IR Magazine Research Report - Investor Events Report
How have investor events moved from virtual to in-person as Covid-19 restrictions were lifted?
How do investors and IROs rate the formats?
Investor Events
<sup><span>•</span> How have investor events moved from virtual to in-person as Covid-19 restrictions were lifted?
<span>•</span> How do investors and IROs rate the
in-person and virtual formats?
<span>•</span> Where should resources be allocated for future investor events?</Small>
The past 18 months have been a consequential time for investor events. As travel restrictions have eased to varying degrees around the world, companies and investors were able to go back to in-person activities. As the resumption of in-person events gathered pace, participants were able to evaluate them side by side with the virtual events that had become the mainstay of pandemic activity.
This report looks at investor event attendance over two time periods: the 12 months from Q3 2021 to Q3 2022 and the last six months of 2022. We monitor activity in the four key event types – roadshows, site visits, investor days and investor conferences – for both in-person and virtual formats.
The report further investigates the levels of satisfaction with these event types among IROs and investors in both their in-person and virtual formats. Finally, we ask IROs and investors to predict what the future make-up of investor events will be and whether they see each event type as being primarily held virtually, in person or as a reasonable mix of the two.
Findings on activity relating to Q3 2021 to Q3 2022 are taken from IR Magazine’s Global IR Survey, conducted in Q3 2022, while all other data referring to IROs and their companies is taken from the next IR survey round conducted in Q4 2022 and Q1 2023. Findings relating to investors are from the IR Magazine Global Investor Survey conducted from Q4 2022 to Q1 2023.
This report uses the term ‘IRO’ to represent IR professionals in general and the term ‘investor’ to represent members of the investment community, both buy side and sell side. Data in this report from IROs is broken down by geographical region and market capitalization. For the purposes of this report, market cap is defined as:
Small cap <$1 bn
Mid-cap $1 bn-$5 bn
Large cap $5 bn-$30 bn
Mega-cap >$30 bn
Respondents
Total investor respondents: 115
Total IRO respondents: 331
Investor conferences are the most common event for IROs to participate in for both in-person and virtual formats.
More IR professionals attended in-person than virtual formats for every style of investor event in H2 2022.
Investors attended more than twice as many virtual roadshows and nearly twice the number of virtual investor conferences as they did in-person events in 2022.
With the exception of mega-cap firms, companies in every region and of all company sizes went on more in-person roadshows in H2 2022 than they did for the whole of the previous year.
Small-cap companies hosted more than twice as many in-person site visits in the last six months of 2022 as they did for the whole of 2021.
Asian companies held considerably more investor days, both virtual and in person, than their North American and European counterparts.
There is a notably higher appreciation among IROs for in-person over virtual investor events.
Overall satisfaction for in-person events is lower among investors than it is among IROs.
Most IROs expect the majority of future investor events to be held in person.
Investors think there will be more in-person than virtual events in the future, although not to the same extent IROs do.
As many Asian IROs think there will be a roughly even mix of in-person and virtual conferences as think they will be mostly in person.
What’s in this report?
Introduction
Event attendance and hosting
IRO participation by region and company size
Event satisfaction
Future of investor events
Advertisement feature
Sponsor’s statement
Editor
Lloyd Bevan
Research
Ash Govender, Maria Lovati
Chief copy editor
Kathleen Hennessy
Art & design
James Noden
Event attendance
and hosting
IRO event participation: Q3 2021 to Q3 2022
Event participation: Q3 2021 to Q3 2022
Q3 2021 to Q3 2022
In the 12 months from the third quarter of 2021 to the third quarter of 2022, IROs at seven in 10 companies attended investor conferences in person, while nearly eight in 10 attended virtually. Just over two thirds hosted virtual roadshows, compared with 54 percent who went on the road in person.
The only event type where the in-person format has been more popular in this time is site visits. While 43 percent hosted site visits in person in the 12 months to Q3 2022, just 11 percent held a virtual site visit.
Average number of events participated in: Q3 2021 to Q3 2022
Investor conferences, both in person and virtual, were the most common event type for IROs to attend in this time. The average number of virtual investor conferences attended was 4.8, meaning the 79 percent of IROs who attended typically did so six times in this year.
More than twice as many virtual roadshows were hosted in this time than were held in person, with a similar pattern seen in investor days. During the 12 months to Q3 2022, one virtual site visit was held for every two firms.
IRO event participation: H2 2022
Event participation: H2 2022
Average number of events participated in: H2 2022
Event activity picked up for IR professionals over the second half of 2022, particularly in-person events, with nine in 10 participating in investor conferences and just under three quarters going on the road in this time. For every style of investor event, more IROs participated in person than attended virtually.
While more IROs hosted in-person than virtual roadshows in these six months, the average number of virtual roadshows was higher at 3.5, compared with 2.5 in person. There were almost three times as many in-person site visits as there were virtual. During this time IROs attended an average of 4.3 investor conferences in person, more than one and a half more than they attended during the preceding year.
Investor event participation: Q4 2021 to Q4 2022
12 months from Q4 2021 to Q4 2022
Event attendance: Investors
12 months from Q4 2021 to Q4 2022
Average number of events attended: Investors
In the year to Q4 2022, three quarters of investors attended in-person site visits and investor conferences, while seven in 10 attended investor days and just under seven in 10 attended roadshows in person.
But more investors attended a virtual format of every event type except site visits, with just under a third attending a virtual site visit in the 12 months to Q4 2022.
The number of events attended virtually was higher, too. Investors attended more than twice as many roadshows and nearly twice the number of investor conferences virtually in this time.
The only event format where investors attended more in person than virtually was site visits, with an average of 5.2, compared with 4.3.
IRO participation by region and company size
Roadshow participation: Q3 2021 to Q3 2022
Average number of roadshows participated in
A quarter of Asian companies and a minority of small and mid-cap companies went on the road in person in the year to Q3 2022. The highest number of times on the road during this period was seen by European companies, averaging 2.4 in-person roadshows, and mega-cap firms, which went on an average of 3.6 in this time.
In-person roadshow activity picked up significantly in the second half of 2022. With the exception of mega-cap firms, companies in every region and of all company sizes went on more in-person roadshows in H2 2022 than they did in the entire previous year.
Site visit participation: Q3 2021 to Q3 2022
Average number of site visits hosted
Just 14 percent of European companies hosted an in-person site visit in the year to Q3 2022 and only 3 percent hosted a virtual site visit. A fifth of Asian companies held a virtual site visit during this time.
European firms continued to have lower presence for both in-person and virtual site visits in the second half of 2022. Asian in-person site visits picked up significantly in the latter half of 2022, averaging 3.2 in these six months.
Just 5 percent of small-cap companies hosted virtual site visits in the year to Q3 2022, compared with just under a fifth of mega-cap companies. At the same time, mega-caps hosted significantly more in-person site visits than companies of other cap sizes.
Over the second half of 2022, smaller companies made up for lost time in reintroducing site visits in person, hosting more than twice as many in-person site visits in the last six months of 2022 than they held for the whole previous year.
Investor day participation: Q3 2021 to Q3 2022
Average number of investor days held
There is little regional difference in the percentage of companies holding in-person investor days in the year to Q3 2022. European and Asian companies were more than twice as likely as North American companies to be holding virtual investor days in this time.
Asian companies held considerably more investor days, both virtual and in person, than their North American and European counterparts. This is true of both the 12 months to Q3 2022 and the last six months of 2022.
According to company size, the likelihood of holding both in-person and virtual investor days increases with market cap. Large-cap companies held the most in-person investor days in the year to Q3 2022, while mid-caps held the most virtual days in this time. Mega-cap companies held the most investor days in both formats during the second half of 2022.
Investor conference participation: Q3 2021 to Q3 2022
Average number of investor conferences attended
Participation in investor conferences varied dramatically by region in the year to Q3 2022. While 85 percent of North American companies attended conferences in person during these 12 months, just 38 percent of Asian companies attended in-person investor conferences in this time.
This is reflected in the number of conferences attended regionally in this period, with North American companies attending the most in-person conferences and Asian companies attending the most virtual conferences. In-person attendance evens out regionally in the six months to the end of 2022, while Asian companies were still attending the most virtual conferences.
According to company size, small-cap companies were typically less likely to attend investor conferences in either format and attended fewer conferences on average in the 12 months to Q3 2022. They continued to attend fewer conferences than companies of other sizes in the following six months, though to a lesser degree, attending the same number of in-person conferences as mid-cap companies in this time.
There is a notably higher appreciation among IROs for in-person than virtual investor events. More than eight in 10 IR professionals give in-person investor days and site visits a high satisfaction rating of 8+/10, with just under a third giving in-person investor days a perfect 10 score. This compares with 68 percent being highly satisfied with virtual investor days and 50 percent with virtual site visits.
Satisfaction with both roadshows and investor conferences is lower in both formats, but the in-person format is still clearly favored over virtual. While approaching two thirds of IROs give a high satisfaction score to both in-person roadshows and investor conferences, a minority of 48 percent express similar satisfaction for virtual roadshows and 36 percent do so for virtual investor conferences.
IRO event satisfaction by region
Event satisfaction rating 8+/10
Among North American IROs, there is a sizable difference in satisfaction levels between in-person and virtual formats for roadshows, site visits and investor conferences. Investor days, both in person and virtual, are most highly rated by North American IROs.
For European IROs, the greatest difference in satisfaction between in-person and virtual formats is with investor days, where the number giving high satisfaction scores for the in-person format is 31 percentage points higher than for virtual.
Asian IROs tend to give high satisfaction ratings for both in-person and virtual formats in all event types. But they still give higher ratings for in person than for virtual, including a 26 percentage-point difference between high satisfaction ratings for in-person and virtual investor conferences.
IRO event satisfaction by market cap
Event satisfaction rating 8+/10
Satisfaction for in-person roadshows is highest among IR professionals at mega-cap companies, while small-cap IROs give the highest rating for both in-person and virtual site visits.
IROs at all company sizes give higher satisfaction ratings for in-person site visits and investor days than they do for investor conferences and roadshows in person.
IROs at small, mid-cap and mega-cap firms give considerably lower ratings for satisfaction with virtual investor conferences than those held in person. For large-cap IROs there is just an 11 percentage-point difference in high satisfaction ratings between virtual and in-person investor conferences.
Investor event satisfaction
As with IROs, investors favor in-person over virtual formats for all types of event. But overall satisfaction for these events is lower among investors than for IROs, particularly with the in-person format.
The greatest levels of satisfaction are found for in-person site visits, with two thirds of investors giving a high satisfaction rating of 8+/10 and 13 percent giving a perfect 10 score. Unlike IROs, investors are more satisfied with in-person roadshows and investor conferences than they are with in-person investor days.
When it comes to virtual events, the clear standout is investor conferences. While more investors give a high satisfaction rating to in-person conferences, the difference is a margin of just 2 percentage points. In addition, more investors give a perfect 10 score to virtual conferences than they do to the in-person format, so it appears there is very little real difference in satisfaction between in-person and virtual investor conferences.
Future of investor events
How do you see the virtual/in-person mix of events in future?
Most IROs expect the majority of investor events in future to be held in person. When asked what they think the mix of virtual and in-person events will be, the median response for roadshows, investor days and investor conferences is a ratio of 65 percent to 90 percent in person to 10 percent to 35 percent virtual. More than six in 10 think at least 90 percent of site visits will be held in person.
Although there is a clear majority who think most events will be in person, more than a quarter of IR professionals believe there will be a rough mix of 35 percent to 65 percent for each format with roadshows, investor days and conferences.
Few IR professionals believe a clear majority of events will be held virtually, the highest number being the 16 percent who think the virtual format will account for at least 65 percent of all roadshows.
How do you see the virtual/in-person mix of events in future?
The view that the clear majority of roadshows will be in person is less commonly found in Europe than the other two regions, with one in five expecting future roadshows to be at least two to one virtual/in person.
But it is also European IROs who are more certain about the future dominance of in-person site visits, with 88 percent thinking they will be 66 percent to 100 percent in person.
While views among North American and European IROs are broadly similar on the future of investor days and conferences, Asian IROs are less sure about the degree to which these events will be held in person in the future. As many Asian IROs think there will be a roughly even mix of in-person and virtual conferences as think they will be mostly in person.
How do you see the virtual/in-person mix of events in future?
IRO views on the future mix of in-person site visits and roadshows are similarly held across cap sizes, with only slightly lower agreement among IROs at large-cap companies.
Small-cap IROs are less sure than IROs at other cap sizes about the future dominance of in-person investor days. While the majority of small-cap IROs think future conferences will be mostly in-person events, just under a quarter think there will be a roughly even split between virtual and in person and one in five thinks future investor conferences will be mostly virtual.
How do you see the virtual/in-person mix of events in future?
The general view among investors is that there will be more in-person than virtual events in the future, although not to the same extent that IROs view this to be the case.
The median response for every event type except site visits is that there will a roughly 35 percent to 65 percent mix of both, but more investors think future events will be at least 65 percent in person than think they will be at least 65 percent virtual.
As with IROs, a clear majority of investors think future site visits will be at least 90 percent in person. The most mixed view about future events is for investor conferences. Although 41 percent of investors think future conferences will be mostly in-person events, almost four in 10 (38 percent) think there will be a reasonably even mix of in person and virtual, while 21 percent think future conferences will be at least 65 percent virtual.
