More depth. More stories. More people.

I recently attended the Ignite Investment Summit in Hong Kong. While I was there, I thought a lot about the cloning thought experiment from last week - what a listed leader could actually do with a clone of themselves that was dedicated to IR full-time. Being at Ignite this week couldn’t have been better timing, as I got to see exactly what that looks like in action.

The Summit hosted 40 companies, who together held over 650 meetings with institutional and family office investors. And judging by the range of accents in the room, it wasn’t just the companies that had flown in!

InvestorHub had 6 clients attending, but I also sat down with another dozen companies over the week - all with the same question in mind: if you had more time to invest in IR, what would you do with it? 

From those conversations, and last week’s reflections, the answers fell into three buckets:

1. More depth.

We heard this loud and clear last week: take the existing information and go further with it. That might be reformatting it for different audiences, adding commentary or colour, or turning dry announcements into something more visual and engaging.

This week I heard stories of brokers and advisers being taken on-site, and seeing mines or production facilities first-hand. That extra layer of context builds trust. Investors want this experience and if time allowed, making that kind of access available to a broader investor audience could be game-changing.

2. More stories.

In last week’s Saturday Series, Matt Forman (ASX:XPN) spoke about video interviews, David Bert (ASX:EOS) talked about journeys, and Martin Stein (ASX:ATC) talked about narrative. No matter the angle, it all comes down to storytelling. It's about bringing people along for the ride - and you see this in one-on-one meetings too.

At Ignite, I spoke with Scott Williamson from Blackstone (ASX:BSX), who shared the story of 4 years spent developing a nickel project, which ultimately faced major headwinds as the market flooded with cheap nickel. 

But the value of the story wasn’t just in the challenge; it was in how Scott used it to show the strength of their team. It demonstrated their capability to progress projects efficiently and cost-effectively, particularly in Southeast Asia. Framing their move into a gold and copper project through that lens made it clear that it wasn’t a change in direction - it was applying proven capability in a new opportunity. 

That’s the power of great storytelling.

3. More people. 

Scale is the game, and the game is scale.

The last thing I did at the Ignite conference was give the closing keynote speaking on the mid-register, what it means, and why it is important.

Here’s a quick recap: 

• Your Top 20 hold a lot (45%) but don’t trade much (20% of buying).
• True retail don’t hold much (15%) but trade a bit more (28%).
• The mid-register? They hold 40% and do 52% of all buying.

In short, they matter. A lot. But engaging 400 investors instead of 20 requires a different mindset and a different set of tools. 

Everyone I spoke to this week, and last, wants to scale their investor engagement. It’s not easy. It takes time, or money, or both. But if that investment helps get your story into the heads, and hearts, of the people setting your share price - it’s worth it.

Cheers,

Ben.