View all

President’s Letter – July 17, 2020

July 17, 2020

Fellow NIRI Twin Cities Chapter Members,

Unprecedented: It’s a word we have all become accustomed to lately both in our personal and professional lives. We have all probably searched the thesaurus many times to find a suitable replacement for fear of the continued over-use of this word. In the end, that seems to best describe what we face many days and will likely remain on our ‘top 10 list’ for a while yet to come. We are all dealing with a ‘new normal’ given the current macro backdrop, economic uncertainty, and ever-changing headlines on the global pandemic. Never did we think we would go months without being on an airplane, attending conferences and roadshows, and covering miles and miles across numerous cities from east to west with our management teams.

I remember it clearly, now 19 weeks ago, flying to Florida for a conference, and thinking, I wonder how long we’ll keep doing this, and just a few days later, flying home from Kansas City, and our team quickly agreeing that we would be done traveling for a while after this trip. Truer words have never been spoken.

Since that time, we have all dealt with challenges, from earnings call preparation going virtual, with all of us learning the nuances of Teams, Zoom, Skype, or Meet. Perhaps it was group texts or chats with the management team. Or coaching our teams to ensure they are ‘off-mute’ on schedule. Conferences and roadshows have now become all-day conference calls and Zoom meetings hosted from our makeshift home offices. If you didn’t have a ‘Zoom shirt’ to begin with, I know many of you do by now – myself included. No longer is there a nice dinner for respite after all day investor meetings, or at least not through sharing a bottle of wine and a laugh with your management team after a hard day’s work.

We now count ourselves lucky if we can grab a granola bar or trail mix between meetings. No matter the challenges we all are facing, I’m sure we are all much more comfortable today having learned our own ‘tools of the trade’ like IR practitioners have been doing for many years.

As IR practitioners, we plan for many contingencies, and draft Q&A for even the most remote potential topics. If you correctly forecasted this global pandemic in 2020 and its related impacts on our lives, I will gladly buy you a cup of coffee, and maybe you can teach me your forecasting skills. As a result of these situations, the value and importance of NIRI and our local chapter I believe has never been higher. The benefit of our shared peer connections and access to expertise from others is critical to help us all navigate these unchartered waters together.

As we look forward to the coming chapter program year in the fall, we have a tremendous volunteer board of directors to help lead the way, and we are committed to continuing to deliver top notch programming, educational and networking opportunities for all of us in the Investor Relations field. I ask for your continued support as we navigate potential virtual programming and events for some period of time. We will ensure we continue to make our events both interactive and immersive, similar to the year-end virtual happy hour event we hosted just last month I am hopeful many of you were able to attend, and get your NIRI Twin Cities swag-bag happy hour kit!

In closing, all of this great work and programs would not be possible without the support of our many sponsors and I would be remiss to not thank each of them for their continued support. I am honored to serve along-side Bernadette as Co-Presidents for the chapter this coming year.

Sincerely,

Timothy R. Sedabres
Co-President, NIRI Twin Cities Chapter

View all