With the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference quickly approaching (again), it is now time to start your planning for one of the most important healthcare events of the year. It is not too early to secure your meeting and sleeping space, refresh your messaging for your meetings with investors, analysts, bankers and strategists, and start the outreach to lock in your schedule with the folks you want to spend time with. As you well know, most people involved with healthcare will attend this event and being more organized than the next guy may be the reason you achieve your strategic goals for attending this important event. The J.P. Morgan event is so important, in fact, that I asked our team for their best advice in preparing for the show.
Here’s what they said.
Asher Dewhurst
Principal
Are you in a position to release preliminary 4Q results and 2017 guidance? Issuing preliminary quarterly results and next year’s guidance on Monday morning of J.P. Morgan will provide you fresh information to discuss with investors and should alleviate some of the concerns with investor meetings during a quiet period. You will also give the Street comfort in your continued growth prospects. Additionally, your research analysts will likely issue a positive note with updated financials.
John Woolford
Managing Director
Identify key milestones expected in 2017. Investors attending J.P. Morgan will want to know what to expect in the coming year. You need to identify those milestones now, so you have time to work them into your corporate presentation, especially if you plan to overhaul your presentation for J.P. Morgan.
Mike Piccinino
Managing Director
Update your sell-side analyst and buy-side investor targeting lists. With all the activity at J.P. Morgan, there’s a risk you’ll fill your dance card with less-than-ideal meetings. Preparing your lists in advance allows you to focus on booking your top meeting priorities first, and then filling in your schedule with those who have expressed interest in spending more time with management while in San Francisco for the week.
Peter Vozzo
Managing Director
First, start the process of refining your investor deck now to capture any changes to strategy, milestones, potential catalysts, financial metrics, or messaging as you enter 2017.
Second, remember that finding a convenient and affordable meeting room during the week of the J.P. Morgan conference is challenging. You should find a meeting room in San Francisco now!
Patti Bank
Managing Director
Meet with investors now. I find it very hard to get meetings with investors at J.P. Morgan if it’s the first time in front of them and they don’t know the story. Investors tend to have a pre-conceived agenda for J.P. Morgan, and know with whom they want to meet. If you want to be on their list, lay the groundwork early and then be in position to give an incremental update or dig deeper into the details at the conference.
Robert Uhl
Managing Director
Adopt a quality over quantity approach when it comes to your J.P. Morgan meetings, and stick firmly to it. Put buy-side investors at the top of the list, in particular targeted funds you might have missed on your last road show to Boston or Texas. And since the conference attracts investors from outside the U.S., it is a good time to meet with ex-U.S. funds without having to make the trek to see them on their home turf. Reserve some time for any of your covering sell-side analysts that need some attention; and for analysts who don’t cover your company yet, but should have an interest in your therapeutic area.
Finally, think about meeting logistics. If you have a meeting room for a day, schedule meetings that day with the groups you want to see that do not have their own meeting space. Designate another day as the one you walk around the Union Square area to see groups in their own suite of meeting rooms. Implementation of this type of strategy should allow you to remember who you met with at the end of each day, and what follow up is needed.
Westwicke has a decade of experience helping public and private healthcare companies maximize their attendance of important investor events such as J.P. Morgan. You’ll find more ideas in our new complimentary eBook, Westwicke Insider’s Guide to Investor Relations, available now. Or just reach out for a deeper conversation.
