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Business English: Holding meetings in English 用英语主持会议

The Structure of a Meeting 会议的结构

One of the most common requirements of business English is holding meetings in English. The following sections provide useful language and phrases for conducting meetings and making contributions to a meeting.

Meetings generally follow a more or less similar structure and can be divided into the following parts:

I - Introductions

Opening the Meeting

Welcoming and Introducing Participants

Stating the Principal Objectives of a Meeting

Giving Apologies for Someone Who is Absent

II - Reviewing Past Business

Reading the Minutes (notes) of the Last Meeting

Dealing with Recent Developments

III - Beginning the Meeting

Introducing the Agenda

Allocating Roles (secretary, participants)

Agreeing on the Ground Rules for the Meeting (contributions, timing, decision-making, etc.)

IV - Discussing Items

Introducing the First Item on the Agenda

Closing an Item

Next Item

Giving Control to the Next Participant

V - Finishing the Meeting

Summarizing

Finishing Up

Suggesting and Agreeing on Time, Date and Place for the Next Meeting

Thanking Participants for Attending

Closing the Meeting

The following pages focus on each part of the meeting and the appropriate language for each situation.

Running a Meeting 主持会议

The following phrases are used to conduct a meeting. These phrases are useful if you are called on to conduct a meeting.

Opening 宣布会议开始

Good morning/afternoon, everyone.

If we are all here, let's get started / start the meeting / start.

Welcoming and Introducing 欢迎和介绍出席人员

Please join me in welcoming (name of participant)

We're pleased to welcome (name of participant)

I'd like to extend a warm welcome to (name of participant)

It's a pleasure to welcome (name of participant)

I'd like to introduce (name of participant)

Stating the Principal Objectives 阐明会议主要议题

We're here today to ...

I'd like to make sure that we ...

Our main aim today is to ...

I've called this meeting in order to ...

Giving Apologies for Someone Who is Absent 对缺席者表示遗憾

I'm afraid.., (name of participant) can't be with us today. She is in...

Unfortunately, (name of participant) ... will not be with us to day because he ...

I have received apologies for absence from (name of participant), who is in (place).

Reading the Minutes (notes) of the Last Meeting 宣读上次会议记要

To begin with I'd like to quickly go through the minutes of our last meeting.

First, let's go over the report from the last meeting, which was held on (date)

Here are the minutes from our last meeting, which was on (date)

Dealing with Recent Developments 询问近期动态

Jack, can you tell us how the XYZ project is progressing?

Jack, how is the XYZ project coming along?

John, have you completed the report on the new accounting package?

Has everyone received a copy of the Tate Foundation report on current marketing trends?

Moving Forward 转向下一个议题

So, if there is nothing else we need to discuss, let's move on to today's agenda.

Shall we get down to business?

Is there Any Other Business?

If there are no further developments, I'd like to move on to today's topic.

Introducing the Agenda 介绍议程

Have you all received a copy of the agenda?

There are X items on the agenda. First, ... second, ... third, ... lastly, ...

Shall we take the points in this order?

If you don't mind, I'd like to go in order today.

skip item 1 and move on to item 3

I suggest we take item 2 last.

Allocating Roles (secretary, participants) 分配秘书和出席者的会议角色

(name of participant) has agreed to take the minutes.

(name of participant), would you mind taking the minutes?

(name of participant) has kindly agreed to give us a report on ...

(name of participant) will lead point 1, (name of participant) point 2, and (name of participant) point 3.

(name of participant), would you mind taking notes today?

Agreeing on the Ground Rules for the Meeting (contributions, timing, decision-making, etc.) 就会议程序（发言，时间，决策）达成一致

We will first hear a short report on each point first, followed by a discussion of ...

I suggest we go round the table first.

Let's make sure we finish by ...

I'd suggest we ...

There will be five minutes for each item.

We'll have to keep each item to 15 minutes. Otherwise we'll never get through.

Introducing the First Item on the Agenda 介绍第一项议题