A Chat with Richard Taylor, CEO at Meeting Integration Company: Lumi

Richard Taylor

For over 25 years, Lumi has facilitated shareholder and member meetings, legislative meetings and elections, faith-based meetings and annual congresses, as well as meetings and events more generally. Based on proprietary, patented technology, we provide software, hardware, and services that assist registrars or event organizers to register delegates and provide live, secure polling, Q&A management services, and relevant reporting.

We’re headquartered in Hampshire, in the UK, but also have offices in 11 countries across Europe, APAC, The Middle East, Africa, and the Americas.
 
 
Lumi Global
 

How has Lumi adapted during the pandemic?  

 
Well before the pandemic, Lumi was pioneering the digital meeting format, providing companies with the technology and expertise to deliver a joined up in-room and virtual meeting. For example, we enable companies to handle in-room voting at meetings with ease using our handset technology, whilst also letting other stakeholders make their voices heard online through our intuitive digital platform.

Because of this, we were ahead of the curve when the pandemic took hold, and  well placed to respond to the growing demand from companies who needed to transition to a hybrid or digital meeting. We were amazed to see the speed companies pivoted – the hybrid and virtual meeting adoption we had expected to see in five years took place in just a matter of weeks.
 

 

What advice would you give to companies running virtual AGMs?

 
As we have seen in the past couple of years, disruption can take many forms. Flexibility should be at the heart of planning for a landmark event such as an AGM, to safeguard the integrity of a single meeting. What has become increasingly important is making sure companies deliver an equal experience for shareholders attending remotely alongside those attending in the room; this means providing meaningful opportunities to engage and communicate virtually, whether through a text Q&A, verbalised questions or video link.

Whilst the pandemic has accelerated a huge change in the AGM industry this year, I believe this is just the start of a more fundamental shift in how companies and their owners communicate, come together and make informed decisions. I hope the AGM becomes more relevant to the whole of the governance process, not just a moment in time to ‘conduct the business’. This is a watershed moment when companies are rethinking how all shareholders can be included in important decision making.
 

 What can we hope to see from Lumi in the future?

 
 We are continuing to respond to our customers’ current demands in moving to hybrid and virtual meetings. This has been our busiest year to date, in the past 6 months our team has hosted over 2,600 virtual or hybrid meetings globally for more than 128,000 members, more than double the number for the same period in 2020. We expect to see this growth continue.

We are also looking at ways Lumi can support companies beyond AGMs and into the broader landscape of investor relations and shareholder engagement. Retail investors are becoming an increasingly important stakeholder group for many companies and we want to help improve engagement, especially in a virtual world.