English Scene -- Business Meetings

Vocabulary
- Role
  - Chair Person
  - Meeting Leader
- verbs
  - attend
    - attend a meeting
    - (informal) go to a meeting
  - participate
    - participate in a meeting
    - (informal) take part in a meeting
  - hold
    - hold a meeting
    - (informal) have a meeting
  - chair
    - chair a meeting
    - (informal) run/lead a meeting
  - postpone
    - postpone the meeting
    - (informal) put off the meeting
  - run through to read, look at, or explain something quickly
    - Alex, could you run through the main points from the report please?
  - address(deal with) if you address an issue or a problem, you start trying to solve it
    - There are several issues that need to be addressed in this meeting.
  - consider to think about something carefully, before making a choice or decision
    - We have to consider all the options before making a decision.
    - consider doing sth. Have you considered reducing training costs?
  - bring up to mention a subject or start to talk about it
    - That’s a very important point. I’m glad you brought it up.
  - move on to stat talking about a new subject
    - We can’t agree on this now, so I think it’s best that we move on to the next item on the agenda.
  - add to say more about something that has just been said
    - I’d like to add something before we move on.
  - clarify to make something clearer or easier to understand
    - I know this is a lot of information, so please let me know if you need me to clarify anything.
  - comment (on) to express an opinion about someone or something
    - Would anyone else like to comment on this?
  - rush to do or decide something too quickly
    - We need to take some more time to consider this, we shouldn’t rush it.
    - We can’t afford to rush this decision, it’s too important.
  - wrap up to finish a meeting
    - Before we wrap up, I’d just like to thank everybody for being here today.
Welcoming
- First of all, I’d like to welcome everybody and thank you all for coming to today’s meeting.
- I’d like to start by thanking all of you for agreeing to meet at such short notice.
- Hello everybody and welcome.
Introducing people
- Before we get started, let me introduce …
- I’d like you all to meet …
- Let’s go round the table and introduce ourselves.
Excusing people who are absent
- Unfortunately George can’t join us today - he sends his apologies.
- I’d like to apologise on behalf of Mr Neary. He can’t be with us today due to …
Dealing with the minutes(meeting record)
- Let’s go over the minutes of our last meeting, which was held on June 16th.
- Simon, could you please take the minutes today?
Outlining the agenda
- The purpose/aim/objective of today’s meeting is …
- The first item on the agenda is …
- Then, we’ll move on to item 2, which is …
- After that, we’ll look at …
- And finally, we’ll discuss …
Asking for opinions
- Monika, what are your views on this?
- Mohamed, how do you see it?
- Natalia, can you give us your feedback?
- Would anyone else like to comment on this?
Asking for clarification / explanation
- What exactly do you mean by …?
- Could you explain that in more detail?
- Would you mind going over that again please?
- I’m not sure everybody follows - would you mind explaining that again?
Managing the discussion
- I think we can move on to the next point.
- If nobody has anyting else to add, let’s move on to the next item.
- I’m afraid we don’t have time to discuss that in today’s meeting. Let’s add it to next week’s agenda.
- I’m sorry, but I have to stop you there - we need to stick to the agenda.
- We’ll have to come back to that at the end of the meeting.
Delegating tasks
- Wolfgang, can you keep everyone up to date with the latest developments?
- Rachel, could you please follow up on …
- Pat, please get in touch with …
Summarising
- Let me briefly summarise what we’ve discussed today.
- Before we finish, let me summarise the main points.
- We’ve decided to …
- We’ve agreed that …
Closing the meeting
- Well, I think that covers everything.
- That brings us to the end of this meeting.
- Our next meeting will be on …
- Thanks everyone.
Online meeting
- about the meeting ID
  - the meeting ID will be provided shortly before the meeting begins.
- confirm present
  - Good morning! Our meeting will begin in 2 minutes. Is everyone here?
- late
  - I think some of us are running a bit late.
- start
  - Let’s get started.
- share screen
  - I’ll share the weekly report on the screen now.
- mute
  - Sorry, but you are on mute.
  - Your mic is left on, please mute yourself.
- noise
  - There’s a lot of background noise on your end. I didn’t quite get that. Could you say that again?
  - Could you find another place?
  - Could you speak up?
- whistle(echo sound noise)
  - please mute your mic when not speaking to avoid wistle
- network lag
  - Sorry I interrupted, you were saying…?
  - Sorry, I’m having problems with my connection. Give me a minute here.
  - Let’s touch base offline.
  - I’m not sure what you meant, would you mind explaining this to me again?
  - Thank you, that was very clear.
  - That was very helpful, I appreciate it.
  - If I understand you correctly, you want to …, is that right?
  - I’m not sure if this is what you meant, but did you say you want me to … or you want me to …?
- switch
  - Does anyone have anything to add? If not, I’ll give the floor to the next speaker.