IR Society 2023 Best Practice Awards entries open today
The IR Society, the UK’s professional body for investor relations practitioners, today launches its 23rd Annual Best Practice Awards (the ‘Awards’).
London, 3 May 2023
IR Society leads the way in excellence in Investor Relations
The IR Society, the UK’s professional body for investor relations practitioners, today launches its 23rd Annual Best Practice Awards (the ‘Awards’).
These prestigious Awards celebrate the achievements of companies demonstrating their commitment to delivering best-in-class investor communications. The Awards, which will be judged by an independent panel of esteemed investor relations and investment community professionals, comprise both Self-entry and Voted Awards. IR teams can now submit self-entries for awards rewarding best practice in investor relations in the following five categories:
- Best Communication of Sustainability
- Best Innovation in IR
- Best Corporate Website
- Best Annual Report
- Best IR Programme
Awards in the Self-entry categories will be presented to Small-cap, Mid-cap and Large-cap companies integrated across all international markets, in recognition of the diverse range of companies looking to the UK for excellence in IR.
The IR Society Best Practice Committee continues to evolve the existing categories to ensure they are reflective of the current IR issues and align with best practice. While there were no major changes to our four Awards categories from last year, we have introduced a new additional Self-entry Award for 2023 – ‘Best Corporate Website’. The committee were unanimous in their view that a company’s website is such an important source of information for investors and should therefore be recognised as a standalone award category. This award will honour those companies which go the extra mile in meeting the many different needs of the global financial community.
Furthermore, to reflect the ongoing professionalisation of the IR role, we have renamed the “Best IR Communications and Engagement” award as “Best IR Programme” to better reward the effective implementation of an overall IR strategy and programme that both reflects and supports the company’s purpose, vision and strategy.
For the Voted Awards, which recognise excellence in individual and team investor relations, the IR Society is delighted to be working once again in partnership with Institutional Investor, as it seeks to address a wider audience and voting universe. Nominations are now being accepted for:
- Best Newcomer to IR (individual)
- Best IRO (individual)
- Best Overall Company IR (company)
- Best Investor Engagement (investor)
Laura Hayter, CEO, The IR Society, commented:
“The IR Society Best Practice Awards offer a truly meaningful opportunity to showcase excellence in investor relations. The real value of this awards programme, now in its 23rd year, is that it allows the IR Society to feed back to the IR community what great looks like in terms of how companies are communicating with their stakeholders. This is a great way to raise your profile and strengthen your corporate reputation, so I would strongly encourage companies from all regions to enter. I wish you all the very best of luck, and look forward to seeing you at our Awards Dinner in November, a highlight in the IR calendar!”
Daniel Redman, Insights and Engagement Director, Design Portfolio, and incoming Chair of the Best Practice Committee, said:
“This year we have listened to feedback from IR Society members and have made some key changes to the self-entry award nomination process. We have focused on making the entry process simpler and more accessible, we have re-introduced a website award and we have evolved the category descriptions to recognise the judges’ focus on the demands for high-quality sustainability information, clarity on impacts of uncertain market conditions and the growing need for authenticity in investor communications. Only by doing so can we truly celebrate and champion the leaders in investor relations who are driving meaningful engagement and fostering long-term success.”
Entries to the 23rd Annual Best Practice Awards are open to all companies from today, 3 May 2023, and the Self-entry Awards remain open until 31 August 2023. Click here for more information, including our best practice criteria and entry forms for the Self-entry Awards. Further information regarding the Voted Awards, conducted in partnership with Institutional Investor, can also be found here.
For more information contact:
Laura Hayter, CEO, The IR Society
+44 20 7379 1763 or laura.hayter@irsociety.org.uk
Liz Cole, Head of Policy and Communications, The IR Society
+44 20 7379 1763 or liz.cole@irsociety.org.uk
Notes for editors:
About the Investor Relations Society
The Investor Relations Society (IR Society) is a membership organisation that exists to promote best practice investor relations in the UK and beyond. It is run by IR professionals for IR professionals.
Established in 1980, the IR Society’s mission is to promote best practice in investor relations; to support the professional development of its members; to represent their views to regulatory bodies, the investment community and government; and to act as a forum for issuers and the investment community.
The IR Society has over 850 members from the UK, Europe and beyond, including representatives from most FTSE 100 companies, a large number of FTSE 250 companies and several AIM and smaller companies, as well as IR advisers and service providers. For more information on the IR Society and the Best Practice Committee, visit www.irsociety.org.uk or connect with us on Twitter (@IRSocietyUK) or LinkedIn.
Published 3 May, 2023