Use Non-traditional Presentation Elements to Make a Bigger Splash With Your Audience
Investor days have come a long way in the past five years. Gone are the day-long affairs with endless, generic slides. While investor days are still an invaluable opportunity to spotlight your enterprise strategy, show off your depth of leadership talent, and provide a long-term outlook, investors have come to expect a much more efficient and effective use of time.
But whatever the format—in-person, virtual, or hybrid—management teams can come off as one-dimensional if they treat the investor day as little more than an “extra” earnings call. To make the most of your next event, and to provide your audiences with a perspective they would not otherwise have, consider using one or more of the following non-traditional production elements.
- Unique Venues: Hotel ballrooms and convention spaces are always a safe choice, but a unique setting can say more about a company than any PowerPoint slide can. Have you recently opened a new facility, perhaps an R&D space or production center? If you are on the leading edge of your industry, your state-of-the-art technology can serve as a compelling backdrop. In fact, we’ve seen everything from data centers to an airport hangar, even an offshore oil rig, put to effective use—it is simply a matter of careful planning and execution. If hosting a large event in your corporate location is simply not practicable for you, use the nearest function space and add a site visit to the event agenda. If even that would present too big a logistical challenge, consider pre-recording a virtual tour.
- Panel Discussions: Lots of companies talk about “partnering” with clients and other key stakeholders, but if your company truly has a special relationship with one or more external parties, an investor day can be a great time to spotlight them. With a member of your leadership team serving as the moderator, the format can be like a fireside chat. Discussion items can include industry trends, the kinds of issues your customers face, and why they choose to work with you. We’ve seen panel discussions illuminate a company’s growth strategy, key operational details, and competitive advantages in genuinely novel ways. In a recent investor day that we worked on, a panel discussion featuring the host company’s biggest customers absolutely stole the show and elicited a robust Q&A session.
- Guest Speakers: Similarly, a guest speaker can provide invaluable insights and context. The speaker can come from virtually any field—industry, academia, the public sector—but should be a recognized expert on the given topic. As is the case with panelists, credibility and authenticity will matter most to the audience. The goal should be to educate and inform regarding a key theme, such as an important growth driver or industry trend. The CEO can reinforce the overarching messages and connect any additional dots in the event’s closing remarks.
- Interactive Product and Service Demonstrations:If a picture is worth a thousand words, a hands-on display must be worth at least ten thousand. If you struggle to describe all the differentiating elements of an important product or service, a demo might do the trick. For some products and services, a pre-recorded video works best, but if something tangible is worth sharing, display booths can be a nice touch. The demonstrations need not be a formal agenda item but can serve as a post-registration icebreaker or as a place to mingle after the event.
- Thematic Events: Your event doesn’t need to be an exhaustive review of every aspect of the company’s story. If you’ve recently held a full investor day but find that a particular business segment deserves a closer look, perhaps due to a new acquisition or in light of some exciting growth drivers, you should tailor a smaller-scale event to suit your needs. Such events are typically virtual and can be as short as 60 to 90 minutes. The format is otherwise similar to that of a full investor day, with in-depth presentations from the CEO and other members of the leadership team. In addition to segment-specific formats, events that focus on R&D, your product pipeline, or recent product launches can work well.
