Neste, Annual General Meeting 2018

Almost 1,000 people tend to take part in the Neste Corporation’s general meetings. A large number of shareholders creates certain challenges for the event arrangements, but it also presents a worthwhile opportunity for the company.

“For us, the annual general meeting is an opportunity to show our gratitude to the shareholders. After all, the company belongs to them,” said Osmo Kammonen, Senior Vice President of Neste’s Communications and Brand Marketing. “We want the annual general meeting to be a stylish and somewhat experience-driven event. The overall impact must remain with the participants so the owners feel pride in their ownership.”

Scalable design

Organising an annual general meeting differs from many corporate events in that the number of participants cannot be fully anticipated. The previous years obviously give one an indication, but the exact number can vary by hundreds of people. It is only just before the event that we know if we need to stretch the walls of the Helsinki Expo and Convention Centre.

The design for such an event needs to be scalable. “There must be room for flexibility in the event plan, and different spatial scenarios must be considered. Since all shareholders must have the opportunity to participate, we have to prepare for everything,” says Hannu Huttunen from TAPAUS.

Visuals, joy and progressiveness

The solutions related to the space and presentation technology must communicate Neste’s forward-looking attitude. One of the main communication tools of the 2018 annual general meeting was a screen measuring more than 80 square metres. Its function was, on the one hand, practical: participants could grasp the presented contents perfectly from the back of the hall. However, the most crucial element was to offer an impressive experience. This is why a lot of attention was also paid to the presentation material – an old-school PowerPoint would not be suitable for a screen like this.

The goal was to keep the Neste brand prominently on display and communicate strong progressiveness, through both content and visuals. In addition to the meeting area, a demo area was constructed at the venue for shareholders to examine in practice what is being developed in the company. The annual general meeting is a unique forum to host a face-to-face gathering.

In the end, words matter

While Neste celebrated its 70th anniversary, the catch of this annual general meeting was to look to the future instead of the past. “Annual general meetings typically review the bygone year, but that information has already been available for months and can be reviewed by shareholders in the form of an annual report. Nothing new and surprising will come from it. That’s why this year, we wanted to look ahead instead: to what we’re aiming for, what we want, and how we’re going to get to it,” said Kammonen.

The most important speech was again given by Matti Lievonen, who took the stage for the last time as Neste’s CEO. “He is a strongly strategic person and an excellent speaker. Of course the speech is carefully planned and prepared, but at the event itself, he speaks his mind freely, walks on stage, and addresses the audience in a genuine way. That’s how true impact is made.”

 

The TAPAUS team:

Project Manager: Hannu Huttunen
Supervising Producer: Janne Hakkarainen
Production Coordinators: Mikko Suomi, Max Laitinen

Would you like to know more about this event?

Get in touch: hannu.huttunen@tapaus.fi, +358 500 482 454

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