In February, I attended a summit of leaders of several IR associations from around the world, including NIRI (U.S.), AIRA (Australasia), IRS (UK) and DIRK (Germany). This group gets together annually to discuss trends and advances in IR, as well as professional development and regulatory and capital market changes impacting investor relations in each of the jurisdictions. It is always a great opportunity to share ideas among peers and meet with IROs from different regions. This year we also met with representatives from the Australian Securities Exchange and the Australian Securities & Investments Commission to discuss current issues in the practice of investor relations around the world.

During this meeting there was discussion about IROs spending more of their time doing non-deal roadshows abroad. As a result, the group decided that it would be beneficial to our members to facilitate meetings between IROs from different countries. If you plan on marketing in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia or Germany and are interested in meeting with IROs from those countries during your trip, please let me know; I will be happy to reach out to my counterparts.