NIRI 2015
June 14-17, Chicago, Illinois
Twitter: #NIRI
Chicago, Illinois
Destination city
Last year NIRI broke with tradition: instead of heading to the East Coast or West Coast for its annual conference, it instead journeyed inland to Las Vegas. That trend continues this year with Chicago as the city of choice. Shep Dunlap, conference co-chair and senior vice president of investor relations at Motorola Solutions, says the location has something to offer everyone: parks, culture, shopping, finance, food and – of course – sports.
Sports town
Chicago is one of the best cities in the world in which to watch sports: it has major teams in basketball, baseball, hockey and American football. If you fancy catching some live action while in town, baseball offers the best bet with both the Cubs and the White Sox pitching up at their home grounds (Wrigley Field and US Cellular Field, respectively) during or close to the conference dates.
Going with the flow
This year’s theme – ‘IR in motion: influence, strategize, advance’ – attempts to grasp the ungraspable: the constantly shifting expectations placed on IR professionals. ‘The theme captures the fast-paced nature of the profession and the deep, dynamic environment in which we work,’ explains Dunlap.
Meet the new CEO
First-time attendees this year include NIRI’s new CEO and president James Cudahy, who took up the post in January. Want to catch up with the new man in charge? A great opportunity falls on Tuesday morning when Cudahy will be taking questions over breakfast. ‘My goal is to meet as many members as possible and to begin to establish relationships that will become a foundation for what we are able to accomplish over the months and years ahead,’ he tells IR Magazine.
Long-term outlook
The first general session of the conference will hone in on a topic close to every IR professional’s heart:how to focus investors on the long term. Giving the talk is Dominic Barton, McKinsey’s global managing director and a well-known authority on the subject. Expect him to touch on such issues as setting objectives, using metrics, shareholder engagement and corporate governance.
CEOs unite
A good companion to Barton’s session will be the CEO panel immediately afterwards, where executives will discuss how they meet the challenge of short-termism at their own companies, notes Dunlap.
Santelli live
Delegates can look forward to a lively general session on Monday when Rick Santelli, CNBC’s on-air editor and regular contributor to Squawk on the Street, will give a speech on managing the markets. Santelli, who normally reports from the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade, is known for his passionate reporting, outspoken opinions and occasional rants.
Future focus
The final main session will see economist and market forecaster Jason Schenker discuss how to better evaluate the economy. The founder of Prestige Economics displayed his prophetic powers several months ago by being the only one of 50 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg to correctly predict the rise in value of the Swiss franc.
Other highlights
According to Dunlap, a few other areas getting particular focus this year include:
- Senior IRO-focused programming
- Cutting-edge corporate governance and ESG issues
- Career advice on IR’s strategic role
- Multiple global IR sessions, given that more than 10 percent of attendees are from outside the US
This article appeared in the summer 2015 print issue of IR Magazine
