Conducting Live Q&As in Annual General Meetings: A Guide

During annual general meetings, your organization does not only present your financial reports and plans to your shareholders. Instead, you allow them to voice out and discuss company matters with you. After all, what is a meeting if it’s only one-way?

AGMs are an avenue to strengthen your relationship with your shareholders. Fostering engaging discussions creates better conversations that would benefit both sides. However, the shift to virtual meetings poses a challenge for Q&A sessions or discussions. Its remote aspect and spontaneity could cause unforeseen effects on the shareholders or your company.

Thankfully, modern technology allows the development of sophisticated tools such as ConveneAGM, a virtual AGM platform, to address shareholder participation. For your next virtual or hybrid AGM, develop a strategy on how to facilitate Q&As. Here’s a guide our team prepared for you.

Virtual AGM Solution: What is its role in member or shareholder participation?

The pandemic crisis in 2020 propels the evolution of IT solutions to address the challenges, particularly in meetings and communication. Earlier that year, many service providers improved and launched solutions to deliver meetings without the need to convene physically while streamlining preparation. Legislations are also continuously evolving to adopt virtual and hybrid meeting formats.

Virtual or hybrid AGM solutions provide a platform where all your attendees, whether onsite or remote, can come together. These technologies not only allow seamless preparation and meetings but also uphold governance among the company and its shareholders.

With prominent features that allow real-time results and tracking, transparency and accountability won’t be compromised. Companies can also comply with legislation on digital AGMs by guaranteeing the shareholder rights of voting and the “reasonable opportunity” to ask questions.

As a result, virtual AGM solutions can increase engagement by exhibiting governance and giving shareholders a voice during AGMs.

Allow advanced submission of questions

Granting that your shareholders are being seen and heard has been a practice of most organizations prior to the actual AGM. Recently, in Singapore, the SGXRegCo is now requiring all listed companies to be transparent to the shareholders as general meetings will go mostly hybrid.

Issuers are expected to organize virtual information sessions (VIS) to seek shareholders’ approval on certain corporate actions. Moreover, companies must release public responses to the shareholder questions prior to the closing time of the lodgment of proxy forms. With these new standards, organizations must use a tool that can provide electronic communication at AGMs.

ConveneAGM is an end-to-end virtual AGM solution that simplifies the whole AGM cycle while providing live two-way broadcast. With this platform, shareholders may submit their textual questions in advance before the proxy form submissions. They just need to log in through ConveneAGM where they can also see their previous submissions.

Through this, companies can be seen as accountable and proactive in engaging with the shareholders even before the actual AGM.

Ask and respond to questions in real-time

The primary goal of virtual and hybrid general meetings is to emulate the organic engagement during physical meetings. That is why a virtual AGM platform must be able to give an avenue for shareholders to voice out their reactions, concerns, and questions. ConveneAGM takes pride in its real-time features, including a no-delay webcast, live voting, and live Q&A.

Its live Q&A feature allows for two-way discussions on corporate and voting matters. To cater to the preferences of the attendees, ConveneAGM offers two ways to conduct live Q&A — through text and video. Other solutions only offer textual Q&A which can be insufficient for some attendees who would like to discuss with the board members.

Furthermore, live discussions can be facilitated through video Q&A where shareholders can join the webcast and create conversations with the board. Also, responses to textual questions can be made directly by the chairperson, panelists, corporate secretary, or administrators.

Read about Seletar Country Club’s experience with ConveneAGM in their 2021 virtual annual member meeting where they have increased member engagement through live Q&A.

Moderate questions from all channels

Real-time interaction may sometimes cause saturation of incoming questions that may overwhelm the panelists and administrators. ConveneAGM allows moderation of questions before and during the annual meeting. The Board may assign a moderator who will manage all the questions submitted by the attendees.

While laws have been mandating companies to respond to the questions of the shareholders, they also have the discretion to answer or reject questions before or during the AGM. One criterion for acceptance is its connection with the resolutions tabulated and company matters.

Furthermore, ConveneAGM is designed to regulate questions, particularly textual questions containing spam or vulgar content. The moderator can also filter out irrelevant questions and messages upon disclosure to the attendees. With proper facilitation, organizations can increase participation and gain the trust of their shareholders.

Apart from management, ConveneAGM also prioritizes the security of the meeting. You and your shareholders are guaranteed that no unauthorized access can disrupt your meeting. All verified participants will receive login details to enter the meeting. Likewise, vote results and questions are kept within the portal for recordkeeping and tracking.

Strengthen Shareholder Engagement in Your Next Annual Meeting

The core of every annual general meeting is the participation of shareholders in voting and discussions. Take on the challenge of upholding corporate governance in hybrid AGMs by ensuring that participants have a say on matters that will impact decisions and investment.

ConveneAGM is the only global AGM solution with real-time broadcast and live Q&A designed for virtual and hybrid general meetings. Explore our solution and facilitate a seamless live engagement for your next annual meeting. Contact us today for a free demo!