organizer of CleanEquityMonaco

Mungo Park (a descendent of the 18th-century Scots explorer of the same name) has spent most of his professional life working with emerging technology companies, largely in the role of  investment banker.  The Irish Mr Park started at Prudential Bache, and then came up through the ranks at northeastern US investment banks of legend, many swallowed up by larger institutions in the consolidation frenzy of the latter years of the 20th century: Alex Brown & Sons, Cowen & Company, Dillon Read & Co.  He headed Nomura’s European i-banking operation before founding Innovator Capital.  Innovator was at first devoted to life science banking, and broadened over the last 5-6 years to include cleantech banking, due to its obvious connection with preventive healthcare and societal wellness. 

The following are excerpts from the conversation:

SCW: You were originally attracted to life sciences.  Why are you now seeking out alternative energy and greentech companies?

MP: I was working on a financing for a company that had a technology to remove oxides of nitrogen from diesel emissions and I realized that not only was this a way to make people healthier (less asthma, fewer respiratory ailments), but the business plans of cleantech companies follow a similar pattern to what I had seen in biotech and healthcare in general.  That is, invention, research, development into a usable product, commercialization.  A biotech product has to survive 7-9 years of test, however, and in many cases a greentech product can be ready for market in 7-9 months, which means the potential for a return on investment is much closer, if the wheel lands on your number.  Most green technologies do not have to clear through an FDA-type regulator in order to be “legal,” which makes all the difference in the world, often reducing the length of time from conception to commercialization.

The most important reason I am working on cleantech is, however, that it ticks the “ethical box” — that is, it improves the quality of human life.  And that is also the reason for CleanEquityMonaco.

SCW: Other than the name, what’s different about CleanEquityMonaco?  There are greentech/cleantech scientific or financial conferences springing up everywhere.  And how does a company get invited to participate?

MP:  About the time I was becoming more and more interested in cleantech, His Serene Highness Prince Albert II became the sovereign of Monaco.  I have had the good fortune to know him and he has significant credentials in environmental issues.  Shortly after his accession I had a meeting with him and we came up with the idea for CleanEquityMonaco, a conference whose purpose is to introduce emerging/early-stage, innovative, next-generation technologies from all over the world.  The fields of interest are, broadly, clean energy, clean earth, clean water, clean air.

Many of the presenting companies are fresh out of academia or an inventor’s laboratory.  Many are working on their first proof of principle and are very early stage.  They need money, yes, but they need other things as well.  CleanEquityMonaco is set up as a platform to introduce them to sources of investment (financial and strategic), but also to media, politicians and political influencers, potential licensees and potential technology partners. 

As to how a company can be invited, there are numerous ways.  We have developed a list of about 300 companies that we are looking at ourselves.  Many of those, as it turns out, are not qualified because they are too large or too well-established.  We try to invite presenters who are below €250 million in fair value — and that is an important distinction between our search for emerging technologies and other conferences’ searches for faits accomplis.  But we accept nominations from people we trust, and apply our diligence principles to those.  We try for a geographic spread that is global, so we don’t want more than, say 10 companies from North America, preferring to be clearly and fairly global.  And we give some preference to companies that are not yet listed for trading in a public market — and that may not have that as a goal either.  We are interested in the entrepreneurial spirit as it affects the cleantech/greentech movement, and, potentially, the health of people around the world.

Hotel de Paris, Monte Carlo

SCW: Why would a company want to present?

MP: If we put it together right — and so far the conferences have gone pretty well — in the 2 days of CleanEquityMonaco, the companies can cover a huge amount of ground.  They can save a lot of time and money because there is such a good mix of people there.  We have heard back from the participants that it is an extremely productive meeting.

We have two levels of participation for companies in different stages of development: full participation for companies who are post-development/expansion stage, and a “Next Wave” participation for companies who are pre-revenue/early-stage.  The Next Wave companies make a shorter presentation, but they have all the opportunities for networking which, in the final analysis, is what the conference is about.

SCW: We hear that Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou will be presenting a new award at the conference. 

MP: Of course Stelios is very well known in Europe as a hugely successful entrepreneur, perhaps most famous from EasyJet and EasyGroup, but from many businesses that he has started or encouraged from scratch.  And as a successful entrepreneur, he wants to give something back to the world.  He has been looking at cleantech for a while, and attended CleanEquityMonaco 2009.  He is sponsoring the conference, and has indeed agreed to present an award for entrepreneurship in cleantech, but he is particularly looking forward to meeting people, sharing his experience.  The Stelios Foundation (http://www.stelios.com/ ) has as its areas of interest: the environment, education and entrepreneurship.

SCW: What makes this conference different from other conferences?

MP: The extraordinary thing about this conference is the rich texture of participation.  We invite 50 companies to present, and about 300 attendees to mix, mingle and offer their help.  The focus is strictly on emerging technologies — not on upcoming financial deals.  The view is global, not country specific, and the attendees tend to be quite senior in their positions, representing international organizations like the UN, sovereign governments, big international corporations, academia, and finance.  We expect to see big multinationals there, shopping for investments and looking for junior partnerships — companies like Philips, GE, Siemens, Nissan and IBM.

Perhaps most important, the attendees go to Monte Carlo specifically for the conference, and they tend to be in attendance for all the sessions both days.  If we tried to do the same thing in London, we would have people popping in and out, coming to the lunch, and some presenters would get short shrift.  That is simply not the case in Monte Carlo.  It is a two-day event for everyone concerned, and the attendees tend to be at the conference 12 hours a day.

SCW: The upcoming conference will be the 3rd annual.  Have you had particular success stories that came out of the first two editions of CleanTechMonaco?

 MP: Several come to mind right away.  Zenergy Power (http://www.zenergypower.com/ ) presented in 2008; they are a superconductor energy technology company, listed on AIM, but operating in Germany, the US and Australia.  They have a variety of products targeted at electric utilities, and have done very well with the technology for transmitting large quantities of electricity over long distances with little or not leakage.  They got a large amount of recognition at CleanEquityMonaco, which also resulted in a lot of publicity.  Subsequently they have received additional funding and are, I believe, the first superconductor developer to be partnered by a major US utility.

Ener1 (http://www.ener1.com/ ) presented at that same meeting.  At the time they presented, they were pretty early-stage, and had recently restructured their capitalization.  They spent a good deal of their time at the conference with Think Electric, an auto company from Norway that was also presenting — and the two have subsequently partnered in several ways.  Ener1 has been a success story on the stock market, and was the recipient of a large US stimulus matching grant to expand its manufacturing in Indiana. 

Heliocentris Fuel Cells AG (http://www.heliocentris.com/en/about-us/profile.html) , based in Berlin and traded in Germany, is a hydrogen fuelcell company that presented to the 2009 conference.  Very soon thereafter they were able to announce a new financing that has helped them expand their business considerably.  They are partnered with many of the leading fuel-cell companies around the world.

US Geothermal (http://www.usgeothermal.com/) is headquartered in Idaho and traded on the NYSE Amex.  It is what its name implies: a company that uses the earth’s own heat to generate power.  They have had a steep growth trajectory, and were recently awarded a grant by DOE for a project in Oregon. 

Scots company Aquamarine Power (http://www.aquamarinepower.com/ ) is installing the world’s first nearshore wave energy device that will generate clean energy from the movement of waves.  They presented at the 2009 conference and have won numerous awards and commendations from all over the world.  They were able to raise a fair amount of new capital during a very difficult market subsequent to their participation in CleanEquityMonaco, and we are pleased that the timing was so propitious for them.

SCW: It is all business then?

MP:  CleanEquityMonaco is held in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and the camaraderie that comes out of the meeting may be as important in some cases as the sharing of scientific developments. The meeting is small enough and senior enough that it helps create a network that’s not dissimilar to some “old school” or university networks — reaching all over the world and to many parts of society and industry. 

We have special rates from the best hotels in Monte Carlo: the fabulous Hotel de Paris, the beautiful beaux arts Hermitage, and the modern seaside Monte Carlo Bay Hotel.  We will be announcing several social events, including a CEO-only dinner on the night before the first day of meetings.  However serious we are, it is still Monte Carlo, after all.

SCW:  Many thanks. 

*Allen & Caron, publisher of this blog, is working with CleanEquityMonaco on a collegial basis in North America.

The Green Fringe: Conferences, Media, et al.

Anyone who can read a newspaper or watch a television knows that the “green” movement is, as Mike the Ford spokesman says in a current tv commercial “kind of a big deal.”  The recent IPO of Watertown, MA-based A123 Systems (Nasdaq: AONE; http://www.a123systems.com/), which has virtually doubled the money of those who put their bets down on the IPO, has only served to underscore the obvious: that migrating wildebeests moving from the Serengeti to the Masai Mara ain’t got NUTTIN’ on the greentech movement.   A123 Systems, a company about which there is a considerable split of opinions, is the largest and most prominent US-based lithium-ion battery company, with a market cap of about $2.3 billion, which puts it out of our realm of interest, although we do try to keep an eye on energy storage as perhaps the most important enabling technology in the green movement.

But what we want to do today is have a look at some of the folks at the edges of the green movement — not the scientists or engineers, not the R&D workers or the panel installers, not the guys in white overalls in clean rooms — but the enablers, the ones who are green by reflected glory, dedication or avocation. 

The most obvious green fringe companies are the ones that put on conferences, which, to be clear, are hives to which the little green bees can bring their pollen or store their honey.  There are numerous investment banks that have either greentech conferences or greentech “tracks” in otherwise more general investment conferences.  Those include San Francisco-based Merriman Curhan Ford (Nasdaq: MERR; http://www.merrimanco.com/), a company we have written about on numerous occasions, and whose stock has done rather well in the recovery.  They also include Rodman & Renshaw (Nasdaq: RODM; http://www.rodmanandrenshaw.com/), whose enormous convocation in Manhattan late in September created enough hullabaloo that there was simply not room for all the invited guests at the opening night gala, which took all of Ellis Island and featured Diana Ross singing her heart out.  RODM traded as low as $0.14 earlier this year, and is currently at $6.20 (yikes!), a dizzying gain.  it also includes Newport Beach-based Roth Capital (www.rothcapital.com), whose growth-stock conference in February is an eagerly looked-for event for the largely snowbird investment community.  And to be fair, there are lots of other investment banks/ broker-dealers whose conferences are wowie-zowie and who have strong greentech banking groups.

The purely greentech conference scene also includes conferences with a distinctly tree-hugging personality.  January 20-21, 2010, will kick off the greentech conclave season in Palm Springs, with the CleanTech Investor Summit (http://www.cleantechsummit.com/), sponsored by greentechies like Milwaukee-based RW Baird and Wells Fargo, lawfirms like Morrison & Foerster and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe.  Limited to 500 attendees “for the maximum networking experience,” this Summit (they are all called “premier” events, by the way) could easily be the greentech version of speed-dating.  But heck, you can cover a lot of, um, ground.

Then on February 24-26, 2010, The Palace Hotel in San Francisco will host another premier event with a similar name, but distinguished by its fancy-looking Roman numeral: Cleantech Forum XXVI (http://cleantech.com/cleantechforum/).  This event is for startups and VCs only, which seems a bit like matching giants against babies, but that is the point of such events, with the lucky babies getting to suckle at the VC tit in exchange for a long period of indentured service.  Clearly a worthwhile experience, and with a lot of marquee names.

The elegance in this field, however, is all in Monte Carlo March 4-5, 2010, with CleanEquity Monaco (http://www.cleanequitymonaco.com/).  This conference gathers up no more than 50 small companies from all over the world, and invites scientists, investors, the media and UN influentials to a series of high-toned seminars and presentations punctuated by the lavish and eye-poppingly beautiful area around the famous Casino.  Smoothly run under the serene eye of Prince Albert II, the organizer is London-based Innovator Capital (www.innovator-capital.com).  Allen & Caron, the publisher of this blog, is a sponsor of CleanEquityMonaco for 2010. 

The media clearly has a stake in greentech as well, and are overall no more united or careful about what they say in this regard than in any other, with lots of entries on social media like Twitter, and nearly uncountable blogs (like this one, I suppose).  It may be simply the nature of media to run in packs (different packs to be sure, and often snarling at each other).  There are far too many to enumerate, but there are some growing empires in that area.  Worth mentioning are the GigaOM internet publications, frequently one of the firstest with the mostest: http://earth2tech.com/?utm_source=gigaom&utm_medium=topnav.  The CBS Interactive property, CNET, offers the insightful Martin LaMonica, who is a good source and worth pointing your news aggregator at:  http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10367683-54.html?tag=mncol.  There is also the slightly stuffy-looking but extremely wide-ranging GreenCarCongress, which is SO not just about cars: http://www.greencarcongress.com/.     And never one to be outdone, HuffPo has a hyperactive and wide-eyed Green Section: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/green/.   And lots more, lots more. 

Finally, have a look at http://www.guardian.co.uk/globalcleantech100 in which the respected GUARDIAN allies itself with the sponsor of the San Francisco conference mentioned above, and set for Feb 24-26, 2010.  This is a somewhat idiosyncratic list of what someone thinks are the “Top 100” cleantech companies in the world, a little like a rolodex that some cards fell out of.  Somewhere between a Mr Blackwell Worst-Dressed List and an uptown awards ceremony, there seems to be little pattern to the choices — but it is a sign of the greentech culture that this sort of list begins to appear.

Please keep in mind that we do not recommend stocks; we simply write about companies we find interesting.  Do your own diligence, please.

Small Companies with Great Growth Trajectories

My good friend John Westergaard used to tell me regularly that investors do not want to buy into small companies — instead they want to buy into companies that are going to be big companies, which lets them “get in on the ground floor.”  Keeping that in mind, I decided to scout around and see if I could find some likely candidates.  I looked for companies with fast-accelerating revenues, big niches that they can dominate, or assets that could make them much bigger very quickly. 

Please keep in mind that we never recommend stocks.  We write about companies that we find interesting, and we always suggest that investors do their own diligence before investing.

If you are interested in finding companies that are on trajectories that may make them a lot bigger, here are a handful of interesting companies that you may not have noticed yet.

First, consider New York City-based interCLICK Inc (OTC BB: ICLK, http://www.interclick.com/), a behavioral advertising networker that is growing at a furious rate based on their ability to generate a cost-per-customer that gives advertisers an attractive “ROI” and a steady stream of buyers.  I heard CEO Mike Mathews present at the Rodman & Renshaw conference last week, and found the story compelling.  Revenues for the most recent quarter (keep in mind that we are in a troublesome economy) were up 126% year-over-year, and their growth chart is beginning to look Matterhorn-ish.  The stock closed at $2.05 on Friday the 11th on volume of 225,000 shares, close to its 52-week high of $2.25, and far above its low of $0.45, for a current market cap of about $85 million, which puts them at less than 2 times what looks like this year’s likely revenue, and just over par with 2010 revenue if it continues to rise the way it is rising now.  The management has a messianic attitude about their techniques and know-how, and a big-company client list as long as the CEO’s arm.

Then have a look at New York City- and Prague-based KIT Digital Inc (Nasdaq: KITD; http://www.kit-digital.com/), a video enablement company that allows big brands, telcos and entertainment companies to distribute video content via the Internet, mobile networks (think cellphones), and IPTV set-top boxes.  Their business is a little difficult to understand because it is largely unseen by viewers, but their most recent quarterly results were up 91% year-over-year, and seem to be running at a rate of $40 million minimum, with a current market cap of about $37 million.  KITD presented at the Rodman & Renshaw conference as well, and has a future lineup of other conferences that you can find out about on their website.  The stock recently moved from the Bulletin Board to Nasdaq, and closed at $7.72 on Friday, vs a year-high of $9.80.  KITD suffers from low trading volume, probably largely because of its low level of awareness among investors.

Next, cast your baby blues at Scotts Valley CA-based VirnetX Holding Group* (NYSE Amex: VHC, http://www.virnetx.com/), which has an IP portfolio of internet security patents that sprang largely from super-spook midcap company, SAIC Inc (NYSE: SAI).  Their patents cover the ability to establish secure Virtual Private Networks among computers, mobile devices, and other devices  with a single mouseclick, as well as the right to issue Secure Domain Names.  Current interest is focussed on their gargantuan lawsuit against Microsoft which, if VirnetX prevails, could give them a gazillion-dollar award.  But the Secure DNS part of the business could well justify a significant increase in value separate from the MSFT litigation.  What’s the catch?  VHC is pre-revenue, and has yet to announce their first significant licensing deal, most likely because potential customers are waiting to see the outcome of the MSFT case, which got a favorable nod from the court that is trying the case in its “Markman” opinion this year.  VHC closed at $2.89 on Friday, far off its 52-week high of $5.00, and the shares have average trading volume of 152,000 shares.

Check out London-based Sirius Exploration PLC (http://www.siriusexploration.com/) , which owns some salt and potash mining properties and options in the US and Australia — properties that are envisioned by the company to become storage locations for unused energy in the form of compressed air.  Sirius shares trade feverishly on the London AIM, closing Friday at 0.14 GBP on volume of 8.6 million shares.  Their US ADR trades on the Pink Sheets and closed Friday at $107.60, up $21.00 on the day, and vs a 52-week low of $13.00.  The problems are that there is almost no volume in the US trading, and there seems to be very little recent news on Sirius (the most recent news on Yahoo Finance is from April), as well as a fair level of skepticism on the Internet.  It’s a mining company — dig deep in your due diligence, please. Caveat emptor!!

Finally, look at Foster City CA-based SciClone Pharmaceuticals Inc (Nasdaq: SCLN; http://www.sciclone.com/), which is developing and commercializing drugs for cancer and infectious diseases in China and internationally.  It has drugs for hepatitis B & C, as well as a raft of cancers, including pancreatic cancer, Stage IV melanoma, and liver cancer.  SCLN closed at $4.83 on Friday, up from a year low of $0.63, on volume of 555,000 shares, with a market cap of about $225 million.  Clearly someone is interested with trading like that and a fast rising valuation.

Mr Westergaard died in 2003, but I have a sense that he may be “up there” keeping an eye on these and other small companies with interesting potential.

*client of Allen & Caron, publisher of this blog.

ThinkGreen 2009: San Francisco This Week

Many of the most visible and notable companies and personalities in the greentech/cleantech world will be on hand for ThinkGreen 2009, to be held Wednesday & Thursday at the InterContinental Hotel in San Francisco.  The conference is sponsored by investment bank, Think Equity ( http://www.thinkequity.com/events/ThinkGreen/2009/).

Presenters will include Ascent Solar (Nasdaq: ASTI), Ceradyne (Nasdaq: CRDN), Ener1 (Nasdaq: HEV), LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK), MasTec Inc (NYSE: MTZ), Real Good Solar (nasdaq: RSOL), Spire Corp (Nasdaq: SPIR), Suntech Power Holdings (NYSE: STP), Valence Technology (Nasdaq: VLNC), and World Energy (TSX: XWE), in addition to a gaggle of not-yet-public companies whose names we will no doubt become more accustomed to seeing in the future.

On-site registration is $1,000.  For a look at the agenda, go to http://www.thinkequity.com/events/ThinkGreen/2009/agenda.html.  You can register online, or in person, with registration open as of Tuesday evening.

Wall St GREEN Trading Summit April 1-2

courtesy Wall St GREEN Trading Summit

The Wall Street GREEN Trading Summit, set for April 1-2 this year has assembled a “who’s who” of speakers, panelists and sponsors, as you might expect, since GREEN is finally squarely in the smack-dab middle of the spotlight.  But we hasten to add that WSGTS is not a johnny-come-lately, having been putting together green stars since they launched in 2002 (http://www.wsgts.com) . 

Sponsors include the usual suspects (Nasdaq OMX, CME Group, Acorn Energy), but this year also includes Gazprom, at one point the largest market-cap in the world, and still a biggie by anyone’s measure.

The general convocations will be held in new Renzo Piano-designed The Times Center at 242 West 41st Street at the corner of 8th Avenue (the one that two show-offs climbed the same week over the summer).  The individual seminars, of which there are many, will be held at the PricewaterhouseCoopers Center at 300 Madison Avenue at the corner of 42nd Street.  If the weather is reasonable the two venues should be a relatively easy walk apart. 

Virtually every bigtime green publication or green department of a publication will be there, with the media list as high as an elephant’s eye. 

Topics to be treated include Carbon trading (cap-and-trade — see our article from February 23 on Climate Exchange plc), and the ins and outs of smart grids, among many other topics.

The entrance ticket is not cheap.  A 2-day pass to all the information you can eat is $1,495.  There are also pre-conference and post-conference conflabs on, respectively, Carbon Markets and Carbon Finance.  To get further information, call 1-888-435-2632 or go to http://www.wsgts.com.  If you’re interested in the proceedings but cannot make it to the meetings, there will be a DVD available at the end for $695, and you can get copies of all the presentation materials for $395.

Renewable Energy Conference in Vegas March 10

Although it may seem almost oxymoronic for a renewable energy conference to take place in Las Vegas — in fact the “Renewable Energy World North America” conference begins on March 10 at the Rio Hotel.  Fewer subjects are more germane to the state of the economy and the use of economic stimulus than the subjects that will be on the agenda here.

Sponsored by Renewable Energy World (http://www.renewableenergyworld.com), an important and regular news source and commentator on these critical subjects, the conference will feature a Keynote Session with speakers from a variety of renewable energy sectors: wind, geothermal, hydropower, solar, and others. 

The conference organizers particularly encourage companies that generate electricity to attend, and have set up a $500 registration fee for such companies; the fee allows an unlimited number of delegates to attend. Details at http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/partner/-renewable-energy-world-conference-expo-north-america-2769/news/article/2009/02/54851?src=rss

The conference has not only notable speakers, but notable sponsors, many of whom are listed in the news release.  If you want more information, email David Wagman at davidw@pennwell.com or call him at 918-831-9866.

ASX Conference in NYC Feb 26 — Save the Date

February 26 — mark your calendar — will be the 2009 edition of the ASX Conference in New York City.  The Australian Securities Exchange has scheduled 13 companies as of today, largely, as one might expect, in the area of natural resources. 

The conference will be held at the centrally located Grand Hyatt adjacent to Grand Central Terminal.  There will be an evening reception on the 25th, and the conference itself will kick off with an address by the Consul General of Australia at 9:30AM, followed by company presentations at approximately half-hour intervals, with one-on-one meetings throughout the day.

To get further information, or to register, go to http://www.asx.com.au/smalltomidcaps/newyork/.

Several of the companies that are presenting trade in North America as well as on the ASX.  Crescent Gold Ltd (http://www.crescentgold.com.au) trades in Toronto as CRA. 

The US-traded companies that are presenting are all listed on the OTCQX, which has attracted more than 50 international ADRs in the last two years.  Citigold Corp (http://www.citigold.com)  trades on the OTCQX as CTOHY.   Kingsgate Consolidated Ltd (http://www.kingsgate.com.au) trades on the OTCQX as KSKGY.

A trio of interesting resource companies are Eastern Star Gas (OTCQX: ESGLY, http://www.easternstar.com.au);  White Energy Company (OTCQX: WECFY, http://www.whiteenergyco.com.au);  and Industrea Ltd (OTCQX: IULTY, http://www.industrea.com.au).