Preparing for a Meeting

Phrases
- If you don't prepare for a meeting properly your meeting might be derailed because someone might forget to prepare important information.
- It's important to send your agenda to participants
beforehand. - Properly preparing meeting ensure good results of your negotiation.
- The first thing you need to consider is to clarify the purpose of your meeting.
- What do you need to do: solve a problem, discuss something or inform your colleagues?
- Choose an appropriate venue: face to face in a boardroom or a meeting room, Skype or just a phone call. Save everybody time by choosing right place for negotiation.
- All meetings should have an agenda. If you prepare an agenda and send it to participants you will keep a meeting short.
- You should be sure everyone has accepted the invitation to the meeting. Change the time or place if needed.
- Be sure you invite only participants who will help you accomplish the meeting's objectives.
- Prepare a list of names if you are bad at remembering names.
- Save the phone numbers of all participants to be able to call those who are late.
- Come to the meeting in advance. Open the meeting room, check the equipment, meet the guests.
- If you are the host of the meeting make sure you have a couple of spare printed copies of the agenda and other useful information. People often forget to bring their own.
Vocabulary
- accepted - are agreed by people to be correct or reasonable
- agenda - a list of items to be discussed at a formal meeting
- agree - acceptance
- apologies for my late arrival - sorry for being late
- attendees - people who are going to attend the meeting
- beforehand - in advance; in good time
- behind schedule - to arrive and/or leave later than the time that is expected
- boardroom - a room in which a board of directors of a company or other organization meets regularly
- colleagues - a person with whom one works in a profession or business
- derailed - obstruct (a meeting) by diverting it from its intended course
- discuss - talk about (something) with one or more a persons
- double booking - then two person booked one room at the same time
- ensure - make certain of obtaining or providing (something)
- equipment - the necessary items for a particular purpose
- everything is hunky dory for - everything in the best way for
- host - a person who receives or entertains other people as guests
- in advance – ahead of time (same as beforehand)
- increase the volume - make volume higher
- inform - give (someone) facts or information; tell
- information - facts provided or learned about something or someone
- invitation - the action of inviting someone to go somewhere or to do something
- late evening - evening close to midnight
- meeting - an assembly of people for a particular purpose, especially for formal discussion
- meeting room – room for negotiation
- meeting runs more smoothly - meeting continue without problem
- negotiation - discussion aimed at reaching an agreement
- obstruct - block (an opening, path, road, etc.); be or get in the way
- partial acceptance - I would like to attend part of the meeting
- participants - a person who takes part in something
- possession is 9/10ths of the law - is an expression meaning that ownership is easier to maintain if one has possession of something, or difficult to enforce if one does not
- purpose - the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists
- regret - not coming (reject)
- request to change details - request if some details doesn’t fit
- running late - is an idiomatic phrase that means, essentially, "late" or "being late," with the caveat that "being late" is more a translation than a phrase that people use
- solve - find an answer to, explanation for, or means of
- sorry for the delay - sorry for being late
- sorry I am late - sorry for being late
- to discuss the salient points - to discuss the most important points
- venue - the place where something happens, especially an organized event such as a concert, conference, or sports competition