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Business Times - 09 Apr 2012

Invest Fair 2012 attracts more than 15,000 people

Early birds wait as long as 30 mins for door to open on Sat

By ARTHUR LEE

ABOUT 100 people waited patiently for the doors to Invest Fair 2012 to open on Saturday morning, with some standing in line a full 30 minutes before the event started.

Into its sixth annual edition, Invest Fair - hosted by ShareInvestor, the financial Internet media and technology subsidiary of Singapore Press Holdings - was held at Suntec City over two days.

More than 15,000 people - from youthful-looking professionals to silver- haired retirees - attended. They had some 40 seminars to pick from.

The event's theme 'Invest with Knowledge' brought together several industry experts.

Richard Duncan - author of The Dollar Crisis: Causes, Consequences, Cures, a top 10 bestseller on Amazon - spoke about investing in today's difficult times.

He is perhaps best known for his views on the risks for an economy that is driven by credit creation and consumption.

'Creditism' may have created extraordinarily rapid growth for decades but it now seems to have hit its limits because the credit that has been extended can no longer be repaid.

Other speakers included Kevin Scully, executive chairman and founder of NRA Capital; Song Seng Wun, executive director and regional economist with CIMB Research, and Robert Miles, author and internationally-acclaimed Warren Buffett scholar.

Said Christopher Lee, chief executive of ShareInvestor: 'Invest Fair 2012 offers a platform for investors to find out more about investment opportunities across different asset classes.

'Working closely with The Business Times, Invest Fair has grown over the years to be the one-stop educational hub for investors to learn, share and, in the process, grow their wealth.'

Patrick Daniel, editor- in-chief of SPH's English and Malay Newspapers Division and chairman of ShareInvestor, said: 'SPH wants to help retail investors make well-informed investment decisions.

'This year's Invest Fair follows the launch of the BTInvest portal, which integrates our products and competencies in the areas of investor education and investor relations.'

Remind me of the lemmings that are blocked by the door.
When I looked at the list of speakers and exhibitors, I thought there are more sharks or crocodiles than sherperds.

I had not been to these fairs before. is it worthwhile??

(09-04-2012, 06:23 PM)yeokiwi Wrote: [ -> ]I had not been to these fairs before. is it worthwhile??

I only went there because I wanted to speak personally to Kingsmen's GM Mr. Andrew Cheng, as well as hear him speak of Kingsmen in Seminar Booth 4.

Other than that, I felt the whole place was a complete waste of time.

Oh, but Kingsmen did earn some money setting up the whole place, so in a sense I should be glad they are holding this yearly as some of the money will be recycled back to me as dividends.

I have been a sleeping member on this forum all this while and having been heavily influenced by the tenets of value investing approach here, I must agree that the Invest Fair is really a waste of my Sat's time

Almost 95% of the seminars there are meant for traders and short term speculators rather than investors, with the sole objective of teaching you how to use technical tools to time the market. It should have been called "Trader's Fair" instead of "Invest Fair"

(10-04-2012, 09:02 AM)gemswizard Wrote: [ -> ]It should have been called "Trader's Fair" instead of "Invest Fair"

Haha, well the media does not differentiate between ïnvestor and speculator/trader. To them they are one and the same, and the terms can be used interchangeably.

Of course, from the trading academy's perspective, you are "investing" in them as you pay exorbitant fees to attend their courses!

I have almost attended the seminar, but cancel due to other commitment.

I have "save" the time for a more quality time spend elsewhere. ;P;P

Found the following by google
"...Since the inaugural INVEST Fair in August 2007, INVEST Fair has become a regular annual event for investors and traders alike. INVEST Fair has attracted an average of 20,000 visitors yearly over the past 4 years...."

The 15,000 visitors clocked by INVEST Fair 2012 is below average. Perhaps because INVEST Fair 2011 was held on 13-14 Aug 2011, just 8 months ago? Or perhaps there is information fatigue? Glad that I am one of the missing 5k visitors, but I missed the humpty dumpty.

Years ago, many S-chips were being promoted like potential goldmine in Invest Fair. All are history now.

Actually there was nothing great other than Kingsmen's talk.. Almost all the booths are seen every year.. I wouldn't have gone if Andrew wasn't speaking..

i think the kingsmen and the sti talk that's earlier are pretty useful. I learnt quite a lot about STI and FTSE group. Then i saw crowds flooding adam khoo's booth after his talk, i didn't attend his but can hear him shouting and maybe screaming about buying stock using datas from 1980s onward.

Then the brokerage talk on leveraged dividend investing is even worse, used the example of leveraging to 100k using 30k in SPH to get dividend of 13%. Of course, brokerage gets to earn 3.5% to 6.5% interest.

Ken chee's one is harmless since it is touting value investing and the cost of the course is relatively cheap. He was sharing on VICOM and OKP though i missed the one on OKP.

Most of the paid talks are either outlook or TA or forex, thus i rejected a $60 voucher for the talk on the condition that Ihelp them fill in the survey

Pity the folks out there