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IR Society 2024 Best Practice Awards entries open today

The IR Society, the UK’s professional body for investor relations practitioners, today launches its 24th Annual Best Practice Awards (the ‘Awards’). These prestigious Awards celebrate the achievements of companies demonstrating their commitment to delivering best-in-class investor relations and communications.

These prestigious Awards celebrate the achievements of companies demonstrating their commitment to delivering best-in-class investor relations and 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 listed companies integrated across all international markets, in recognition of the diverse range of companies looking to the UK for excellence in IR. There will also be a private company award in the Best IR programme category. 

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 five Awards categories from last year, we had previously only awarded private companies in the ‘Best Communication of Sustainability’ category. Many private companies, however, are leading the way in broader investor and stakeholder communications, and therefore should be recognised as a standalone award within the ‘Best IR Programme’ category.

Furthermore, as we continue to see developments within innovation, particularly around AI, we have reviewed the ‘Best Innovation in IR’ award to reflect the ongoing developments within IR and to better articulate what is considered as innovation.

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 could be made 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 real value of the IR Society Best Practice awards programme, now in its 24th year, is that it allows us to feed back to the IR community what great looks like in terms of how companies are engaging with their stakeholders. We continue to see great examples of investor communications across all company sizes and regions, so I strongly encourage you to consider entering your company, as this is a great way to raise your profile and strengthen your corporate reputation. I wish you all the very best of luck, and look forward to seeing you at our Awards Dinner in London on November 26th, an annual highlight in the IR calendar!”

Daniel Redman, Consultancy Director, Design Portfolio, and co-Chair of the Best Practice Committee, said:

“The Investor Relations Society Best Practice Committee is excited to unveil our streamlined submission forms for the upcoming awards! This year we focussed on refreshing the Innovation in IR award, providing clearer guidance on the breadth of innovations that would be recognised. We also introduced a brand new award recognising best overall IR programmes for private companies, focusing on all elements of investor engagement.

As always, the goal of the IR Awards is to provide inspiration to IR professionals and promote new ways of approaching investor engagement, picking up an award is just the cherry on the top.”

Self-entries to the 24th Annual Best Practice Awards are open to all companies from today, 8 May 2024, and the Self-entry Awards remain open until 31 August 2024. 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 800 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 irsociety.org.uk or connect with us on Twitter (@IRSocietyUK) or LinkedIn.

Published 8 May, 2024