Hosting a Research and Development (R&D) day or Investor Day is an excellent idea for any life sciences company wanting to engage with its constituents. However, this decision should be made while fully understanding the requirements of the day and the significance it will hold for telling your company’s story. Hosting an R&D or Investor Day (also known as an Analyst Day) can be a costly endeavor in terms of both money and time. Therefore, it is important to plan well in advance of the event. If your company has recently updated its messaging, adopted a new indication for its clinical asset, or launched a new program, an R&D or Investor Day is the right choice for you.
Which is Which?
Research & Development Day
The main goal of an R&D Day is to showcase one facet of, or your company’s full range of research and development efforts – to provide a deep dive into your initiatives, platform technology/science and pipeline programs – making sure to explain the market opportunity and path for growth. Typical attendees will include your current and potential investors, covering analysts, and other investment professionals.
Investor Day
This event is designed to provide a comprehensive overview of your company’s business strategy, financial performance, and market positioning. Your audience is, of course, current and potential investors, as well as covering and target sell-side analysts. During an Investor Day, your company will spend its time communicating its long-term vision. What are your strategic priorities and financial goals?
Critical Elements for Your Event
Once you have decided to host an event, whether it be an R&D Day or Investor Day, you should ensure that you thoroughly solidify the below elements of your event.
The Logistics
Plan the logistics of your event well in advance, as people’s schedules are busy and, do not forget to check your timing against any competing events such as earnings, peer events, investment banking or key scientific conferences. If you plan to include key opinion leaders as speakers, it is important to secure their commitment early on, as well.
For an in-person meeting, consider where it will be held. Is the look and feel of the venue in line with your company and its messaging? You will want to ensure you are hosting your event in a location that is easily accessible for most attendees and provides a virtual option. For those who are unable to attend, ensure that you use an experienced, high quality webcasting vendor who will provide a time on site to address any technical issues along the way. All elements of your event should be as professional as possible because it influences how your company is perceived.
The Slide Deck
The content of the slide deck will depend on the focus of the event and your target audience; however, every presentation should comprehensively cover important themes, with concise messaging around data, as well as regulatory or commercial plans. This will also be the time to re-work any narrative that has been previously misunderstood by the Street or to introduce new topics that affect the company.
Practice Makes Perfect
It is critical that management, and anyone else presenting at your company’s event, take the time to rehearse as much as time allows. Ideally, the team should sit together and review the prepared deck and schedule a few full run-throughs, including one the day before the actual event, in the chosen venue. This practice will help presenters feel prepared and comfortable in their surroundings and allow the team to fine tune any messaging that does not flow properly. Aim for two rehearsals, minimum.
The Q&A
One of the most crucial components of your event is the question-and-answer session. Depending on the format and timing of the day, the Q&A may occur once all speakers have concluded their presentations or be interspersed at distinct points during the event. Regardless, the Q&A is one of the main reasons your audience has come to your event – they want to hear their colleagues’ questions and ask their own. There are two parts to the Q&A, the internal preparation and the actual engagement with the audience.
Internal Preparation
One of the key reasons for practicing prior to the event is to prepare for the Q&A segment. A common concern is that a company risks losing its messaging if presenters are caught off guard by unexpected questions. Creating a comprehensive Q&A document in advance of the event is the best defense against this issue. The Q&A document may include feedback and questions from previous investor and analyst meetings, conference calls and any other information you can gather from the Street.
Audience Engagement
The National Institute of Investor Relations (NIRI) hosted a two-part master class covering investor days. NIRI’s biggest takeaway? Investors attend for the Q&A portion of the event, so much so that it would be most ideal for them if 50% of the time spent at the event was dedicated to engaging with management and other presenters. While this is not always possible, the Q&A portion of the event should remain top of mind. Avoiding it will leave investors and other attendees feeling frustrated, since they probably will not have received from the company the information they were hoping for.
After the Event
Immediately after the event, it is a good idea to host a small, intimate lunch or dinner for select investors and analysts. Alternatively, your team can host a non-deal roadshow in conjunction with the event, to provide more one-on-one facetime with investors and sell-side analysts.
Aside from additional meetings, post event best practices should be followed. At the top of the list is to gather feedback from your attendees to assess whether your story is resonating and what most concerns the Street. Use this intelligence to adjust your messaging going forward and make any necessary changes to your slide deck or other communications material. You may also email all attendees to thank them for joining and send them (and anyone who was unable to attend) a link to the webcast and slide deck, both of which should be available on your company’s website. Invite attendees to reach out should they have any follow up questions.
Make the Most of Your R&D or Investor Day with Rx Communications
The Rx Communications team consists of seasoned professionals with decades of collective experience in life sciences investor relations. With a deep understanding of the sector and the needs of the Street, we provide tailored strategic guidance to ensure that your R&D or Investor Day is a success. From arranging the logistics to post-event support, you can trust Rx will help guide you to leave a positive impression and help drive meaningful connections with your target audience.
