“That bus ride alone was worth the entire conference”

Dear Reader,

In my last email, I said that I was going to send you something that highlighted the “SIC experience.” Today, I will do just that with five personal stories from me and my team about SICs gone by. These stories will give you insights into the Strategic Investment Conference and how I assemble not just an agenda, but an experience.

The SIC is one of the most enjoyable and fun weeks of my year. And I must say that the best part of the conference is mingling with fellow attendees. Some of my fondest memories are conversations I have had with attendees and speakers in the hallways between presentations or at the dine-arounds we have each year. I always come away armed with a few dozen new investment ideas and insights.

For example, you experienced the power of ideas in my five-part series on the people shaping my worldview. Think how much more you would get out of these ideas when you can meet and talk with these individuals personally—and get answers to the most pressing questions on your mind.

Whether you are an individual investor looking for new investment ideas, or a CEO worried about the effect that geopolitical tensions will have on your business, the speakers are there to answer your personal questions. That’s why I said the SIC is my way of helping you take “big ideas” to the next level—a personal level.

I got a little off topic there, but as promised, here are some of the SIC stories my friends and colleagues have shared with me.

Ed D’Agostino, Publisher

We were on the bus back from one of the SIC dinner roundtables and Lacy Hunt turns around and says, “Does anyone have a question? We’ve got some time to kill. I’ll answer any question you want.”

From the back of the bus: “Hey Lacy... I’ve never understood what the velocity of money really means or why you think it is so important. Can you explain it in simple terms?”

What happened next was a 30-minute master class in Economics. Lacy explained, in detail, what is meant by velocity of money, why it is a crucial measure of an economy’s health, how it is related to quantitative easing, why it is so low at this point in the US, and what that means for the Fed, for investors, and for business owners.

More impressively, he did it in a way that 1) everyone understood, and 2) somehow made it interesting. Fascinating, even. As we piled off the bus and headed for the elevators, I found the person who initially posed the question. I asked him, “Did Lacy’s answer help you?”

“Help me? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve asked my financial advisor and accountants that question. No one has been able to explain it to me. Now that I ‘get it,’ so much more makes sense. I mean, that bus ride alone was worth the entire conference for me. I just can’t believe how much I’m learning, and how generous the speakers are with their time.”

Patrick Watson, Senior Editor

What makes the SIC unique to me is that the people you see on stage, while fascinating and top-notch in their fields, are only the beginning. The other part is getting to share the experience with fellow attendees. Everyone is friendly and eager to compare notes. It amplifies the experience with insight you won’t get just by listening to the audio later.

The SIC crowd is diverse with wide-ranging views, but if I had to describe them in one word it would be “curious.” They want to soak up knowledge and then apply it to their lives and careers. In that, they’re much like John Mauldin himself. In the thirty years I’ve known him, John has never stopped learning about the world, the economy, and all the individual people he encounters. The SIC is that curiosity taken to the extreme, and every John Mauldin fan should experience it at least once.

Patrick Cox, Senior Editor, Transformational Technology Alert

I'm just about as anti-social as one can be and I really hate airports. The SIC, however, is one of the few events that makes travel worthwhile. The speakers, of course, are great, but I get as much if not more from speaking with attendees.

The list of people in the audience at the SIC events is actually more impressive than the speakers' roster at a lot of other financial events. Everybody at the SIC seems to have a particular expertise and I learned as much from conversations with the investors as I did from speakers, which was significant.

Shannon Staton, Manager, The Strategic Investment Conference

The way John pulls people together is great to watch, and even better to be part of. He makes sure the speakers hang around as much as possible and pulls in attendees to introduce them and participate in really facilitating small group discussions.

I once saw him create a circle of attendees with (speakers) David Rosenberg and Rich Yamarone, who started their usual entertaining banter. I swear David is always in some kind of engaging or hilarious conversation at the conference. John becomes the maestro at the conference, making sure people meet and make connections.

John again. I’ll finish up with a story of my own that highlights one of the reasons I am so excited for the upcoming SIC.

It was five years ago that I had the center-right Scotsman Niall Ferguson and the center-left Irishman David McWilliams in my suite at the end of the conference. They sat down at the table and held one of the most fascinating conversations I’ve ever been witness to.

Niall and David began talking about Roman history and comparing it to today, citing books in detail. And then they moved up and down through history. I remember writing down a number of books, and after about 10, I literally tossed the note aside, realizing that I would never catch up. These guys are witty, articulate, and eminently knowledgeable on their topics—which are many. It was a joy to witness the back and forth between them, and I hope to recreate that paradigm when both gentlemen take center stage at the SIC 2018.

As you can gather from these stories, the SIC is not an event you attend to hear people talk on a stage—it is a shared experience. Over the years, I’ve seen lasting friendships and business relationships develop at the SIC. If you come, you will meet fascinating people just like you. The SIC attracts future-oriented people who want to avoid the coming problems and prosper in their wake. It is like no other event you have seen.

So, if you haven’t registered yet, there’s no time to waste. Make sure you register for a room, too. I expect the conference will sell out pretty soon. The dates are March 6–9, 2018, at the Manchester Hyatt in San Diego, California. I really hope you can make it.

Your can’t believe the SIC is almost upon us again analyst,

John Mauldin