Mello 2014 - Panel Discussion - "It's So Hard To Say Goodbye"

9th Nov '14 by Paul Scott

25 comments 15533 reads

The Mello 2014 investor event

EDIT: click here to listen to my Mello 2014 "debrief" audiocast with organiser David Stredder

The first ever "Mello 2014" investor show has just finished, being a 3-day event held at the Derby Conference Centre. It was an absolute triumph, and everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. The organiser was my good friend, and renowned investor David Stredder, so huge kudos to him for having created such a wonderful event from scratch. I know that David and his administrator Georgina, put in a huge amount of work to arrange the event, as did a couple of dozen other helpers, who mostly worked for free to help make the event a success.

The concept was simple - a smaller event than the London shows, held over several days, with many attendees booking accommodation too, so plenty going on not just in the day, but also the evenings - with live music, a poker tournament, and of course plenty of chin-wagging & networking over drinks. David banned junior resource stocks & providers of trading systems, etc, from having stands. Instead he insisted on only having reputable companies and speakers presenting.

There were three lecture rooms of varying size, with events going on in all three at the same time. About 40 companies (mostly AIM Listed) gave half hour presentations to brief investors on their business, and answer questions. Investors who were interested could then spend more time talking one-on-one with company management later, at the company's exhibition stand in the central area, or even over a coffee or a beer.

The feedback I got from several company Directors, was that they were delighted with the level of engagement by investors, and many company meetings were very well attended, with follow-up afterwards. I think this is because David wanted to restrict numbers to only fee-paying visitors, thus serious investors only, rather than packing out the venue with people who wanted free entry & were not interested in engaging with the companies attending.

I much prefer this approach, of limiting numbers, to ensure only serious investors attend & giving good access to management. There are plenty of other free events for the masses!

I suspect that after this tremendous success, that Mello 2015 will be much bigger, and I hope in London next time - as it cost me £95 rail fare to get to Derby, and most…

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Hopespringseternal

10th Nov '14

Great event and I and my friend enjoyed it immensely.
My friend flew in to East Midlands Airport from Spain for the event then hired a car to get to Derby so don't complain about a measly £95 train fare!
His travelling costs alone must have been closer to 500 pds but he really enjoyed himself and thought it worth every penny.....real confirmation that it was a truly successful event.
Well done to all concerned.

intuitive6191

Derby is a reasonable sized place but not really that easy to get to. Oh and I personally wouldn't ever call Derby as being in the North.

I agree. Derby is in the East Midlands and miles away from the "North". I would also agree that there are easier locations to get to.

Having said that - well done for giving a non London location the opportunity to host the event.

Sharechap

Many thanks Paul for the write-up- very sage advice from your panellists.

I am a Midlander and heard about this event too late. I'd be interested in coming if they ran it again.

DarwenLad

Really sad I missed the Derby event since I had to be elsewhere that weekend. Great write up on Lord Lee, Giles Hargreave, and David Stredder. Was it videoed by any chance?. As a Northerner, who has to come south for ShareSoc/Mello type presentations I hope that Mello 2015 will continue to be held outside London.

paperking

Thanks Paul for the write up and I applaud David Stredder for his foresight and organisational skills. I am now sorry I decided to miss this event the initial decision clouded by my negative experience previously at a previous "Small Company" London event but also as I had ventured South of the border the previous weekend for 3 days of partying in Cheltenham with my elderly friends and didn't feel the body would have recovered in time. Being still British I join the voices for a follow up somewhere between London and Edinburgh.

raggedtp

And just to confuse things further, I would have come were it not for a longstanding commitment to US friends visiting, would like to try next time, and would prefer Oxford or Bristol! Also easy to get to, and better for those of us in the southwest!

johnrosier

Really enjoyed the whole event; met some good companies one of which I bought today Avation (LON:AVAP), and some others to go on the watch list. The when to sell panel was very entertaining and well chaired by Paul. I thought John Lee was correct about there being no right answer. What did come through as a theme was try and run your winners (don't cut your flowers as Warren Buffett would say). On cutting losses there seem to be slightly different views, from "cut immediately" to "if you are really convinced of the story buy more as the fall on a profit warning is generally overdone". I fall into the first camp, (although indiscipline has let me down occasionally er Coms (LON:COMS), ) as the share price more often than not is telling you something, i.e. you could be wrong! Best to get out and move on.

I agree with David Stredder's approach to top slicing if the share price has run too far in the short term. It provides ammunition to add to another holding that has perhaps paused for a bit and to top up on a market pull back.

Personally I think it is a good idea to hold it out of London, I live here so enjoyed the trip but perhaps not Derby next time. Paul how about Brighton!

Anyway, great event and plenty of food for thought.

PJBY

Great event and well done to all who gave their time freely arranging and participating in the event. I class my self as a Northerner but live miles away from Derby, just the other side of Nottingham! Disappointing not more from 'up north' attended but I for one would support any venue outside London (Newark or Grantham would be ideal).
I made the mistake of not stopping over, and then found myself attending the presentations but struggling to find time to speak with the companies at their stands, so lesson learned there. I too have bought AVAP today with 7 others added to W/L, and one removed from W/L! PJ

ridavies

I couldn't agree more. I came from the Isle of Man for the whole 3 days and I can assure you Paul that it cost me a lot more than your miserable £95. How much for you to get to a meeting in a distant part of London or Kent for example; not much change out of £95.
I thought your part was great; I thought the whole event was awesome; I thought the cost effectiveness of the whole event was much better than London / SE. Cost of accommodation, food etc very good value. Staff service superb - and with a smile too!
PLEASE have the same event in Derby again next year; take advantage of these very effective facilities - not so fine because after all it was a former training college for the railway industry when Derby was the centre for the London Midland.

Paul Scott

Hi ridavies,

"My miserable £95" - ha! But I've paid tax on that, unlike you tax dodgers in the Isle of Man lol ;-)

You've got a point though about the overall cost of accommodation & catering, etc, over 3 days, so a Midlands/Northern venue would work out more economically.

David kindly settled the bill for my room at Derby, in return for me helping out with presentations & chairing meetings (which I would have done anyway, for free). My only complaint about the accommodation was the pitiful water flow from the shower. As I noted on my feedback form, it's very difficult to plan a presentation when you've just inadvertently scalded your bottom & dangley bits with excessively hot but low pressure water!

Regards, Paul.

garbetklb

11th Nov '14

I was only able to come for Thursday & Friday - had to head back for the village bonfire night on Saturday......

I flew down from Inverness to Manchester & hired an incredibly cheap car - and accommodation (Premier Inn) was good value. And, as mentioned, being residential helped. I'd add my vote to a northern event for next year - and would hope to come for the full 3 days. I didn't take to the venue - inability to print a boarding pass, restaurant restricted opening (wonder how many of the Crawshaw sausages actually got cooked / eaten?!), fuss over providing coffee.

But the overall effort & organisation that went into the event by David & his team deserves total praise. And the filtering of companies presenting - my only worry being that I found almost all of them impressive & investable; maybe I'm going soft?

So, THANK YOU David for a superb event and PLEASE repeat it next year.

Andy

brucepackard

Very good, I imagine you could have had an interesting chat with Giles re £SAL

carmensfella

It was a MASSIVE team effort guys and thank you for providing all the feedback on here and your feedback forms that are being mailed out today

Next year probably mid June and still well away from London and residential is our main focus but do let us know what YOU want as surprisingly and refreshingly we listen !

Mello will be floating on Aim in September lol joking of course

medlar

Thanks for the write up Paul.

Enjoy your recordings of your chats with David Stredder et al but do not always have time to listen to a 40 minute session. Unfortunately AudioBoom is next to useless as it has disabled the timeline scrubber that allows you to fast forward and backward through a tape.
Could you consider putting your conversation on to YouTube or soundCloud instead. Thx

snaj

David

As you know from TMF I wasn't able to attend (and I'm looking forward to the videos!).

What would make it easier for me to attend next year is to know that I can bring wife & toddler (then 3 yrs old) with me to somewhere that there would be the opportunity for them to enjoy daytime activities without me - I didn't look into what was around the hotels and conference centre in Derby as I wasn't able to attend regardless, but that would have been first in my thoughts if I had been free.

I may be in a tiny minority for whom something like this is an issue, so please don't factor it in unless you have others giving similar feedback.

Congratulations on what's clearly been a great event!

Regards
S

Hi Medlar,

At your request I have also uploaded the audiocast to SoundCloud - click here.

12th Nov '14

Thx Paul. Really appreciate the time you took to do it

shanklin100

Thank you Paul,

A very interesting discussion.

Regards, Martin

Welshborderer

16th Nov '14

Hi Paul and David,

May I add my two penn'orth for what it is worth?

Thoroughly enjoyed the three days soaking up as much as I could and wishing that it were possible to divide myself in two occasionally, but that can be resolved at some stage by the videos.

That was a great first event, heck it would have been an OK fifth event, so any future event would be welcome.

I live in an inaccessible part of the world as the dearth of conference centres locally testify, but a near 3 hour drive across the Midlands (not the North) and appallingly bad timing on my part leaving to nurse my bad back, that just happened to coincide with lemmings exiting a sporting event and playing hit me when you can with crawling and stationary drivers alike meant that the Saturday return was no shorter.

Car parking at the Conference Centre was not ideal but the overflow facility was rendered awful by the downpour on Saturday. I could not gain accommodation at the centre and found the various special deal links failed to work for me, but the Derby Pride Travelodge was acceptable. Would have preferred something closer though permitting walking even through rain, I never thought to bring my bus pass, how soon you forget the simple things in life when the car is so easy!

The chance to hear companies presenting themselves side by side was a first for me and led to a surprise when I discovered the distinct impression that an FD was more clued up than his MD, or maybe that is how it should be! Seriously I cannot travel around the country attending AGM's of companies I own shares in let alone ones that might interest me so the idea behind this event chimes well with me.

I agree with others who found the various panel sessions very rewarding being both entertaining and informative and even reassuring as well.

In terms of the future I am not necessarily offering this as a viable alternative but more as an example of a centrally located venue; the National Motorcycle Museum. I have no idea of the cost especially if it was desirable to take the entire 950 capacity, however, it has location in its favour for travellers arriving from almost anywhere and an on-site diversion for anyone seeking a few minutes respite from it all.

If the event were held again in Derby it certainly would not put me off attending but any move towards the south east would cause me to wait it out for the videos.

Just re-read this and it sounds very negative which is really unintentional, a thoroughly good job from everyone involved.

Do keep any recommendations of future conference centre venues coming as we will be looking at all possible options for the next one. I think the Derby CC had a certain character and informality about it that suited our networking needs though somewhere bigger and slightly better located and with more on site accommodation would be very useful.

Mello 2014 - panel discussion - "It's so hard to say goodbye"

The Mello 2014 investor event

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Paul Scott

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