Annual general meetings moved online out of necessity, and stayed online because it works: more shareholders attend when attending means opening a link. But a compliant digital AGM needs much more than a meeting link.
A video call is not a general meeting
General meetings carry legal weight. Resolutions passed there bind the company, and challenges to a meeting's validity are expensive. That places three hard requirements on any digital format:
- Identity — every participant must be a verified shareholder or proxy.
- Weight — votes must count in proportion to shares held, not one-per-connection.
- Record — attendance, quorum and results must be provable afterwards.
Generic conferencing tools solve none of these. Purpose-built AGM platforms solve all three.
What good looks like
In a well-run digital AGM, shareholders authenticate against the register before joining. The chair sees quorum forming in real time. Motions open for voting at the chair's command, each ballot weighted automatically by holdings, with results tallied the moment polls close. Questions arrive through moderated Q&A instead of open microphones. And when the meeting ends, the minutes pack — attendance, proxies, results — is already assembled.
The goal is not just a meeting that runs smoothly, but a meeting whose outcome nobody can credibly dispute.
Preparing your first one
Give yourself six weeks: reconcile the register early, send notices with clear joining instructions, run a rehearsal with the chair, and have support staff ready on meeting day for shareholders who need help signing in.
Our Digital AGM Platform was built alongside share departments to make exactly this routine. If your next AGM should be your calmest one yet, get in touch for a walkthrough.
HiSoft Corporation builds enterprise software — from SharePlus and digital AGMs to fully custom applications — for businesses across Canada, the USA and beyond.
