The Annual General Meeting (AGM) is always a highlight in a company’s yearly event calendar. So much preparation, so many things to think about, so much budget spent for a single half day. Nevertheless, it’s an important event for internal and external audiences such as the Executive and Board members, the legal department, investor relations, all shareholders and investors. Often the communications department is involved as well as an event agency, simultaneous translators and a streaming company in charge of the videotaping and broadcasting.
Keeping track of your target audiences
Leading up to the ‘big day’ I remember many arguments and discussions about all kinds of internal and external communication issues including ‘Shall we show it to employees?’, ‘Why should we show it to employees?’ ‘Do we put in on the Internet or not?’, ‘Does the public need to know?’ etc. The Annual General Meeting is THE event a company holds for its shareholders and includes the entire senior management and executive staff as well as the organization’s Board members. Employees and the general public sometimes get forgotten in the process. I find it just as relevant and significant to keep them in the loop of a company’s developments. And that is a communication departments job! So I can only plead for you to take on the responsibility, get a streaming provider such as Solutionpark on board, and get moving.
Employees first!
We webcast the Annual General Meeting on the intranet for all employees to see, i.e. for those who aren’t shareholders and for those who are but decided not to attend the AGM in person. It’s simple transparent information policy to keep everyone up-to-date and not to exclude internal resources whoever and wherever they may be. Besides, it’s a legal requirement to keep a copy of the recording anyway, so why not produce it as a webcast and put it on the web.
I find this a good example of using multimedia tools to create more transparency and inclusiveness. Don’t we hear too often: ‘Why wasn’t I informed?’, ‘How come I didn’t hear about this or that?’ The whole purpose of putting videos on the Internet is to reach a broad audience and make an event available to everyone. All of your shareholders and employees will be grateful to you.
Compared with traditional communication (print) tools, and don’t get me wrong, I have had great experiences working with ad agencies and producing plenty of print material, the cost of webcasts on average is often lower and the impact so much greater. Assume you are using a webcast for a message from the CEO, an update on the business strategy and your are introducing a new Executive Team member, that is three in one right there. Don’t have to bother writing individual pieces including a speech, a presentation, an internal announcement etc. No need trying to copy all different user groups into the ‘To:’ field of your E-mail. As soon as you have the video up on the Internet a broad audience can view it as much and as long as they want. And, you can even track the traffic.
I grew up being exposed to new technologies and computers from an early age onwards. Then at university in the USA we were required to e-mail our research papers or hand them in on a disk, which seemed quite revolutionary at the time. Later on, in my professional communication career, somehow, I got stuck with different sorts of web projects mostly from an internal communications perspective. Colleagues say I inspire them and as I enjoy working in interdisciplinary teams and on technical topics, communication and PR on the one hand and IT-related activities on the other, make up an ideal mix for me.
