Investor days are a critical piece of a successful investor relations strategy. These events provide companies with a platform to tell their story, nurture relationships, and answer stakeholder questions. But when the events always follow the same, standard formula — presentation, Q&A, networking — companies can see dwindling attendance and engagement.
Incorporating new or unexpected elements into your investor days can help differentiate your company, drive attendance, and boost engagement. They can also help your company tell a more effective and compelling story. Below, we explore six ways to break away from the cookie-cutter investor-day formats that investors and analysts have come to expect.
1. Incorporate an interactive virtual reality experience
For some companies, offering a virtual reality (VR) experience can tell a more effective story than a standard presentation deck. For example, ICR recently planned an investor day for a healthcare company that offers radar imaging. Because it wasn’t possible for the company to bring an imaging unit to the event, ICR suggested that they present a virtual walk-around of the equipment. This allowed attendees to see the equipment in a life-like environment, adding scale and context to the company’s story.
VR can be beneficial in a wide range of scenarios — from providing a virtual tour of a facility that’s difficult to access or overseas, to allowing investors to see an innovative product that would otherwise require a sterile environment.
2. Organize breakout sessions with key company stakeholders
Rather than presenting to one large audience, consider organizing smaller breakout sessions with key company stakeholders. This can enable you to split up your audience — into investors and analysts, for instance — and tailor each session specifically to that stakeholder group.
Especially during the Q&A, this means you won’t have to go back and forth between answering investor questions and analyst questions. You can deliver more condensed and targeted information that applies directly to each specific group.
3. Host fireside chats with industry leaders
When planning your investor day content, think outside of your company’s own leaders. Inviting a well-known industry leader or influencer to host an intimate fireside chat at your investor day can provide valuable insights and boost your company’s credibility.
And, their presence at your event can help drive attendance. For an investor or analyst who’s on the fence about attending, having the opportunity to hear from a well-known industry leader may be the push they need to register.
4. Incorporate live polls and chat question submissions
Make your presentation more interactive by incorporating live polls and question submissions via chat. This can help attendees stay engaged, but it also plays an important role in curating the content of the Q&A session in real time. If the moderator sees the same question come through several times, they can ask the speaker to prioritize that topic. This allows the company to address the most pertinent questions first and speak to the things that are most important to the investors and analysts in the room.
This is fairly straightforward to incorporate into a virtual event, but it’s also possible to offer it during live events using a QR code that links to a mobile application, such as Slido, a Q&A and polling platform.
5. Offer unstructured time to network
In addition to a structured presentation, consider offering a more casual networking event, like a luncheon or cocktail reception, to encourage networking. This doesn’t only allow attendees to nurture personal connections, but it also gives companies an opportunity to add a personal touch to the event.
For example, ICR recently worked with an online gambling company that made some of their games available during an investor day cocktail reception. When attendees weren’t talking with peers or the company’s management team, they could immerse themselves in the product — providing an effective and entertaining way to engage with the company.
6. Offer investor one-on-one meetings at the start or end of the event
Offering one-on-one meetings before or after the event provides investors with the opportunity to have in-depth conversations and get more questions answered than what’s covered during the Q&A session. This can help nurture relationships, especially with investors who are ready to make a commitment to the company.
This does require careful logistics, especially for in-person events. Because companies will only have so many time slots available before or after the investor day, they will need to prioritize who to grant meetings to — such as a new investor who’s almost ready to commit, or a long-standing investor who has questions or concerns. But when carefully curated, those meetings can provide a great environment for nurturing relationships and pursuing new opportunities.
Incorporating these innovative elements can be an effective way to attract and engage a wider audience of investors and analysts, but requires planning well in advance. Working with an experienced event team can ensure you have a successful, compelling event. To learn more about how ICR Event Planning & Management can help plan your next investor day, reach out.
