Re: "Maybe someone can tell me why it is or isn't important for someone to make the effort to attend in person."
Listening and seeing the executives in an annual meeting can provide better insight than a press release, just like an interview can provide better insight than a resume.
But if you work in high-tech and attend conferences, then you can hear/see them there and possibly hear a maybe slightly more technical discussion of the content, making annual meetings less important. If you're short on time, attending a lunch that recaps the annual meeting is a useful way to capture the essence of the meeting from people who did attend. Comments made by several attendees over a lunch sometimes can be more insightful than reading about it from one editorial source. (Another plus is, it's nice to meet fellow investors and enjoy a good lunch.)
But SI has a way of putting it all together in one place, from many sources of people, and in an interactive style. Yet, still, just like in an interview, seeing/hearing the meeting can be an important component of capturing the overall message.
A lot of the important intangibles which are communicated can be lost in the written material. How something is communicated is important too (i.e. enthusiasm, energy, confidence on new business opportunities or verbal cues of hesitations which may possibly hint of up-and-coming issues, a hint of the culture, clarity, congruency of direction/goals and consistency in message among the executive team members, etc.)
Amy J |
