For the past 15 years since I began my work in investor relations consulting, I have attended the NIRI National conference probably a half dozen times – always a great learning experience and opportunity to meet cool people from around the U.S. and beyond.
Last year in Seattle was a different experience for me. I was there as a vendor in the Exhibitor Showcase launching theIRapp. My takeaway last year was that it was an “ah ha moment” for the IR industry. Everyone knew in June of 2012 that mobile was the latest and greatest in technology. What was new and exciting was the realization that the platform of mobile could provide direct access to the investor.
What a difference a year makes — in less than 12 months, many great American institutions – Campbell’s Soup, Colgate-Palmolive, Marathon Oil, Sysco Corporation – and dozens more have embraced not only mobile as a means to communicate with investors but also theIRapp’s native app technology platform. In addition, we now have great partners like PRNewswire and American Stock Transfer who also have embraced the importance of offering a mobile product to their clients and are using theIRapp’s technology to power their solution. Whereas we focused initially on the U.S. public company market, we learned quickly that mobile is global with companies from Australia, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada and Israel subscribing to theIRapp.
Needless to say, I am pumped for next week. I am looking forward to seeing a lot of friends as well as to meet many of the IR professionals that I have had the opportunity to speak with this year (albeit over the phone) when introducing theIRapp to them. I am psyched to have what I know will be real interesting conversations about social media and IR, especially since this topic wasn’t even on the radar last year. I am looking forward to demo’ing version 4.0 of theIRapp, our institutional product – theIRappFOLIO – and helping to educate the many individuals who will be curious to understand the nature of the IR mobile market today and the potential that it holds in the years to come. And I hope to find a little spare time to do a WOD (workout of the day) at a local CrossFit gym and then hang at the pool covered in one of theIRapp’s giveaways – SPF 30 (anyone do CrossFit and want to join me?).