Shortly after the iPhone was introduced, a similar internal meeting was scheduled. At that gathering, employees supposedly received iPhones and asked questions of Steve. One attendee famously asked about the simultaneous existence of the iPhone and iPod, to which Steve said that if some company was going to cannibalize their sales, it might as well be Apple.
Certainly meetings like these inform employees but also generate precious word-of-mouth. Apple is obviously deadly serious about the device and we're looking forward to its appearance on store shelves.