Many investment banks expressed an interest in offering in-person or hybrid event formats for their investor conferences as early as September. As a collective, they told us that they expect about half of their events to be either totally virtual or offer remote attendance options in 2023 and beyond.

This finding immediately begged this question: do the investors and corporate executives who attend these conferences have similar or different views on the utility of conferences and their future structures? What are their attitudes toward returning to physical events — especially when you need to travel? How will they decide whether and when to attend in-person?

To better help our clients and the marketplace prepare for reopening, we decided to launch two follow-up surveys. One would be directed at buy-side analysts, portfolio managers, and chief investment officers, and the other would poll executives and investor relations professionals at public companies.

The report is drawn from responses that we received from 176 public companies and 78 buy-side investment firms. Among the public company respondents, 71 percent were members of the investor relations team and 19 percent were C-suite executives. Among those who answered from the buy-side, 4 percent were analysts, 34 percent were portfolio managers, and 14 percent were chief investment officers or managing principals. Across the two surveys, 46 percent of respondents were from the United States, 22 percent from the UK or Europe, 8 percent from Asia-Pacific, with the remainder from other regions.

The picture that our survey paints is one in which both investor attendees and corporate presenters have been pleasantly surprised by the effectiveness of virtual meetings. At the same time, these groups are anxious to get back to some level of in-person interaction. The data suggests that investor relations teams are ahead of the sponsoring banks in their urge to return. Somewhat surprisingly, investor attendees seem to be a bit more reluctant than their bank hosts to return to in-person events. What’s more, companies are clear that they only want to attend in-person when they can be assured that the majority of investors will be present (and vice-versa), which sets up a classic “chicken-and-egg” challenge for the banks.

Among the other key insights:

• Professional investors have attended nearly double the number of events they participated in during a similar time period prior to the pandemic; companies have not materially changed their presentation schedules during this same time period.
• 68 percent of companies expect to present at their first hybrid event by the end of 2021; 58 percent of investors expect to attend their first hybrid event during the same time period.
• In the long run (2023 and beyond), companies expect to attend events virtually nearly half of the time. Investors expect to attend two-thirds of the conferences in person starting in 2023.
• Both companies and investors noted that they miss the networking opportunities that are possible at in-person events.
• Given the option to attend in-person or remotely at a major hybrid investor event, 45 percent of the companies and 50 percent of the investors say that at least part of their delegation would take advantage of remote attendance options.  (Note at least 75 percent of both groups would send a minimum of one team member to be in-person.)

Our survey also documented a vigorous debate — especially among IR and executive teams at public companies — about the effectiveness of in-person meetings versus the efficiencies of virtual events. Further, it revealed a pet peeve among corporate presenters: that virtual meetings are more effective and engaging when investors in the audience leave their cameras on, rather than turning them off as many investors do.

Clearly, the playing field for investor events is shifting in real time as the pandemic winds down, travel restrictions are relaxed, international borders open, and physical venues begin to reopen. This research seems to point to a long-term future that has a blend of in-person, virtual, and hybrid event formats.

As a firm committed to providing technology infrastructure and managed services to the financial services industry for virtual and hybrid investor conferences and events, OpenExchange will continue to actively take the pulse of investors, companies, and presenters — each of whom’s experience is essential to determining the success of these critical gatherings.