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Me dijo que la reunión era al día siguiente.

Me dijo que la reunión era al día siguiente.
She told me the meeting was the next day.
From Lesson 281:Time words in reported speech (al día siguiente, el día anterior)·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about Me dijo que la reunión era al día siguiente.

Why is era used here instead of fue?
This sentence uses reported speech (telling someone what another person said). The original quote was probably La reunión es mañana (The meeting is tomorrow). When we report a present tense statement in the past, the present tense verb (es) changes to the imperfect tense (era), not the preterite (fue).
Why do we say al día siguiente instead of just mañana?
In reported speech, time words have to shift to match the past perspective. Since she originally said 'tomorrow' (mañana) in the past, from our current point of view it wasn't our tomorrow, but 'the following day'. So, mañana becomes al día siguiente.
Could I just say el día siguiente without the a?
Not in this context. To say 'on the next day' as a time phrase, Spanish uses al día siguiente (which is a + el). If you just say el día siguiente, it acts like a subject noun, such as in El día siguiente fue muy aburrido (The next day was very boring).
Can I drop the word que like we drop the word 'that' in English?
No, you cannot. In English, we often drop 'that' and just say 'She told me the meeting was...' But in Spanish, you must always keep que to connect the main verb (dijo) to the reported information.

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