A meeting was held on May 23rd-24th at ESAC (Madrid) to discuss various issues related to the Athena ground segment. This meeting has involved representatives from the ESA science program, the ESA Mission Operation Center and Science Operation Center, from NASA and JAXA, as well from the X-IFU and WFI Instrument Science Centers. Special emphasis has been put on optimizing the resources available within ESA, the international partners and the payload consortia.