Nick Giorgetta sitting pretty in the Big Chair

CONFERENCE CALLER: Diggers and Dealers chairman Nick Giorgetta dropped by The Roadhouse to provide us with the low-down on what’s up for the upcoming conference to be held in Kalgoorlie.

Giorgetta is now into his second year as the Diggers and Dealers chairmanship and he seems the chair is starting to feel more comfortable.

“I am enjoying my involvement and feel extremely comfortable and privileged to be working with the highly capable and hardworking management team at Diggers and Dealers,” he told The Roadhouse.

“I had no idea how many months of hard work go into organising an event of this size.”

Giorgetta assured The Roadhouse that the conference will be packed to the rafters with company and delegate numbers heading in a positive direction from recent years.

Giorgetta explained that the conference likes to maintain a balance of booths in the main marquee allowing suppliers and resource companies the opportunity to display and discuss what they have to offer to the appropriate delegate.

Approximately 55 per cent of the booths allocated to resource companies, which was – not surprisingly – lower last year at 52 per cent.

This year the Diggers & Dealers Forum has hit its mark to be bang on at 55 per cent of booths allocated to mining companies.

The industry, particularly the junior exploration sector, seems to be building some momentum at the moment and this seems to have had a bit of an effect on improving attendance numbers.

“We have seen some additional interest from companies wanting booths which are unfortunately sold out but we have been able to assist a couple,” Giorgetta explained.

“We are expecting quite a number from the junior sector to attend so that they can catch up with the brokers and talk equity raising.

“We also expect the brokers to be wandering around looking for both value and speculative opportunities to raise money, so in many ways this will be back to the traditional Diggers and Dealers and should be interesting to watch.”

Big boys’ toys will also be on display with Westrac showing off a R2900G underground mining loader out the front of the Goldfields Arts Centre.

The R2900G is a hefty piece of equipment measuring 11 metres in length and 3m in width and will provide people attending Diggers & Dealers an idea of the size of equipment operating underground.

Emeco will again be bringing a simulator to the event allowing delegates to experience operating a major piece of mining equipment like the R2900G.

The company brags that you cannot break the simulator and is encouraging as many delegates as possible to take advantage of this experience, which is rarely available to the general public.

One man Giorgetta is excited to hear from is no other than former first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), John Lipsky, who will be delivering the Forum’s keynote address on Day One.

During his role at the IMF, Lipsky was considered to be an internationally influential economic leader.

Leading up to this time, Lipsky held senior positions in major private financial sector institutions.

His work in both the private and public sectors earned him the respect and regard of many leaders around the world, however, it was his time at the helm of the IMF, which coincided with the most challenging era for the international economy in the past 70 years, where he made his mark.

He was the first person to hold the position of the IMF’s deputy managing director – the organisation’s 2IC leadership role, from 2006-2011,from where he moved up to become acting managing director from May to July 2011.

Global economic turmoil seemed to be his talisman with his accession as the IMF’s AMD coming at a time when European economies, institutions and financial markets were under seige.

Lipsky led the IMF delegation at the 37th G8 summit in 2011 in, France that focused on partnerships with Middle Eastern and North African countries following the Arab Spring.

He also represented the IMF at meetings of Eurozone Finance Ministers, where he urged stronger action to halt the European downward spiral, to restart growth and to implement important reforms.

Aside from the keynote address, Giorgetta expects there to be a great deal of interest in the presentations to be delivered throughout the three days of the conference.

“The corporates seem to be making a real effort to impress at Diggers and Dealers, but importantly it is great to see momentum and enthusiasm in the resources industry whether this is in gold, lithium or some other commodity,” he said.

“This should just make for a dynamic and fun conference.”