Agility and Thoughtful Preparation are Key for Virtual IR Meetings, Events

It’s no secret that 2020 was a stressful year for investor relations professionals. In the hundreds of conversations we have with IR team members every week, we hear the stories of how the pandemic and sudden shift to remote work forced dramatic changes in how public companies communicate critical information to investors and key stakeholders. And we’ve admired the way these professionals have pivoted their investor communications to an all-virtual environment.

It’s true that virtual meetings had been one component of the IR toolkit for years before the pandemic. But the dramatic acceleration in the adoption and use of video streaming in the last year has opened many eyes to this fact: virtual meetings and presentations open a company’s story to a much wider range of investors in a shorter period of time than ever before, and make better use of precious executive time in telling that story and addressing investor questions.

Last week, OpenExchange CEO Mark Loehr sat down with IR Magazine editor Ben Ashwell for a fireside chat. The setting was IR Magazine’s US Forum, and the topic was how marketing calendars are evolving to embrace more fully the possibilities that video streaming and virtual meetings have to offer.

Here are four key takeaways from the session:

• Virtual engagements are here to stay. Corporate executives and IR teams can meet with more investors, more efficiently, on shorter notice than ever before. And corporate executives, well-practiced in the use of video, have become more comfortable and effective with the medium.
• The balance of physical and virtual meetings will be unique to every company. There’s no uniform answer to how companies and leadership should be thinking about how hybrid meeting models will operate in the near future. The truth is that the C-Suite across all industries is still trying to figure out what’s best for each specific situation. And what’s best now, may be different in 6 months or a year from now. Similar to how eCommerce disrupted but did not entirely replace the traditional retail industry, companies will need to view virtual and physical meetings as interchangeable and use both offerings situationally, in many different combinations.
• We need to be thoughtful about how and when to use video. While virtual meetings make it easier and more efficient to connect with investors, Zoom fatigue needs to be taken into consideration when setting up the schedule. Arranging ten meetings in one day may not be ideal for your stakeholders at this stage of remote working. Companies need to consolidate meetings when possible, build in breaks throughout long presentations, and focus on the quality of the content and broadcast to ensure the audience has a seamless viewing experience that is equal to, if not better, than an in-person session.
• The key to a successful virtual investor day is in the preparation. One of the biggest mistakes a company can make is to not adequately plan in advance for an investor day. All logistics must be coordinated several weeks or even months in advance to make certain that business leaders are well positioned with the appropriate setup to deliver critical financial information in a timely and efficient manner.
  • Do a preset: Make sure you have the best lighting, positioning and set for each of your presenters. Plan a test run to see how each executive and business leader is showing up on screen to avoid any mishaps during the live broadcast.
  • Assign roles ahead of time: Outline who is running the presentation, who is speaking to which slides, and bring in a moderator if there is a Q&A portion. Having these roles mapped out in advance can take the pressure off the presenters and ensure a smooth meeting from start to finish.
  • Utilize Video Professionals: Bring in the experts to help navigate audio and visual quality, course correct as needed as well as patch speakers in at the right time.

Investor Relations teams have an opportunity to set the tone for efficient and practical virtual engagement among their corporate executives, institutional investors, and research analysts. By remaining agile and thoughtful in event preparation, embracing the use of video and virtual meetings, and employing hybrid strategies on how best to deploy video, high-performing IR teams will lead the way to a whole new level of engagement with the investment community.

Watch the entire fireside chat at on OpenExchange.tv: “How Virtual Technologies Impact the IR Calendar”

Sign up to watch the replay of the entire IR Magazine US Forum: “IR Strategies for 2021”