It’s that time of year, folks. Dust off your suit and polish your chat-up lines for that IRO who caught your eye at last year’s gala dinner – it’s conference season once again. The UK’s IR community will gather at the Investor Relations Society’s (IRS) annual conference in London on May 4. The morning will kick off with a comprehensive look at risks and rewards as they relate to companies, investors and IROs. Another session will tackle the challenge laid down by Cadbury Schweppes chairman John Sunderland at last year’s conference, which is to improve institutional investors’ transparency and governance. Fund managers and governance and IR experts will go head to head on this issue.
IROs will have to wait until the afternoon to get their teeth into the real meat of the day, which is a discussion on the UK pension crisis and its implications for IR. After a range of parallel sessions, the day will be capped off with a dinner and awards ceremony, where delegates can network, discuss best practice and drink themselves into a stupor.
Meanwhile, in Frankfurt, Deutscher Investor Relations Verband (Dirk) will be holding sessions in English for the first time at its annual conference on May 22 and 23. The conference motto, ‘Aufbruch der Deutschland AG’, which was introduced last year, is an attempt to encapsulate the changing nature of capital markets in Germany. The English translation, ‘Germany Inc on the move’, fails to capture the double meaning of the German word Aufbruch, which implies a break-up of the old way of doing things as much as the development of new approaches.
‘The key message of the event is that new investors, new forms of financing and other developments are changing the German capital market as we know it,’ says Kay Bommer, Dirk’s general manager.
Dirk founding member Heinz-Joachim Neubürger will present the opening keynote speech. With Neubürger due to step down as CFO of Siemens in early May, he will be free to air his views on the importance of investor relations without being constrained by his corporate role.
Another highlight will be a second keynote by Axel Heitmann, CEO of Lanxess, a chemicals manufacturer spun off from Bayer. There will also be workshops looking at what German IROs can learn from their US and UK counterparts.
Best session for beginners
IRS: ‘Careers in IR: The changing dynamics’. In this session, experienced IROs tell all for the benefit of their more fresh-faced colleagues.
Dirk: ‘How can the board measure the success of investor relations?’ Ingo Alphéus of RWE presents a case study on this current topic.
Best session for senior IROs
IRS: ‘Changing influences on buy-side decision-making’ will dissect what fund managers expect from investor relations today.
Dirk: ‘Fixed income: How bonds and bondholder relations impact your equity – tools to get best value out of an active bondholder program’. With debt IR as the new buzzword, this is your chance to find out what debt holders use to assess a company’s debt story.
Best session for IROs with a conscience
IRS: ‘What comes first: SRI or CSR?’ Your chance to join the debate on how socially responsible investing and corporate social responsibility fit into investor relations.
Dirk: ‘Corporate social responsibility/ SRI investors’. This is a current topic for IR – here, two academics will explain how IR should tackle CSR and SRI.
