A meeting is a gathering of two or more people that has been convened[by whom?] for the purpose of achieving a common goal through verbal interaction, such as sharing information or reaching agreement.[2] Meetings may occur face-to-face or virtually, as mediated by communications technology, such as a telephone conference call, a skyped conference call or a videoconference.
One can distinguish a meeting from other gatherings, such as a chance encounter (not convened), a sports game or a concert (verbal interaction is incidental), a party or the company of friends (no common goal is to be achieved) and a demonstration (whose common goal is achieved mainly through the number of demonstrators present, not through verbal interaction).
Meeting planners and other meeting professionals may use the term "meeting" to denote an event booked at a hotel, convention center or any other venue dedicated to such gatherings.[2][3] In this sense, the term "meeting" covers a lecture (one presentation), seminar (typically several presentations, small audience, one day), conference (mid-size, one or more days), congress (large, several days), exhibition or trade show (with manned stands being visited by passers-by), workshop (smaller, with active participants), training course, team-building session and kick-off event.
Types of meetings
- Ad-hoc meeting, a meeting called for a special purpose
- Awayday, which takes place off-site and away from the participants' regular office surroundings
- Board meeting, a meeting of the board of directors of an organization
- Breakfast meeting
- Committee meeting, a coming-together of a defined subset of an organization
- Investigative meeting, generally when conducting a pre-interview, exit interview or a meeting among the investigator and representative
- Kickoff meeting, the first meeting with a project team and the client of the project to discuss the role of each team-member
- Management meeting, a meeting among managers
- Off-site meeting, also called "offsite retreat" and known as an Awayday meeting in the UK
- One-on-one meeting, between two individuals
- Pre-Bid Meeting, a meeting of various competitors and or contractors to visually inspect a jobsite for a future project. The meeting is normally hosted by the future customer or engineer who wrote the project specification to ensure all bidders are aware of the details and services expected of them. Attendance at a Pre-Bid Meeting may be mandatory. Failure to attend usually[quantify] results in a rejected bid.
- Staff meeting, typically a meeting between a manager and those that report to that manager
- Stand-up meeting, a meeting with attendees typically standing. The discomfort of standing for long periods helps to keep the meetings short.
- Team meeting, in project contexts - a meeting among colleagues working on various aspects of a team project
- Town hall meeting, an informal public gathering
- Work meeting, which produces a product or intangible result such as a decision
Conference
A conference is a meeting of people who "confer" about a topic.- Convention (meeting), meeting of a, usually large, group of individuals and/or companies in a certain field
- Academic conference, in science and academic, a formal event where researchers present results, workshops, and other activities.
- Business conference, organized to discuss business-related matters
- Conference call, in telecommunications, a call with more than two participants at the same time
- Conference hall, room where conferences are held
- News conference, an announcement to the press (print, radio, television) with the expectation of questions, about the announced matter
- Parent-teacher interview (conference), a meeting with a child's teacher to discuss grades and school performance
- Peace conference, a diplomatic meeting to end conflict.
- Professional conference
- Settlement conference, a meeting between the plaintiff and the respondent in lawsuit, wherein they try to settle their dispute without proceeding to trial
- Trade conference, or trade fair, with wider participation and providing the opportunity for business people and the general public
- Unconference
Seminar
At North American universities, the term "seminar" refers to a course of intense study relating to the student's major. Seminars typically have significantly fewer students per professor than normal courses, and are generally more specific in topic of study. Seminars can revolve around term papers, exams, presentations, and several other assignments. Seminars are almost always required for university graduation. Normally, participants must not be beginners in the field under discussion at US and Canadian universities, seminar classes are generally reserved for upper-class students, although at UK and Australian universities seminars are often used for all years. The idea behind the seminar system is to familiarize students more extensively with the methodology of their chosen subject and also to allow them to interact with examples of the practical problems that always occur during research work.In some European universities, a seminar may be a large lecture course, especially when conducted by a renowned thinker (regardless of the size of the audience or the scope of student participation in discussion). Some non-English speaking countries in Europe use the word seminar (e.g. German Seminar, Slovenian seminar, Polish seminarium) to refer to a university class that includes a term paper or project, as opposed to a lecture class (e.g. German Vorlesung, Slovenian predavanje, Polish wykład). This does not correspond to English use of the term. In some academic institutions, typically in scientific fields, the term "preceptorial" is used interchangeably with "seminar"
