The virtual show must go on. While there are public health restrictions in place companies that require to have meetings such as an AGM must do so virtually instead of a physical face-to-face meeting.
From our experience, virtual events have a greater audience and higher engagement by making your event more accessible and with more intuitive ways to engage. Having a live stream that everyone can access online removes any geographical boundaries and travel restrictions in place. All shareholders can enter a digital queue for questions online or via the phone so every voice can is heard, digital voting with live results, integrate proxy voting data and on-demand streaming for digital playback for those who couldn’t attend.
What is a Virtual AGM?
Annual General Meetings are a mandatory meeting of your company and its shareholders. Virtual AGMs work in the same manner as the traditional annual meetings where a company holds a meeting with its shareholders where shareholders vote on resolutions, results are reported on, and business discussions all occur online instead of in person. Virtual Annual General Meetings are fast becoming the high-grade way to hold your shareholder meetings. We have seen an increase in popularity, mainly due to making the conference more accessible to all participants from any location and using intuitive ways for greater engagement.
Previously there was little clarity about the legality of Virtual AGMs however due to restrictions on gatherings from the COVID-19 pandemic a new legislation was passed on the 5th May 2020 with a response to Coronavirus with modified rules to allow for these types of meetings to occur online using virtual technology.
While restrictions on travel and large gatherings are in place, ASIC strongly encourages companies to hold:
- Virtual meetings – a meeting where all shareholders participate online.
- Hybrid meetings – following government health guidelines and where permitted, a small physical meeting paired with an online portion to allow remote access for those who cannot attend.
The ASIC states that shareholders attending a virtual or hybrid meeting should all have an opportunity to participate in the meeting that is equivalent to if they physically attended. The federal legislation states “a meeting may be held using one or more technologies that give all persons entitled to attend a reasonable opportunity to participate without being physically present in the same place. You can run your AGM virtually according to the legislation proving you allow all investors to join and they can vote, ask questions and give feedback.
Using our technology, we can live video stream your presenters from your preferred location, whether that is from your home office, boardroom or a venue of your choice. We can collect live voting poll results, incorporate proxy data into your resolutions for instant feedback on the matter; shareholders can ask a question online or by entering a queue via the phone with an operator managed conference call.
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Vote
A vote must be taken as a poll and not a show of hands; you can accomplish this by digitally collecting the votes online during a live stream of your meeting.
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Ask a question
The ability for meeting attendees to speak, for example, to ask any questions. We have the capacity for phone participants to enter a digital queue for questions, and you can ask questions online via the live stream webcast.
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Proxy
A proxy may be appointed using digital technology specified in the notice of the meeting. We can take proxy voting online for your next shareholder meeting, and you can watch the live results come in instantly.
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Notice
Notice of your meeting given along with other information such as links for the online location and where to download content required for the meeting. You will need to clearly state that there will be no physical meeting, and the meeting will occur online digitally.
Why should location interfere with your attendance?
From our experience, virtual events have a greater audience and higher engagement by making your event more accessible and with more intuitive ways to engage. Having a live stream that everyone can access online removes any geographical boundaries and travel restrictions in place. All shareholders can enter a digital queue for questions online or via the phone so every voice can be heard, digital voting with live results, integrate proxy voting data and on-demand streaming for digital playback for those who couldn’t attend.
Chorus Call can give you the full suite
We combine all our technologies into one full package to deliver you the highest-grade of Virtual AGM on the market. We couple an easy-to-use online voting system with a live stream of a webcast, enabling you to report on business activities and collect more engagingly live poll results with incorporated proxy data if needed. We can then link all this with a managed conference call event which allows you to communicate and take questions via the phone managed by our experienced operators. Talk to one of our specialists about how you can now utilise this technology for your next event.
