Roth Conference Reveals IPO & Energy Investment Surge

The 27th Annual Roth Conference was buzzing as usual this year in beautiful Dana Point, CA.  It was another successful year with cutting edge presentations, keynote addresses and networking opportunities. The first thing that struck us about the show was a shift in attendee demographics. There appeared to be more investment bankers at the show, which proves that investment in emerging companies continues to grow.

With so many bankers in attendance, it’s not surprising that conversations focused on IPO activity.  Would 2015 surpass 2014’s 275 IPO filings – highest we’ve seen since the dot.com era? Although 2015 has gotten off to a slower start, the IPO trend still seems to be going strong especially with companies like Etsy, GoPro, Uber, Airbnb expected to file this year.

Concerning IPOs, attendees we spoke to were particularly interested in printing and printing costs associated with the IPO process.  We learned that some printing bills had reached several thousand dollars for recent filings. For attorneys handling IPOs we recommended that they reevaluate current printer fees in order to save their clients thousands of dollars in overall charges. Attorneys, CFOs and others involved in IPOs should be looking for financial printers that offer fixed pricing contracts. This helps IPOs stay on budget. If you want to learn more, read our recent blog post on printing costs.

The energy sector was also a hot topic at this year’s show. We saw more energy investors this year.  Last year’s attendees showed more interest in the healthcare market, while this year’s investors were looking at the clean technology, oil, gas and mining fields. But don’t sell the healthcare market short, there were still a fair share of presentations and interested parties discussing the health care and pharmaceutical market.

While the Edgar Agents team was not able to make it to every Panel discussion, there were a number of memorable ones such as shareholder activism, energy markets and IPO readiness, with a special presentation from Keynote speaker Martin E. Franklin, founder and executive chairman of Jarden Corporation.

On the lighter side, the conference offered many networking opportunities from morning yoga classes to a concert from Fall Out Boy.  With such an exciting program on educational sessions and networking opportunities, The Roth Conference remains a major event in the financial industry for attorneys, CEOs, accountants, investors and basically anyone working in the small to mid-cap space.  We look forward to seeing you at next year’s event!

The Edgar Agents Booth during the Roth Conference.

The Cro-nuts were a BIG hit at the Edgar Agents Booth during the conference.

Left to right: Teresa Cordero, Vice President, Edgar Agents; Darrin M. Ocasio, Partner at Sichenzia Ross Friedman Ference LLP; Alla Mekhtieva, Business Development, Edgar Agents.