Event: Most executives, in their candid moments, would admit that they don't mind if their annual shareholders' meeting attracts only sparse attendance. After all, shareholders have been known to ask awkward questions.
Bell & Howell has a different attitude. The company, based in Skokie, Illinois, generates annual revenues of more than $900 million and sells a wide variety of products - from high-speed mail sorters to online-information services. After going private in 1988, it went public again in 1995 in order to raise capital, boost its profile, and share the wealth with its employees. It wants to communicate with its shareholders, not to hide from them.
So where is the best place to hold its annual meeting? On the Web. In May 1996, Bell & Howell became the first major company to conduct an online annual meeting. Its 1997 meeting was even bigger and better, and it plans to hold this year's annual meeting on the Web as well. "It's a great way to get our message out globally," says Hank D'Ambrosio, Bell & Howell's vice president of administration.
Agenda: Bell & Howell shareholders can still physically attend the annual meetings.The May 1996 meeting took place in Ann Arbor, Michigan - in the cafeteria of UMI, a Bell & Howell subsidiary. Last year's meeting was held in a conference room at corporate headquarters in Skokie. About 40 people attended each one.
Lots more people attended on the Web, either during or after the event - nearly 1,800 in 1996, or 45 times as many as attended in person. What's more, 25% of all the proxy votes cast in 1997 were cast on the Web, rather than in person or through the mail - another big change from how most companies interact with shareholders.
Virtual attendees heard and saw almost everything the physical attendees did. Bell & Howell broadcast a real-time audio feed over the Web, and company executives addressed the meeting using PowerPoint slides, which were posted on the Web to accompany that feed. To vote, online participants used a secure Web server and typed in a personal-identification number that they received at registration. During the meeting, about 4.5 million shares were voted by proxy over the Web. "That was more votes than I expected," D'Ambrosio admits.
Reviews: D'Ambrosio says the Web fits well with Bell & Howell's style of shareholder gathering. The in-person meetings involve a minimum of fluff or flash, so online attendees don't feel as if they've missed an extravaganza. The company is eager to reach investors outside the United States, few of whom are prepared to fly to Ann Arbor or Skokie, so the Web's global reach is a real benefit. "We received email from all over the world - from shareholders as far away as Japan," D'Ambrosio says.
His advice for other companies that are considering an online shareholders' meeting? Make it easy for people to attend. Back in May 1996, for example, when Bell & Howell held its first virtual meeting, many of its investors didn't have Internet access. So the company offered free software and provided 30 days of connection time for just $5. That wasn't necessary last year. ("Pretty much everyone has an Internet service provider now," D'Ambrosio says.) But he and his colleagues have continued to search for ways to make the online experience as seamless as possible. Indeed, shareholders who wished to attend the 1997 meeting didn't even have to know a specific URL: Bell & Howell's home page featured an icon that took visitors straight to the meeting.
Coordinates: Bell & Howell, http://www.bellhowell.com; Hank D'Ambrosio, pr@corp.bellhowell.com
Event: Calico Technology isn't just in the software business. It's in the idea business. The six-year-old company makes sales-configuration software (called Concinity) that helps other companies do business on the Web. Because it operates in such a new and fast-changing field, Calico has to convince potential customers of the commercial merits of the Web before it can persuade them of the merits of Concinity. That means seminars - and lots of them.
So last year, from March to June, the company organized seminars with some of the biggest names on the Web: venture capitalist John Doerr; Pete Solvik, chief information officer for Cisco Systems, which has sold billions of dollars of products over the Net; and Charles Kirk, a senior technology executive at General Motors.
The seminars put Calico on the map - and took place on the Web. They attracted 1,300 participants from around the world. "What are the chances, unless you're Microsoft, of getting 1,300 people to come to your seminars?" wonders Michalene Adams, Calico's marketing-communications manager. "And we couldn't expect John Doerr to fly across the country and speak at a seminar. We got senior people because they didn't have to leave their offices."
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