Houston—October 5, 2006—Investor Relations (IR) professionals from some of Houston’s leading companies met at the Origin Design 2006 Annual Stakeholder Meeting to learn about new developments in shareholder communications.

The event, sponsored by Origin Design, included a presentation by NYSE managing director Darcey Matthews on the role printed annual reports still play in the investment community—as well as advice on explaining what your company does by Andy Craig at ElevatorSpeech.com.

Attendees included representatives from organizations such as Reliant Energy, CenterPoint Energy, MetroCorp Bancshares, SCI, Hydril, Parker Drilling and the University of Houston’s Bauer College of Business.

“There’s a lot of lost potential in the IR community today because many public companies don’t get the support they need from the various agencies they rely on. Good, well-integrated IR is a critical communications component and we want to see everyone in the business making the most of it.”

Origin Design produced more than two-dozen annual reports in 2006, including winners of the ARC awards in New York—the world’s largest annual report competition. The Origin Design Stakeholders Meeting will be held each fall.