Venture seminar canned

By DANIEL RIORDAN

A high-powered venture capital conference planned for today in Auckland has been cancelled after only eight people registered.

Organised by the Northern division of the Auckland Employers and Manufacturers Association, the conference was called "Financing of Innovative SMEs (small and medium-sized businesses) through Venture Capital."

The keynote speaker was to have been Pete Hodgson, Minister for Small Business. Other speakers included Jenny Morel, manager of No 8 Ventures and Keith Philips, managing director of IT Capital.

Does the cancellation mean fledgling businesses - the target audience - are despairing of venture capital funding, have all they need, or are sick of conferences that talk about it?

EMA Northern chief executive Alasdair Thompson had no explanation. "Everyone involved was disappointed. We might reschedule, and perhaps market it in a different way."

It is not the first EMA conference to run into trouble.

Last month, an EMA manufacturing conference scheduled for May 24-25 was downsized and shifted from the swanky Carlton Hotel to the association's training centre. That conference - "Competing in an International Manufacturing Environment" - drew about a dozen people.

In mitigation, the EMA organises conferences frequently and most of them are a success.

Part of the reason for today's cancellation may be another venture capital conference, also in Auckland, starting on June 26.

A spokeswoman for Business Information in Action, the organiser of "Attracting and Investing Private Equity," confirmed the two-dayer "is definitely on" with about 50 people signed up so far.

Speakers include representatives of some of the venture capital firms scheduled for the EMA conference, as well as Securities Commission chief executive John Farrell, Foundation for Research, Science and Technology chairman Neil Richardson and several investment bankers.

Any decision to attend BIIA's conference instead of EMA's would not have been on cost.

EMA were charging $395 (plus gst) to non-members; BIIA are charging $1595 (plus gst).