NIRI-Twin Cities News Blog

• Monday, 08-June

The general session kicked off with a video celebrating NIRI’s 40-year history. I was impressed with the work my ICR colleagues did putting that together and thought you might find their work to be of interest:

Todd Buchholz was a solid choice for this year’s opening keynote. His style was captivating, although oversimplified, and he stepped away from the podium to capture everyone’s attention. Personally, I like the irrelevant slides he used – images, not charts – to engage the audience in his economic address of why we’re living in such chaotic times. Short answer: millions of competitive workers freed when President Reagan challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall” in 1987…well, that and the economic reforms that have additionally turned India and China into massively competitive economic forces. According to Buchholz, China is going to face problems when all those boys (think “one child rule) need to be supported by the next successive generation – and there is not enough balance between the sexes for those numbers to work out…anyways, none of us should plan on U.S. economic growth in excess of 2% anytime soon, or a pay raise that outpaces inflation…which he does not expect to be a problem, since there won’t be any wage/price pressure to speak of.

The following “emerging issues” panel was no match for Buchholz, who presided over a “fireside chat” for those who hadn’t had enough in his 90-minute keynote. Me? I tried to take in a bit of both and probably should have simply stayed closer to a coffee pot – I do like a good, hot cup pot of coffee in the morning.

Among the concurrent sessions that followed, I took in the “international targeting” discussion to round out my morning. I do think IR is all about targeting appropriate investors for our stocks and building/sustaining relationships with our investor base. For this reason I feel many of us would benefit tremendously by adding longer-term investors in Europe to the mix of institutional investors here in the U.S. The discussion focused on the top-ranked European countries (led by the U.K., Switzerland and Germany), and spilled into other regions of the world we might consider – such as Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. Because many overseas investors feel the U.S. economy will recover first, this is viewed as an ideal time to launch an overseas targeting effort. What I found interesting was that the concerted effort to attract and retain overseas investors has influenced the timing of the earnings conference calls, to be more accommodating to the local time zones where many of these investors might opt to listen into the calls.

After lunch, the conference seemed to really settle down to focus more specifically on our unique needs. A series of concurrent industry breakouts, followed by a final set of concurrent “communications” forums pushed everyone’s agenda past 5:30 PM. At 6:30, the planned poolside “splash” event was brought indoors by more inclement weather – I heard it has rained here for 21 consecutive days – so now we know where all our Spring rains went. If we don’t get a decent crop of corn this year, we should all expect a juicy set of oranges. The venue change made for an early evening (for me, at least) and tomorrow is scheduled to start at 7 AM, so that’s probably not a bad thing.

     Francis X. Milano
     Chapter President 

• Sunday, 07-June

This morning I made the spontaneous decision to join the golf outing. After clearing a number of e-mails and enjoying several cups of coffee while watching the waves crash in on the beach, I joined the early bus to the course in hopes they could accommodate my decision to participate in the scramble.

I was delighted to get a call just minutes before the tournament started – and was assigned to share the cart with John Vogt, our guest speaker at the final chapter event of the season (on 01-May). The conversation was a great way to connect with the representatives from the NASDAQ team, and I just happened to be wearing my NASDAQ hat, so I seemed to fit right in. Fortunately, my game held together enough to contribute a few key shots – and our foursome played 1-over par. The game is so much more enjoyable when the shots drop like they’re supposed to. Maybe it’s an omen of good things to come.

The evening came together with a social gathering of everyone in attendance at this year’s event and the booths were all staffed to get a glimpse of the latest tools we all ought to be buying. Many IR practitioners and vendors that I have known for years were there and it was really great to catch up with them. I just happened to find the only bar stocked with Sam Adams (they were all supposed to be identical, but none of the other barkeeps had SA). As things began to wind down, I went back for another but SA was absent from the array of bottles then on display, so when I inquired – I was given the last one stashed away under all the ice.

At 8 o’clock the Virtual Chapter hosted an evening dance social set to 40’s-style big band music. The band was excellent and during an intermission I witnessed the leadership transition they had planned for the coming year. The Virtual Chapter seems to be running like a well-oiled machine and it was interesting to hear from so many of their members as to why they have been so successful – active participation, topics of interest and a healthy mix of veteran talent and new members with new ideas were all cited during these conversations. I’m sure all of that is true, but I also sense that with all of us so pressed for time, the simple concept of being virtual – using technology to pull archived content at a more convenient time from any place on the globe – probably factors into their success, too.

I’m always one to “borrow” good ideas and the Virtual Chapter seems like a good place to look for some ways to overcome the geography issues that we deal with in the Twin Cities. With any luck, our remote members will be able to take advantage of some of these ideas in the year ahead.

• Saturday, 06-June

Tonight’s agenda featured a chapter awards dinner. It was great to socialize with colleagues from the other chapters – many of whom won awards for their work in supporting local NIRI activities in their respective communities. In my conversations, I learned that Lynn Tyson, VP-IR at Dell Inc. was just named SVP-IR at PepsiCo, Inc. enabling my friend and former colleague at Dell, Rob Williams, to step up to the senior role there. Congratulations, Rob! I also learned that next year’s annual conference is slated for San Diego, CA – so we should all mark our calendars and find a way to make that trip next year!

As I sat through the evening’s award program, I thought we might benefit from a theme we can all rally to support. My idea is “One Giant Leap” – designed to foster several simultaneous initiatives. At the board level, I am personally convinced we will benefit from formalizing the various committees, such as Programs and Membership, as well as designating both a President and President-Elect to ensure a solid succession plan is in place for the future of our Twin Cities Chapter. My own personal crusade this year will be new member outreach – with a specific focus on a university liaison role serving the University of Minnesota. In this capacity I will work to enable our NIRI chapter members to connect with the U of M’s business school to support IR internships, mentor new graduates that seek to become IR practitioners and promote the highest ethical standards that serve to define our profession.

With respect to the year ahead, I spoke with Jeff Morgan and asked him to join us in September to kick-off our chapter’s 2009-2010 Program Year. He agreed and we intend to schedule a date as soon as this we wrap up this year’s annual conference. I expect this will be an evening social event, not a luncheon program, but we will work out the details and communicate logistics as soon as possible.

Tonight was a fun start to what I look forward to as a great year for our Twin Cities Chapter. Please make time to print, sign and complete your election ballot for the 2009-2010 board. The vote deadline is 4:00 PM Central on 30-June and all members are encouraged to participate in this year’s vote. If you need a ballot, please contact me or Megan Schaefbauer. As always, I welcome your input and invite you to contact me at any time with suggestions, comments and feedback.