More than 1,000 investors, speakers and sponsors are expected to pack the Hilton New Orleans Riverside this week as the New Orleans Investment Conference marks its 52nd year, running Wednesday through Saturday. The gathering, one of the oldest recurring investment conferences in the country, has built its reputation on metals, mining stocks and hard-money economics since its founding in 1974.
The conference was started that year by entrepreneur James U. Blanchard III, according to neworleansconference.com, and it has since grown into an event organizers say draws wealthy individuals from all 50 states and more than 35 nations. As Biz New Orleans notes, the conference has roots in libertarian political activism and free-market economics, a lineage that still shapes much of its programming today.
This year's edition runs October 28 to 31 at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside, according to a report from bnnbloomberg.ca. Between 500 and 600 individual investors typically make the trip each year, and that number climbs to around 1,000 once speakers, sponsors and company representatives are counted, the outlet reported.
A Packed Roster and a Sold-Out Floor
Organizers have confirmed more than 30 speakers for this year's event, including Danielle DiMartino Booth, Grant Williams, Peter Schiff and Doug Casey, per the same report. The exhibit hall, meanwhile, is expected to host roughly 120 sponsoring companies, with between 80% and 85% of them junior mining companies. Sponsor exhibit space sold out well ahead of the conference, the article notes, leaving a waiting list for companies hoping to secure a booth.
Hotel space tightened up too. The host hotel is sold out, with an overflow room block arranged at Le Meridien New Orleans, according to neworleansconference.com. Organizers had signaled the crunch was coming, stating plainly on their event page that hotel space is limited while registration demand keeps building.
Why the Interest Is Surging
Brien Lundin, tied to the conference's organizing team, attributed the demand to investor confidence in a long-running macroeconomic trend. “They've been very confident in a long-term trend driven by debt and deficits that are out of control, and by the cost of servicing those debts,” Lundin said, per bnnbloomberg.ca. He added that individual investor registrations are running far ahead of anything the event has seen in decades.
That appetite is reflected in the conference's programming lineup, which according to neworleansconference.com covers gold and silver, mining stocks, energy, inflation, interest rates, the Federal Reserve, the dollar, global capital flows, market cycles, real estate, speculation and wealth preservation. For attendees who can't make it to New Orleans in person, the conference says every workshop, panel and general-session presentation is video recorded and made available to both in-person and virtual attendees, allowing participation from around the world.
