Mega-cap companies pioneer virtual site visits
Companies held more than four times as many in-person as virtual site visits in the year from Q3 2019 to Q2 2020. But only 8 percent of companies actually held virtual site visits, compared with 45 percent holding in-person visits. This means the average number of virtual visits among those who held them is 5.7, compared with an average of five for in-person visits.
While 86 percent of in-person site visits during this time were held in the second half of 2019, 84 percent of virtual site visits were held in the first half of 2020. More than a quarter of virtual site visits were held in Q1 2020, a higher proportion than for other investor events. This suggests the transition to virtual occurred sooner with site visits.
Both in-person and virtual site visits are least frequent in North America and most common in Asia. North American companies also have a lower virtual to in-person ratio for site visits. Just over one in 10 of all North American site visits in this time were virtual, compared with 22 percent of European and Asian site visits.
Both in-person and virtual site visits are more frequently held by mega-cap companies than companies of other cap sizes, with mega-caps typically holding more than double the global average for in-person and nearly six times the average number of virtual site visits. The ratio of virtual to in-person site visits is higher for virtual among mega-caps than any other cap size. Globally, 17 percent of all site visits held in this time were virtual. This figure rises to 39 percent among mega-cap companies.
Investors typically attended two more virtual than in-person site visits between Q4 2019 and Q3 2020. This is a lower virtual to in-person ratio than is found with other events, with 61 percent of all site visits attended by investors being virtual, compared with 73 percent for other investor events.
As with other events, investors continue to rate the in-person experience over the virtual experience, with approaching two thirds of investors giving in-person visits a score of eight or higher compared with 44 percent for virtual visits.
