The unofficial online discussion about the Canadian Investor Relations Institute 2008 Annual Conference. If you're blogging, using twitter, uploading photos or video, please tag your entries with #CIRI08. Track activity at http://twemes.com/CIRI08 and at http://www.hashtags.org/tag... If you're using Twitter, a key hub is @CIRI08 http://twitter.com/ciri08. Why are we doing this? Because investors are starting to use the same tools to connect with each other. And we think you should know something about them. And FriendFeed is about as leading edge as it gets right now, so you'll have something to brag about. If you want to join an ongoing conversation about IR, join http://friendfeed.com/irwebre...
The number of IROs at the CIRI conference is low. Why is this? I posted the above blog entry to try to stimulate discussion on what could be done to get more people going to this conference. I invite you to share your ideas too.
- Ryan Lejbak
I'm curious as to where all the vendors are this morning. Missing in Action. Even the SNL guys, who were dancing with chuck wagon wheels around their heads, made it here. :)
- Katherine
I also wonder if the close proximity of niri and ciri, if that has some kind of influence over people attending both, I would assume that people would likely be forced into choosing one over the other
- Chris Jones
Ian Bacque mentioned members' cost sensitivity and he is right. Why belong to CIRI if it is cheaper to be a NIRI member? That's one issue. CIRI needs to do more to reach out to smaller companies that dominate the Canadian market, and it should do so on the web to keep costs low. Also, bring in different perspectives and adopt a more international outlook.
- Dominic Jones
From the delegate floor, many people I talked to thought the program should have dealt with more "current issues." I agree, all of the talk was about the web, yet there was only one session discussing it (and it was a well-attended session).
- Ryan Lejbak
One more fact: when I looked at the number of speakers and removed them from my attendee list, there were about 105 IROs (give or take a few who I may have slotted in the wrong category). That number needs to improve next year or this conference will slowly evaporate into nothing. CIRI needs to reinvigorate its membership.
- Ryan Lejbak
I think CIRI is on the right track though. Ian Bacque is saying the right things. He is a true leader whom people will rally around. Hopefully, he can right the ship by next year's conference by using CIRI's website, newsletter and chapters to get his message and vision out.
- Ryan Lejbak
Those are poor attendance numbers. I want to rant right now, but won't because I did see progress. The fact that Ian, Jeff, Colleen and Bob were on camera on YouTube gives me hope. And I agree with you that they need to do some marketing and create some buzz again.
- Dominic Jones
via twhirl
Thinking more about this, I wonder if the heavy vendor presence isn't partly responsible for IROs not wanting to go to CIRI conferences. After all, who wants to go to a conference just so that they can be pitched? Not that CIRI events have ever been heavy on the sales pitches, but being outnumbered is unlikely to make corporate IROs comfortable. If the event isn't rethought top to bottom, next year's IRO attendance could well be worse. Just my two cents.
- Dominic Jones
I agree Dominic, these conferences are for the IROs. However, vendors play an important role in helping to finance CIRI and the conference, so it would be hard to get rid of them. I do no think that the number of vendors has increased, but the number of IROs attending is declining. So, CIRI needs to deal with that. One thought I had was to have another conference track where each vendor can do a presentation; if IROs are interested, they can attend, if not then they do not need to listen to a pitch.
- Ryan Lejbak
John Vincic - BarnesMcInerney Inc. Hazel Winchester - Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. David Carey - ARC Energy Trust Marie Fenez - Canadian Oil Sands Trust Jamie Macintosh - Innovium Capital Corp. Susanne Hickey - Magna International Inc. Jessica Ruffen - Medical Ventures Corp. Jeff Edwards - Canadian Pacific Railway Limited Colin Petryk - Fording Canadian Coal Trust
- Dominic Jones
A story by Neil Stewart: "Along the way, social media was not only a subject for discussion, it was a way to cover it. Darrell Heaps, CEO of Toronto’s Q4 Web Systems, used Twitter for his rapid-fire commentary while zu.com communications, a Saskatchewan website developer, live-blogged panel sessions and speeches and posted photos along with video interviews with people like Bacque and conference co-chair Colleen Vancha of Viterra. Check out zu.com’s blog."
- Dominic Jones
darrellheaps: #ciri08 heading back to TO now, not going to make the last session. Great conference but man I'm wiped. - http://twitter.com/darrell...
I second that! Everyone involved in making this happen did a fantastic job, there has to be something that can be done between now and the next conference to make this more relevant to the attendees, how can we do this?
- Chris Jones
When you're at a conference it's difficult to find time to visit a room like this. Where it will be valuable is when you get home or back to the office and want to look back. It would also be great if presenters were available to answer questions from attendees after the conference. I know I always think of something I wish I had thought of at the time but didn't. We'll leave this room...
more...
- Dominic Jones
via twhirl
I really enjoyed us FF and Twitter this year at both NIRI and CIRI - going to try and keep up using it, especially twitter - I'm hooked. Thanks to Zu and Dominic for setting the pace and making it happen - good job guys!
- Darrell Heaps
Chelsea files her last report of the conference for the zu blog, this time covering the Annual Report Effectiveness session.
- Ryan Lejbak
We like Chuck and we think TELUS is a good example of best practice. However, the print annual report is obsolete and it's time to move on. It must be replaced by telling your story every day, everywhere, and in an authentic way. No, we're not saying put the report on the web, we're saying kill the whole idea of an annual report to shareholders, period.
- Dominic Jones
An interesting point was made by Michael Roach, "More money has been lost though poor project management than has been gained on labor arbitrage."
- Chelsea Fleischhacker
darrellheaps: #CIRI08 BMO walking through their site, some key features , follow many peers and use a web site audit every 3 years - http://twitter.com/darrell...
darrellheaps: #CIRI08 storage for web sites is cheap so try to keep it, however tech must evolve to display old formats (or just put it in PDF) - http://twitter.com/darrell...
darrellheaps: #CIRI08 view of what is material is very different from Joe investor than institutional - there is a lot more risk and potential problems - http://twitter.com/darrell...
darrellheaps: #CIRI08 segmented PDFs are better, excel files are good, HTML is good but can be expensive, XBRL with 2 years will be the standard - http://twitter.com/darrell...
darrellheaps: #CIRI08 once XBRL is being audited there seems to be a requirement to have all linked data to also be assured in the same way - http://twitter.com/darrell...
darrellheaps: #CIRI08 there is a movement to provide further assurances to info on web sites (esssentially a broader footprint of audited info) - http://twitter.com/darrell...
darrellheaps: #CIRI08 BMO a good IR site is about information, transparency and providing quality info to investors - primary focus is retail investors - http://twitter.com/darrell...
darrellheaps: #CIRI08 Potash won't dislcose budget but says it's a big one - thinks if they had BMO type resources it would cost less - http://twitter.com/darrell...
darrellheaps: #CIRI08 enviromental and social - people are looking to companies for how they are involved in this - lots of room for improvement here - http://twitter.com/darrell...
darrellheaps: #CIRI08 continuous disclosure (quarterly) only lasts for a couple days, investors demand more timely & immediate information - http://twitter.com/darrell...