9 Key Words To Understand More In Meetings

Imagine, you’re in a conf call with your American colleagues.

Everything’s going more or less ok,

and then you hear:

“Claire, got any AOB today?”

sorry?

Ayo - what?

Yep,

conf calls and meetings have their own specific vocabulary, like

AOB.

These key words for specific situation will help you follow meeting more easily.

I’m Christina and you’re watching Speak Better, Feel Great TV.

The place to boost your English and boost your career.

In this video, I’m gonna show you 9 key words

for meetings and conf calls. Ya ready?

This one’s gonna go quick

I’ll give you the word a definition, and an example.

And iIn the notes below the video,

you can download an exercise to help you practice the words

and test your vocabulary!

Here we go

this is the person who leads the meeting

For example

I think Ricky is going to be the chair of the meeting next week.

This can also be a verb

It means to lead the meeting

For example

Hi my name’s Christina and I’ll be chairing the meeting today.

If you’re the chair,

careful of pronunciation: I’ll be chairing

tch

tch

and not I’ll be “sharing”

sh

Practice that a little before you Chair a meeting.

This means to write the notes from a meeting.

The chair might say Thierry, could you take the minutes today?

when someone is absent, they send their apologies

For example the Chair might say

Sanjay and Cathy send their apologies today , they are being absent.

Maybe you already know this one.

It’s the program for the meeting

For example: You might hear does everyone have a copy of the agenda for the meeting today ?

This is a verb and it is in informal way to saying

please wait

For example

Can you hold on one minute while I go get a pen and a piece of paper?

We also use this expression to stop

an interruption.

For example

“Now hold on, Sébastien. Let David finish, and then we’ll listen to your ideas. OK?

This is to let someone else present something

For example

“Now, I’ll turn things over to you Sébastien. What did you want to say?

to stop a discussion

and postpone it to a later date

For example

We obviously need more information to make a decision,

so I suggest that we adjourn the discussion for the moment

the action of discussing a subject

For example,

Have we covered everything on the program?

And our friend

That's an abbreviation for “Any Other Business”

And this is the moment on the agenda where participants can discuss

other items

that are not already on the program.

You might hear

Well, I think we’ve covered everything. Does anyone have any AOB?

Now you have 9 key words that will help you follow the discusion

in your conf calls and in your meetings.

Don’t forget to download the activity in the notes below!

The activity will give you a little more practice so that you can become really comfortable with these words!

and feel more comfortable following the discussion in your meetings.

Now, I would love to hear from you.

Did you know any of these words before watching this video?

What other key words do you hear regularly in your meetings in English ? I’d love to know!

The best place to practice your English is on The Speak Better, Feel Great Blog,

at christinarebuffet.com

so make sure that you go there now and leave me a comment.

I'd love to practice with you.

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Thank you so much for watching Speak Better, Feel Great TV.

I’m Christina and I’ll see you next time.