Connecting with Investors Just Got a Whole Lot Simpler
Published on Oct 28, 2017
Anyone who regularly engages with the investment community will have noticed the increasing focus asset managers are placing on organizing corporate access meetings with corporates directly. The upcoming MiFID II regulations; pressure on margins and the increasing sophistication of their own internal corporate access teams are all driving this desire to break with tradition and manage corporate access meetings in a fundamentally different way. Despite this though, we are constantly hearing the same complaint from asset managers of all sizes - difficulty in finding out when corporate management are available to meet and the best way to secure those meetings.
For anyone familiar with WeConvene, you will know that our mission is to make the organization of corporate access and analyst meetings as efficient as possible, so we wanted to look at ways to solve this challenge that asset managers are facing.
Before building any new feature, our starting point is to understand our users existing process and see how we can use technology to make it more efficient. After talking with a number of meeting organizers across various fund sizes, we found that their starting point is nearly always the company's investor relations website. To fully understand their needs, we started at the beginning and spent some time looking at a selection of corporate IR homepages - this is what we found:
- Even if it exists, the upcoming events section is usually well hidden away and contains little information about the events an investor can attend. In the best case scenario, usually just the next earnings call, AGM date and maybe attendance at upcoming conferences were listed.
- In the vast majority of cases there was no way to register interest in meetings or even contact the IR team to set something up.
After reviewing all types of corporate websites, we started to empathize with the frustration asset managers feel.
The solution we came up with was to provide IR teams with a simple way to create an ‘event-directory’, bringing events and meetings directly onto the corporate IR homepage, using a dedicated event URL.
Investors who arrive at the corporate homepage will be able to view the event details, click into a dedicated event URL and book their attendance online (if opened up for public access) or send an inquiry. As an IR team, you would then have a real-time view on event interest levels, all investor event inquiries in a single place and an easy way to allocate a meeting.
How can IR teams leverage this functionality?
Earnings calls and AGMs
Create an earnings call or AGM on WeConvene and enable investors to book into the meeting in real-time. Investors who arrive at your website can book themselves into the event and automatically get a booking confirmation and personal calendar invite. As an IR team you get real-time visibility on who is registering for your earnings call or AGM and easy access to your list of attendees - with no manual effort required.
Introductory calls with the IR team
If you are an IR team that blocks out regular time slots for calls with investors new to your company, simply set up an event on WeConvene with recurring meetings and add the event URL to your website. Investors can easily view your availability and either book themselves into a meeting or send a meeting request (you control what level of access they have). This removes the slow, manual process of handling email back and forth that typically accompanies something as simple as getting an introduction call in the diary with an investor.
Management Roadshows
If you are organizing a management roadshow and want to ensure the widest possible visibility amongst investors, simply create the event in WeConvene and add your dedicated event URL to your website. You have complete control in deciding if you would like to expose the event schedule or require investors to send a request to attend, putting all inquiries in a centralized place for an easy way to screen requests and allocate meetings.
However you decide to use this feature, we believe this is an easy way to increase connectivity with your investors and remove the email back and forth that consumes so much of both parties time when it comes to organizing meetings.
We will be releasing this new feature to Investor Relations users in Mid November 2017 - if you are interested in getting an advance look, drop us a line to request a demo.
About WeConvene
Established in 2012, WeConvene is the cloud-based meetings and events management and marketing platform that helps the capital markets community book better®. WeConvene makes the creation, distribution, marketing and execution of official meetings and events between analysts, corporates, investors, IR firms, expert networks and investment banks fast and easy, generating better outcomes including greater team efficiency, increased meeting attendance and enhanced client satisfaction. For more information please visit WeConvene.com. For a demo or sales introduction please click here to request now.
