Now that the U.S. economy is ready to open up for public meetings once again - and with plans for the 2022 Shareholder Meeting Season already needing to be considered - there has been a lot of speculation on the ultimate fate of Virtual Shareholder Meetings. Here are own predictions, with a b it of advice for moving forward:

We feel 95% sure that virtually all of the micro-cap, small-cap and mid-cap companies that went completely virtual in 2021 will plan to do so in 2022: Virtually all of the nearly 400 VSMs we and our team of Inspectors participated in so far this year went off without a hitch.

While a few companies griped about the perceived “high cost” of running a VSM, they saved HUGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY - in terms of time and travel expense for corporate staffers, directors’ travel, security staff, travel expense for their Public Accountants, and usually for the Inspector of Election too. Plus…no need to rent a hall, with the typically super-high A-V setup expenses, or to fret about refreshments.

Most important to note - at the overwhelming majority of these meetings there were no controversial issues on the agenda, or in the press - no shareholder proposals, no shareholder questions, no votes at the meeting…so the ‘mean’ time for smaller-company meetings - from start to finish - was less than a half hour.

Large cap and mega-cap companies are another story altogether: At virtually every large company meeting we listened in on - and at a lot of mid-size companies too - we heard the same closing message; “We look forward to seeing you in person next year!”

As we have been saying regularly, at a lot of companies - from giant Berkshire Hathaway on down to local banks and S&Ls - CEOs actually ENJOY their shareholder meetings - and see them as producing valuable customer and shareholder loyalty, sales of products and services - and overall brand-value, which…hello…is a very significant component of a stock’s price.

And even at the best-run VSMs, many of them now in their second year, senior managers still get “the willies” about the reliance on VSM technologies, the large number of platforms one needs to juggle to produce a smooth and seamless and useful meeting - and the ability of the numerous meeting participants to use them without embarrassing glitches. And far too often this season, their fears have been warranted, as our next section of reports-from-the-front will illustrate.

So our bet is that there will be a lot of big-company drop-offs next year, which is really too bad in our book.

As to the fate of Hybrid Meetings, we have been truly shocked about the way they have been Pooh-Poohed by people who ought to think more deeply: We think they offer “the best of both worlds” to public companies, their officers and directors, shareholder proponents and activists - and to ordinary shareholders too.

We also think that the actual costs - whether of offering an in-person venue to coincide with the VSM - or to offer a Virtual component (maybe with no online voting) to supplement a mainly and legally in-person event - have been grossly exaggerated - even before evaluating the many benefits of Hybrid Meetings - by ‘talking heads’ who have no clue as to the actual math.

Let’s put the cost-benefit analysis aside for a moment and focus on what we think are the real issues overhanging the future of VSMs:

WHY have so many large companies suddenly decided to pinch pennies on their Annual Meeting of Shareholders - and to chintz-out so badly in terms of the time expended on planning for and producing a good and useful Shareholder Meeting? And to suddenly stop treating so many shareholders with the traditional deference and respect they traditionally got - and deserve to have, we say, as share owners? And to suddenly play “beat the clock” and race through their VSMs… and to make a farce of the question and answer periods, as so many have done this season? And to all of you aiders and abettors out there - don’t you realize how much you are marginalizing your own roles?

The most important thing to think about, we say, as you make your 2022 Meeting plans: How likely will investors be to let so many of these slam-bam events continue unchallenged?

It’s not worth the risk at all to large-cap companies, we think…but time will tell…