As In-Person Investor Conferences Remain In Doubt, Virtual Conferences Pick Up Steam

The following post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga.

The U.S. is five months into its post-pandemic life, and timelines of when life will go completely back to normal are still unknown. One activity that looks like it may not come back for an extended period is the conference and investor roadshow circuit. 

On Wall Street, this presents a unique challenge for investors and the C-Suite executives trying to reach them. But against this backdrop of states and businesses slowly beginning to open up, executives are going virtual in an attempt to maintain engagement with the investing public. 

OTC Markets is hosting four such conferences this month. The first of which, the Global Virtual Investor Conference, happened this week and is available for replay.  

“People really want to hear from management, and the only way to really communicate [right now] is through virtual webinars,” said Tom Dean, co-founder and president of Murdock Capital Partners. “We feel that it’s going to become standard after this is over. It’s going to be an integral aspect of any corporate outreach to the investment public.”

This week the Global Virtual Investor Conference brought together six companies from around the world, including an Australian sports betting company, Swedish pharmaceutical company, a company with a 48-year history of increasing dividends, and a leading cryptocurrency investment company. 

“The sports betting industry is obviously a super hot topic in the U.S. right now,” said Patrick Eichner, director of communications at Australian-based PointsBet. “It’s encouraging, and people are starting to realize the potential that sports betting has.”

In addition to Thursday’s conference, OTC Markets is also hosting the KCSA Cannabis Investor Conference on June 24, a Life Sciences Investor Forum with Intrado on June 25, and U.S. Western Metals and Mining Virtual Investor Conference on June 30. 

Considering the volatility brought upon by the pandemic and subsequent increase in retail investor activity, executives are hoping to reach more investors at a time where interest is spiking.

“We have seen a resilient demand for cannabis products together with a further legitimizing of the industry as cannabis was deemed ‘essential’ in most states,” said Phil Carlson, managing director at KCSA. “With fewer players in the market, there is now more accountability and higher quality which is beneficial for the industry at large so in general the industry is in better shape.”

Eichner said PointsBet, which has operations in New Jersey, Iowa, Indiana and is expanding to Illinois, Michigan and Colorado this year, is turning the corner with professional sports starting to come back. The company is hoping to capitalize on the increased investor attention in the industry.

“In terms of companies that are listed, we feel there are essentially two pure players in the market right now, that would be DraftKings and ourselves.”

Dean said his firm has seen a renewed interest from many high-net-worth individuals and small fund managers specifically in gaining precious metals exposure. He’s hoping the virtual conferences can fill the void left by the dearth of in-person investor events. 

“It’s untested and untried for many companies, so they are at best skeptical and at worst pessimistic about the ability of virtual conferences to project the image and message they want,” he said. “But I think once they have tried it, they find that it works very very well. It’s concise, it’s timely, it can be pre-recorded. So I believe that management is starting to realize that virtual is really going to be a standard method of communication.”

Below is the schedule for the June  Virtual Investor Conferences

Global Virtual Investor Conference 

Thursday, June 18, 2020 – replay available

KCSA Cannabis Investor Conference

Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Life Sciences Investor Forum

Thursday, June 25, 2020

US Western Metals and Mining Virtual Investor Conference

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Photo by alexandros Giannakakis on Unsplash

The preceding post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga. Although the piece is not and should not be construed as editorial content, the sponsored content team works to ensure that any and all information contained within is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge and research. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.