The roadshow day, in one paragraph
A Toronto investor roadshow — an issuer's management team and its bankers visiting six to eight institutional investors in a day — runs on an hourly booking of eight to twelve hours with one chauffeur and one or two vehicles (an S-Class or Escalade for the management team, a second car for the bankers), a schedule of addresses most of which are in the Financial District's towers with a few in Yorkville and midtown, fifteen-minute buffers between meetings that the chauffeur protects by knowing every lay-by and the PATH exits, a lunch presentation at a hotel or a bank's dining room, the airport at the end (Pearson or Billy Bishop for the Montreal and New York legs), and a corporate account — the bank's or the issuer's — that holds the booking and the discretion the deal requires. The chauffeur is briefed on the schedule the evening before and adjusts as meetings run long.
Toronto is one of North America's largest capital markets — the banks, the pension funds, the asset managers and the exchange — and a company raising money or marketing a deal comes here for a day of back-to-back meetings arranged by its investment bank's equity capital markets desk: 8 a.m. at one bank's trading floor, 9 at a pension fund, 10 at an asset manager, a lunch presentation for twenty, three more meetings, and a 6 p.m. flight to Montreal or New York for tomorrow's version. The schedule is built to the minute by the bank's roadshow coordinator, and the ground transportation is the one part that can wreck it: a car that is not at the lay-by when the meeting ends, a chauffeur who does not know that the pension fund's entrance is on the side street, a wrong turn onto a one-way. This article describes the roadshow day as we run it: the addresses and their pickups, the buffers and how they are protected, the vehicle and the structure, the coordinator's briefing, the lunch, the airport, the two-city day, the account, the discretion, and the things that go wrong and how they are handled.
The addresses
Most Toronto roadshow meetings are in a dozen buildings: the banks' head offices and trading floors in the Financial District's towers (the executive car service article lists each tower's lay-by), the pension funds' offices (on Bay, on Queen, in the towers near Union), the independent asset managers in Brookfield Place, the Bay Adelaide Centre, First Canadian Place and along Bay north to Bloor, the Yorkville and midtown offices of the boutiques and family offices (the Yorkville guide and the midtown guide), and the occasional Mississauga or North York head office that adds thirty minutes to the day. The coordinator's schedule gives the addresses; the chauffeur's map gives the doors.
The buffers, and how the chauffeur protects them
A roadshow schedule allows fifteen minutes between meetings — enough to walk out, ride four blocks and walk in — and the buffer is protected by the chauffeur being at the right door before the meeting ends, not circling for it. That means knowing which of a tower's entrances is nearest the meeting's floor, texting the position as the meeting begins ("Adelaide, Scotia Plaza door, black Escalade"), watching the time, and having the next building's door in mind before the team is in the car. A meeting that runs long compresses the buffer; the chauffeur's route to the next door is the fastest one that hour and the coordinator is told by text if the next meeting will start late. The rush hour article explains why an 8 a.m. buffer is tighter than a 2 p.m. one.
The vehicle and the structure
The management team — a CEO, a CFO, a head of investor relations — rides in an S-Class, a 7 Series or an Escalade; the bankers in a second sedan or SUV, or with the team in an Escalade if the party is five; the Mercedes S-Class article and the Escalade article describe the vehicles most often requested. The structure is hourly — eight to twelve hours from the hotel pickup to the airport drop — because the day's length is the meetings' and the car waits at each; the hourly vs point-to-point article explains why six point-to-point fares would be more and worse.
The coordinator's briefing
The bank's roadshow coordinator sends the schedule the evening before — meetings, addresses, contact names, the lunch venue, the flight — and dispatch briefs the chauffeur with it, adding the lay-bys and the PATH exits; the chauffeur has the coordinator's and the team's mobile numbers and the coordinator has the chauffeur's, and changes during the day are texts. The executive assistants' guide describes the coordinator's side of the booking and the conference transportation article the larger version where a dozen cars move a conference's speakers.
The lunch presentation
Roadshow lunches are held in the banks' dining rooms in the towers, in the Royal York's or the Shangri-La's private rooms, in the National Club or the Toronto Club on Bay and Wellington; the car drops at the venue's door at 11:50 and waits through the presentation, and the Fairmont Royal York article and the Financial District hotels article cover the venues' entrances. A lunch that runs to 1:40 for a 2 p.m. meeting at Bay and Bloor is the chauffeur's afternoon problem, solved by the University Avenue route and a text to the coordinator.
The airport at the end
A roadshow's Toronto day ends at an airport: Pearson for New York's or Boston's afternoon jets and the West Coast, Billy Bishop for Porter's Montreal, Ottawa, Boston, Newark and Chicago flights, and the Pearson vs Billy Bishop comparison explains why a roadshow bound for Montreal at 6 p.m. flies from the island — fifteen minutes from the last meeting rather than an hour. The chauffeur knows the flight and the terminal from the briefing, watches the afternoon's traffic, and tells the coordinator by 3 p.m. what time the team must be in the car; the bags that were in the trunk since the hotel pickup go onto a cart at the curb. The private aviation page covers the roadshows that arrive and leave by the issuer's aircraft at Pearson's FBOs.
The two-city day
Many roadshows do Toronto in the morning and Montreal or New York in the afternoon: a 7 a.m. start, four meetings by noon, a lunch presentation, and a 2 p.m. flight — from Billy Bishop for Montreal, from Pearson for New York — with the second city's car meeting the flight. Our network of affiliated operators in Montreal, New York, Boston and Chicago takes the second city on the same account, and dispatch coordinates the handover: the Toronto chauffeur's drop time is the Montreal chauffeur's tracking start. The Toronto to Montreal article covers the ground alternative for a team that prefers five hours in a car to two airports.
The account
Roadshow bookings are on the investment bank's corporate account (the bank pays and rebills the issuer) or the issuer's own; the account holds the bank's coordinators as bookers, the deal's cost code, the gratuity policy, and the monthly statement the corporate account billing article describes, with the roadshow's day as one hourly line and the airport drop as part of it. Banks that run roadshows weekly have negotiated schedules and a small roster of chauffeurs who know the day.
Discretion
A roadshow is often a marketed deal that is not yet public, and the management team discusses the book, the pricing and the investors in the car; the chauffeur hears none of it, in the sense the privacy and discretion article means — nothing is repeated, no one is told whose car it is, and the vehicle is the same black sedan that carries a hundred other passengers. Bankers who have run roadshows with us for years have never had a reason to think about it, which is the standard.
What goes wrong, and how it is handled
A meeting runs forty minutes over and the next investor's window closes: the coordinator reschedules by phone from the car while the chauffeur drives to the one after. The Gardiner closes for a collision at 5:15 with a 6:45 flight from Pearson: the chauffeur is on the Lake Shore and the 427 before the coordinator has heard, and Terminal 1 is reached at 6:05. A CFO leaves a laptop at the pension fund: the second car's chauffeur retrieves it while the first car continues. A snowstorm cancels the Montreal flight: the network's Montreal operator is stood down, the team's Toronto hotel rebooked by the coordinator, and the car takes them there. Each is a text and a decision, and the how dispatch works article describes the desk that makes it.
A worked roadshow day
6:45 a.m.: the CEO and CFO collected from the Four Seasons in an Escalade; the bankers from the Shangri-La in a sedan. 7:30: a bank's trading floor at the TD Centre, Wellington lay-by. 8:45: a pension fund on Bay; the Bay Street entrance beside Union. 10:00: an asset manager at Brookfield Place; Front Street door. 11:15: a boutique on Bay at Bloor; the Yorkville route up University. 12:00: lunch presentation at the Royal York's private dining room; the porte-cochère on Front. 1:45: a fund at the Bay Adelaide Centre; Temperance Street. 3:00: a bank at First Canadian Place; Adelaide door. 4:15: text from the coordinator — "done, Billy Bishop for the 5:45 to Montreal." Eireann Quay at 4:35; the bags on the cart; the tunnel; Montreal's chauffeur tracking Porter 5:45 from our text. Ten hours, two cars, eight doors, one account.
Roadshow quick reference
| Element | Standard |
|---|---|
| Structure | Hourly, 8–12 h, one or two vehicles |
| Vehicles | S-Class / 7 Series / Escalade for management; sedan or SUV for bankers |
| Addresses | Financial District towers, pension funds, asset managers; Yorkville/midtown boutiques |
| Buffers | 15 min; chauffeur at the right door before the meeting ends |
| Briefing | Coordinator's schedule the evening before; lay-bys and PATH exits added |
| Lunch | Bank dining rooms, Royal York/Shangri-La private rooms, the clubs |
| Airport | Billy Bishop for Montreal/Ottawa/NE US; Pearson for New York jets and beyond |
| Two-city day | Network affiliate meets the flight on the same account |
| Account | Bank's or issuer's corporate account; deal cost code |
| Discretion | Nothing repeated; the same black sedan as any passenger's |
Booking a roadshow
The corporate car service page opens the account; the coordinator emails the schedule; dispatch briefs the chauffeur. The PDAC article covers the week when every mining issuer in the world is on a Toronto roadshow at once.
The non-deal roadshow and the investor day
Not every roadshow markets a deal: companies run non-deal roadshows to meet their shareholders between financings, and investor days bring the buy side to the company rather than the reverse — a hotel ballroom or the company's offices, with the analysts and portfolio managers arriving by car from the towers and the airport. The structure is the same hourly fleet, the same coordinator, the same account, and the board meeting and AGM article covers the shareholder meetings that share the pattern.
Booking notes for a roadshow
Three small things. Send the schedule with contact names and mobiles, not just addresses — a chauffeur who can text the next meeting's assistant that the team is five minutes out has saved the buffer. Say which airport the day ends at; the choice decides the afternoon's routing. And book the second city with us on the same account, so the handover is ours to coordinate.
Mining's roadshows and PDAC
Toronto's mining issuers — half the world's listed miners are on the TSX and the TSX Venture — run more roadshows than any other sector, and in the first week of March all of them run at once around PDAC; the PDAC article describes the week when the district's lay-bys, hotels and fleet are booked out and a roadshow's buffers need twenty minutes rather than fifteen. A mining roadshow's Toronto day often adds a lunch at the King Edward or the Royal York where the sector gathers, and the chauffeur knows both porte-cochères.
