Are ASX Investor Events Delivering Real Returns?
Each year, dozens of ASX-listed companies board planes for global investor conferences. This week, many are heading to South Africa for Mining Indaba - an event that inevitably prompts a broader question:
Are investor events actually delivering measurable value for shareholders?
There’s no doubt that ASX-listed companies spend heavily on conferences. In many cases, attendance across a 12-month cycle runs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars once booth costs, sponsorships, travel, accommodation, and management time are accounted for.
And to be clear - investor events do matter.
At their best, they can:
Support capital raising and institutional engagement
Facilitate introductions to strategic partners
Build long-term relationships with funds, brokers, and analysts
Improve market understanding of a company’s strategy and assets
The issue isn’t whether companies should attend events.
It’s whether the return is ever properly measured.
Attendance Isn’t a Strategy
Too often, the internal discussion stops at:
“We should be there - everyone else is.”
But events are not marketing theatre. They are funded by shareholders and should be treated as a capital allocation decision, not a diary filler.
The better questions are rarely asked:
Why this event specifically?
Who are we targeting, and are they attending?
What meetings are pre-arranged versus opportunistic?
What does success look like - quantitatively or qualitatively?
What changed as a result of attending?
Without answers to these questions, even the most prestigious conference can become an expensive box-ticking exercise.
What High-Performing Companies Do Differently
Companies that consistently extract value from investor events tend to approach them with intent and discipline. They:
Align event attendance with capital markets objectives (raising, re-rating, liquidity, coverage)
Identify priority investors before committing to attend
Enter events with clear messaging and a defined narrative
Track outcomes- meetings held, follow-ups, changes in engagement or coverage
Assess whether the same objectives could have been achieved more efficiently
When events are treated as part of a broader investor relations strategy -rather than a standalone activity - the outcomes tend to look very different.
A Changing Capital Markets Backdrop
This discipline matters even more in the current environment.
Higher interest rates and tighter capital conditions are accelerating capital rotation. As valuations compress in speculative growth and tech, investors are becoming more selective - gravitating toward businesses with:
Tangible assets
Near-term cash flow visibility
Capital discipline and execution credibility
For miners, this doesn’t mean all companies benefit equally. Highly leveraged or capital-hungry developers remain under pressure. But for producers and well-positioned juniors, the environment increasingly rewards clarity, quality, and restraint.
Investor events, in this context, are no longer about broad exposure. They’re about targeted engagement with the right capital.
The Real Question
Investor conferences aren’t inherently good or bad. Their value depends entirely on how - and why - they’re used.
The real differentiator isn’t presence.
It’s purpose, preparation, and measurement.
We’d be genuinely interested to hear how others assess success from investor events:
What metrics matter internally?
What outcomes justify the spend?
And which events consistently deliver real returns?
Because in a market where capital is more selective, how companies show up - and why - matters more than ever.
From Presence to Performance
To help companies make more informed decisions, we’ve compiled a detailed list of the most highly trafficked and most valuable investor events for 2026 across:
Mining
Energy
Biotech
The guide outlines:
Who attends
Why companies go
Typical costs and commitment levels
The types of companies best suited to each event
(Tip: the PDF is downloadable for easy reference or printing.)