Corporate event and trade show terms

General session

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The general session is the main gathering of a conference, where every attendee is in one room: keynotes, executive presentations, the big production moments. It gets the largest room, the real stage, and most of the AV budget.

Breakout session

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Breakouts are the smaller parallel sessions attendees split into after a general session. Production is deliberately lighter (a screen, a couple of mics, a confidence monitor), multiplied across many rooms and turned on tight schedules.

Plenary

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A plenary is a session for the full assembly, the term of art in academic and association conferences for what corporate calls a general session. If the agenda says plenary, everyone is expected in the room.

Keynote

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The keynote is the headline talk that sets the theme of an event, and by extension its highest-profile speaker slot. Keynotes get rehearsals, prompter, dedicated run-throughs, and the most nervous client in the building.

Town hall

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A town hall is an internal all-company meeting built around leadership Q&A, in person, streamed, or both. Production centers on believable interaction: aisle mics, moderated question feeds, and a stage that reads approachable.

Fireside chat

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A fireside chat is a two-chair interview format: a moderator and a guest in armchairs instead of a podium talk. No fire is involved; the staging cue is soft seating, a rug, and lavalier mics instead of handhelds.

Emcee (MC)

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The emcee or master of ceremonies is the on-stage host who opens the show, bridges segments, and keeps energy and timing on track. A good emcee is a stage manager the audience can see.

Scenic

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Scenic is the built stage environment: set walls, header pieces, branded surrounds, the physical design around the screens. On corporate shows scenic is a department and a budget line, distinct from video and lighting.

Exhibit hall

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The exhibit hall is the trade show floor: booths on a grid of numbered aisles, built during targeted move-in windows under the general service contractor’s rules. Everything on it moves by drayage and closes at strike with startling speed.

General service contractor (GSC)

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The GSC (Freeman and its competitors) is the official contractor of a trade show: floor plans, pipe and drape, booth furniture, labor, and the exclusive material handling. Exhibitor manuals are the GSC’s rulebook and rate card.

Hard wall

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Hard wall booths are built from rigid panels rather than pipe and drape, whether custom exhibits or venue-rented systems. The term also covers built scenic walls anywhere a fabric line will not do.

Show office / production office

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The production office is the show’s command post backstage or off the floor: radios charge there, paperwork lives there, and problems get walked there. On tour it is wherever the production manager’s road cases open.

Part of the eventools.io Show Dictionary, a free glossary of live event production terminology.