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Travel Diary: Phoenix Cambridge Resource Conference by John Lee, CFA 02/13/2008 Phoenix Cambridge Resource Conference (January 20th-21st, 2008) It has been 10 years since I first traveled to Phoenix, and I was very glad to be invited to speak at the Cambridge Investment Conference that took place in that city this last week. It was the first show for Cambridge House in Phoenix. Held at the superb Renaissance Glendale, near the football stadium where the Super Bowl took place just last week, Cambridge House went to great lengths in promoting the show and invited top speakers such as David Morgan, Dennis Gartman and John Mauldin. Landing in Phoenix on Friday evening I exited the plane to a pleasant 75° F climate with clear skies. The Glendale Stadium area is a brand new development complex opened less than six months ago. It has a cinema and a number of shops and restaurants. Phoenix is now the 5th largest city in the US. Not renting a car was a bad idea, as I paid $60 for the cab ride to the hotel. To get to the real nice area, Scottsdale Oldtown, it was going to be another $75 ride. While the tourist map showed everything as close and convenient, I suppose I should have paid closer attention to the map scale
For those looking for an alternative to Denny for a quick fix, I highly recommend the YardHouse restaurant, where there were over 100 kinds of beer and food was actually very good. If you have a good pint, remember the name of the beer, or next time you won’t find it. I had 3 meals there (Jerk Chicken Stack, Glazed Soy Chicken, Tuna Chinese Salad) and all were excellent and in my opinion puts Canada’s Cactus Club Cafe to shame. The crowd at the show ranged from light to moderate, but all were highly qualified. Over half of those I talked to were resource investors from all over including: Calgary, Saskatchewan, California, Texas, and Idaho. Phoenix is a winter shelter for over 200,000 Canadians, and the venue was great for those who wanted to attend the show from California and Texas but didn’t want to come all the way to Vancouver. I even had people come up praising “My Response to Subprime Article to Nobel Prize Winner Joseph Stiglitz” On Sunday after the joint panel, I had a casual drink with John Mauldin of http://www.johnmauldin.com/. He is an interesting fellow and I recommend you read his weekly column at: http://www.2000wave.com/gateway.asp Phoenix was an hour ahead of Vancouver so I called an early night on Sunday and caught a Monday morning flight home. I missed my flight to Seattle despite arriving at airport 40min before departure. While the US boasts the world’s freest society and people can carry guns around, traveling through ridiculously long lines and bureaucracies at US airports is truly an irony. How much longer for do I have to take off my shoes, scarf, jacket, camera, laptop, and endure endless ID checks and questionings by sometimes less than friendly individuals? I mean I didn’t do it in Taipei, Tokyo, or Bangkok and so are those airports less safe? While Mr. Benjamin Franklin said “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety”, I wonder how many tens of millions of productive American hours are lost through this airport and border madness. Next stop is Shanghai March 4th -6th for Terrapin’s Funds World Asia. I will see you there!
John Lee, CFA |
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