Corporate meetings

Corporate meetings are the largest category of business events in terms of numbers. This category includes staff meetings, sales meetings, training seminars, product launches, board meetings, and shareholders meetings. This chapter sets corporate meetings within the broader context of internal and external corporate communications and identifies the key distinguishing characteristics of corporate meetings, including mandatory attendance and short lead-times. The corporate meeting planning process is analysed, beginning with a review of the internal and external stakeholders involved, such as procurement departments, intermediaries, and suppliers, with particular emphasis on venues. The expanding role of strategic meetings management programmes is explored, focusing on their potential to provide a more effective tool for the management of companies' expenditure on meetings, giving managers greater visibility and control over their corporate events.