Meetings and seminars play a significant role in the life of an international and national organisation. During the course of average year, litterally hundreds of seminars and meeting are held. Included in this list are such things as board meetings, training sessions of all sizes and priority setting meettings, and hundreds of others too numerous to be delineated. The total cost of all these meetings to an organisation is almost impossible to compute : the cost of professional staff time, but also such associated items as transportation, rental of space, preparation of materials, meals lodging, translation and other such expenses. On a sheerly time and financial basis alone, it is clear that seminars and conferences represent a major expenditure of organisational energy.

Council of Europe, Y.E.C ; C.E.J, Training Course, Ressources Files n°7.