Better Orange is a service provider for the implementation of annual general meetings and capital market communications, focusing in particular on the German stock market. The company consists of specialized teams that offer personalized and tailored advice.
With its services, experience and technical solutions, Better Orange aims to create the optimum basis for dialog with investors.
Before the pandemic, we organized physical annual general meetings (AGMs ) for our customers for the most part. At that time, some DAX-listed companies were already filming their AGMs and posting them online.
Since traditional AGMs could no longer take place due to the Corona restrictions, there was a legal interim solution in the form of simply held virtual AGMs - during this time, you only needed a livestream, but no conference solution.
The chairman of the meeting spoke, and the shareholders watched. No shareholder needed to be able to ask questions or be live. So shareholder rights were relatively limited.
We conducted these simply held AGMs together with a partner. At that time, we first had to find a streaming provider and get to grips with the technical requirements.
However, on September 1, 2022, a change in the law came into effect that changed the requirements for the virtual format.
We knew this a few months in advance and then started looking for an integrated solution that could map both the livestream and the conference and came across STREAMBXOY.
This is because the legislator has transferred all the rights of the presence AGM to the virtual AGM as part of the virtual AGM 2.0.
It was not easy to map some elements of the physical AGM to the virtual one. We therefore had to cast the legal text in software without becoming vulnerable in the event of technical problems.
As a result of the change, shareholders can now also ask questions online and have their say. To be able to implement this, we had to introduce a conference solution.
Sustainability
Development can no longer be reversed. We don't think a thousand people should necessarily travel to attend an AGM, as it is a huge use of resources that is not sustainable and can be avoided.
We think the virtual AGM is a good step towards sustainability, and we are striving to offer customers and shareholders the same service online.
If the larger DAX companies also switch to virtual AGMs, the format will probably become more established.
We can also well imagine that shareholders will be skeptical about physical AGMs due to the sustainability issue and will raise this as an issue.
Costs
The virtual AGM is also much less expensive for companies with around 200 or more participants, as the internal effort is significantly lower.
Fexibility
Flexibility is another major advantage, as people can participate regardless of location with little effort.
More pleasant atmosphere
In addition, a virtual AGM is often a more pleasant way to engage with critical shareholders.
Simplicity
As this is a mandatory event under stock corporation law, the focus is clearly on security and stability, not on an on-site participant experience or networking.
Many companies want to make this mandatory event simple and hassle-free.
We had about two months to find and integrate a solution to implement the law change.
We are only a small development team, so the process had to be agile.
Our data protection department was involved in the process from the beginning and was very happy with your order processing contract.
For us, a lot depended on the solution being stable.
We already knew STREAMBOXY and started working on the solution as soon as it was clear that we needed a legally compliant shareholder portal. Together with STREAMBOXY, we were able to develop the portal quickly and easily and thus organize the first virtual AGM 2.0 in Germany.
STREAMBOXY is integrated into the shareholder portal via an interface. The platform is therefore fully integrated and there is no need to resort to external solutions.
A separate event is created in STREAMBOXY for each general meeting. This usually consists of three test and three discussion rooms.
Before a shareholder is called in for a question, he is pushed into a test room where his video and audio settings are checked.
After the test, it is pushed into a talk room by one of our staff. The media service provider grabs the stream out of the room and inserts it into the live stream.
Together with STREAMBOXY, we were able to build a legally compliant shareholder platform and host the first virtual AGM 2.0 in Germany.
Together, we created a platform that complies with the new change in the law and also maps all shareholder rights from the physical general meetings online while saving costs and resources.
"STREAMBOXY with its straightforward and agile team,helped Better Orange in a very professional way to successfully realize the first virtual AGM according to the new stock corporation law regulations in Germany. This was a new milestone in our history. We are looking forward to further projects that we may tackle together with STREAMBOXY!"
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