Business | Update your calendar

The future of meetings

How to get employees, clients and investors into a room

A LOBBY CAN shape the first impressions of a business. Guests at the building housing the New York headquarters of Jefferies, an investment bank, were once greeted by a section of the Berlin Wall purchased from the East German government. In the London office of Slaughter and May, a law firm, water trickles down an atrium wall into a shallow pool made of natural stone. The San Francisco home of Salesforce, a software giant, welcomes visitors with a 106-foot (32-metre) video wall displaying anything from soothing waterfalls to Pac-Man clips.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Update your calendar”

The threat from the illiberal left

From the September 4th 2021 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

Discover more

Food packaging with "Notpla Coating" is pictured at Notpla.

Could seaweed replace plastic packaging?

Companies are experimenting with new ways to reduce plastic waste

A sequoiq tree with a metal detector scanning around the Silicon valley and California.

Has Sequoia Capital outgrown its business model?

Venture capital’s hardiest perennial gets back to its roots


A man cutting the red tape that tiies him.

On stupid rules and quick wins

Why every boss can benefit from asking employees what most infuriates them


TikTok wants Western consumers to shop like the Chinese

It still has some convincing to do

Will the trouble ever end for Volkswagen and its rivals?

From strikes to Trump tariffs, calamities abound

After Northvolt’s failure, who will make Europe’s EV batteries?

The continent looks ever more reliant on Asian producers