The IR Magazine Canada Awards is being held next week at the Royal York downtown Toronto.  You can read more about the event here: http://bit.ly/wHEWtu.
Every year, we, at Q4 look forward to networking and the amazing show put on by @irmagazine.
We’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate our clients who have been nominated:
Grand prix for best overall investor relations – large cap (C$10 bn and over)
Goldcorp
Best investor relations officer – large cap
Goldcorp
Best IR by a CEO – large-cap
Goldcorp
Best IR by a CEO – mid-cap
Intact Financial
Best financial reporting
Goldcorp
Best investment community …

The use of social media by institutional and retail investors is growing at a significant rate.  Companies that have embraced social media as a core element of their disclosure are seeing a substantial increase in awareness of their company and their ability to attract and influence investors.
Based on these findings, on June 14, 2011 Q4 sponsored a Lunch ‘n’ Learn session at the NIRI Annual Conference which sought to answer this question:
‘Is now the time for all companies to adopt social media disclosure and move beyond compliance to a more …

Earlier this year, I wrote a blog post that recounted a discussion that ensued on #irchat regarding one of Rivel’s research findings in late 2009 regarding IR’s role in a company’s valuation.
An interesting discussion developed when Dan Dykens, CEO of Meet the Street and host of #irchat asked “What do you think about Rivel Research’s buy-side survey which suggests that the valuation differential between good and bad IR is 35%?”
This question stirred up quite a debate, especially since no one had access to the methodology or a definition of what …

In a recent edition of IR Alert, Jeffrey D. Morgan, CAE, President and CEO, National Investor Relations Institute cites “the top challenge facing IR now is regulation including moves to have companies become more transparent, governance changes and generally looking at corporate practices. Regulation is one of the key challenges right now. It’s evolving rapidly and where we’ll end up is not quite known.” 
What follows is some of his advice to IR professionals for keeping pace in this rapidly changing regulatory environment.  He also discusses current challenges and opportunities and …

As you may know, Q4 conducted a webinar a couple of weeks ago on IR Website Best Practices. The main theme was ‘Avoiding the 5 Barriers to Effective Communications‘:
1. Home page/investor index lacks easy access to key information.
2. Content does not convey/summarize a compelling investment proposition.
3. Information is not geared to various investor audiences.
4. Key content is missing, in wrong format or just not engaging.
5. Lack of tools to aid relationship/brand building.
We also used a few case stories to illustrate how leading issuers are maximizing their websites to communicate their …

I recently read an interesting article entitled “Corporate Tweets and the SEC: Sometimes It’s Better to Keep Your Mouth Shut” which provides some insights and commentary on social media, investor relations and web disclosure.
Since the SEC announced its recognition of corporate blogs as public disclosure in July of last year, social media has been used quite effectively by PR, marketing, and advertising professionals.  However IR practitioners are still pondering the risks and opportunities outlined in the recent SEC guidelines.
There are many things to consider for integrating blogs and other social …

We had a great turnout at our first ever webinar yesterday – IR Website Best Practices.  Catherine Crofton, VP at Q4 discussed five common barriers to effective web site communications to an audience of representatives from Canada, the U.S. and the UK. (Our CEO, Darrell Heaps also Tweeted the event with lots of links to examples).
We attribute the large turnout to the fact that the web and the IR website is now the dominant channel for investor communications and many companies are looking for ways to do things better. We …

I attended an interesting CIRI (Canadian Investor Relations Institute) round-table luncheon yesterday, and the topic of discussion was Understanding how the buy-side makes decisions . The format of the session was great; it was almost entirely Q&A and provided the opportunity for participants to openly dialogue with the speakers.  The panelists were Stephanie Griffiths, Lead Portfolio Manager for Mackenzie Ivy Enterprise Fund, and Craig MacAdam, Portfolio Manager with the Aurion Capital equity team. Both were frank and concise in their answers, and while much of the information they provided was …

General Electric, parent of NBC Universal, has gained attention in the blogosphere over the last few weeks since the October 22 launch of its corporate blog, ‘GE reports – Your source for what’s happening at GE.’
The response has been both positive and negative. Criticism has primarily focused on the accessibility of information disclosed in this way – although anyone can receive automatic updates through RSS feeds, which take all of 2 minutes to set up. And North America enjoys the highest penetration of internet usage in the world.
What’s important to …

As many of you know, over the past several weeks I have been speaking with issuers of all sizes across North America – both U.S. and Canadian inter-listed companies – regarding their transition to a web disclosure model.
Most of the companies I’ve spoken with are intrigued by the potential cost savings of disseminating their disclosure without the expense of newswires. Some of the companies I’ve spoken with are busy putting plans in place to meet the new SEC criteria. Others have been made to fear that adopting this method of …