An investor roadshow is a series of meetings across different cities in which executives from a company talk with current or potential investors. They can range from two or three days in one country to extensive tours of financial centres around the world. The most common reason for a roadshow is when a company wants to attract investment, but they can occur for many other reasons. But what happens when a global pandemic strikes and travel restrictions come into force?
Over the past few months, we’ve seen a shift in the way that roadshow meetings are conducted. With face-to-face gatherings placed on hold, in-person roadshows have moved online. Virtual roadshows are travel-free so they can be completed in a shorter timeframe, using a conferencing tool to present the same content. But virtual roadshows have a very specific purpose, and therefore require different settings to typical remote meetings.
While there was a stall in IPO activity when the Covid-19 pandemic struck in March, there has been an uptick in pace over the past few weeks. Warner Music Group’s CEO, Steve Cooper, spoke to the Wall Street Journal about their IPO that took place on 3rd June. Steve said the virtual roadshow was “a very good alternative to the mind-numbing travel day in and day out” and that they were able to “reach more investors in more places over a shorter period of time.” Meanwhile, ZoomInfo – a Vancouver based SaaS company – also executed a successful virtual roadshow during the pandemic. Henry Shuck, CEO at ZoomInfo, didn’t find it that different from a typical roadshow. “It’s easier to sit behind a screen all day and when I finish my day my wife and daughter are here. It’s not going back to a hotel and dinner with bankers,” said Henry.
Virtual roadshow meetings can include visual presentations and external parties must be able to join the meeting without being required to download software. The aim of the roadshow is to generate interest and excitement around the company and their offering, and potential investors should be able to focus on the presentation without technical disruption. Roadshows are extremely important for everyone involved. The experience needs to be simple, yet visual, so dialling in with numbers and codes isn’t a sufficient option.
At LoopUp, we know how much time goes into planning and preparing for a roadshow – that’s why we’ve introduced a new preset specifically for roadshow meetings. This automatically applies all of the settings you need, allowing you to focus on delivering your message rather than the technical set-up.
When you create a new meeting room within your LoopUp account area, you can choose from a range of meeting presets designed for different types of meetings. By selecting the Roadshow Meeting Preset, your meeting room is configured with the settings that are required for virtual roadshow meetings. This means that no time is wasted trying to figure out which settings to apply – LoopUp does the work for you.
Video enabled
Roadshow meetings are all about relationship building, and when it’s not possible to meet in-person, it’s crucial to have video as an option. Video increases engagement and is particularly valuable when meeting potential investors for the first time. With LoopUp’s Roadshow Meeting Preset, video is enabled so guests can start video at any time if they would like to.
Screen share enabled
Alongside video, having the option to share your screen is essential. Roadshows consist of visual presentations about the company’s history, their plans and visions, so the ability to present to investors remotely is highly important. For this reason, screen sharing is enabled within our Roadshow Meeting Preset, and guests may also share their screen if they need to.
Other settings within the roadshow meeting preset include:
The Host Starts Meeting setting is disabled so the meeting can start without the host being present. This is useful for roadshows as they have a very specific purpose. There’s not necessarily one ‘host’, but rather a group of representatives from the underwriting firm and a team of executives from the company attracting investment, so it’s important that anyone can get the meeting started.
Roll Call is disabled so attendees are not required to record and playback their names as they join. Roll call can be very disruptive – particularly for larger meetings where presentations are taking place! Instead, you can see who has joined a LoopUp meeting by viewing the panel on the left-hand side of the screen where the names of all attendees are listed.
Join tones is enabled so all participants will hear a tone when guests join and leave the meeting.
More generally, LoopUp is ideal for investor roadshows as it provides a simple, seamless user experience for internal and external parties. All audio runs across traditional, tier-1 telephony lines and never over the public internet so audio reliability is guaranteed. Guests don’t need to make any downloads to join, making the joining process easy and straightforward, even if they don’t have a LoopUp account themselves.
Once businesses return to normality and lockdown restrictions are lifted, we can expect virtual roadshows to continue beyond the pandemic itself. Businesses are seeing that virtual roadshows can yield the same success as in-person roadshows in a shorter timeframe, making them far more efficient.
If you’re planning a roadshow and would like to know more about the ways in which LoopUp can help, please get in touch – we’d love to hear from you!
