Vocabulary. 2.3. Read the article and the key points under the following headings:

PRACTICAL TRAINING

2.3. Read the article and the key points under the following headings:

-recent trends in international meetings

-reasons for holding international meetings

-typical problems at international meetings

-avoiding the pitfalls of international meetings

Complete the following sentences with appropriate words from the list.

сonsensus, items,circulate, conduct, agenda, apologies, minutes, arising, casting vote, chairperson

1 In all formal meetings and most informal meetings, there is a------------- whose

job it is to---------the business of the meeting and to ensure that the meeting's objectives are achieved.

2 It is helpful in both formal and informal meetings to have an------------, listing

the points that are to be discussed. It is usual to-------- this in advance so that participants can prepare adequately for the meeting.

3 If there are too many----------on the agenda, it is inevitable that the meeting

will be over-long and so less effective.

4 After formal meetings, the secretary writes up the----------, an official record

of the discussion that has taken place.

5 If you cannot attend a meeting, it is customary to send your-----------to the

chairperson, who reads out the names of any absentees at the beginning of the meeting. After naming absentees, the chairperson may ask if there are any matters----------out of the minutes of the last meeting.

6 When decisions must be taken, the chairperson hopes there will be a------------on what should be done. Otherwise, a vote must be taken and sometimes the votes for and against are equal. If this happens, the only way to break the deadlock is for the chairperson to give his or her---------.

UNIT 3. Presentations

Современная деловая деятельность невозможна без презентации. Данный раздел знакомит студентов с видами презентаций, с правилами подготовки и проведения презентации, с речевыми и грамматическими структурами необходимыми для проведения презентации. В результате студенты смогут подготовить и провести презентацию на английском языке.

TEXT 3.1. Presentation mistakes

MY BIGGEST mistake was failing to find out who was going to be in the audience before I gave a speech. It was two years ago, when I had been invited to be guest speaker at the annual management conference of a major clothing supplier, a company that relied on Marks & Spencer for more than 15 per cent of its sales.

My brief as guest speaker was to get the audience to think strategically about the changing market.

The conference was held at Gleneagles. I had to speak for an hour and a half to 70 managers, and when I began they were very subdued.

I decided to raise the level of challenge in order to get some reaction."" When my first attempts proved unsuccessful, I turned to my last resort: I suggested that Marks & Spencer, their lifeline, was not the paragon of business success they thought it was.

Now this did spark some reaction, but the audience was still more subdued than most groups - so I actually started being rude about their beloved Marks & Spencer.

I justified these insults by saying I needed to make them take a different perspective, and even commented that I suspected the reason they were being quiet was because they were very loyal to their major customer.

I could see they were all thinking hard - they weren't asleep or anything - and I assumed they were thinking about company issues.

But at the end of the session, when we took a break for coffee, a senior director sidled up and said he had something to tell me.

He took me aside and informed me that the reason they had been so quiet was because sitting next to him in the front row was their chief customer in person: one of the head buyers of M & S. At that point, my heart hit my boots and I realised I had made the most awful error of judgement.

When I spotted the buyer, I remember going to enormous efforts to avoid him.

I managed to escape, but only at the expense of leaving my coat behind in the conference room, where everyone had assembled after coffee. I couldn't face going back in.

The other thing I couldn't face was sending the company 'an invoice for the agreed speaker's fee or for my expenses in travelling to Scotland.

Looking back, I remember there was a lot of fidgeting going on during my speech. I thought it was because I was talking about their most valued customer.

It was the squirming of the senior director in the front row that I remember most. Clearly, he was trying to make a judgement about whether he should speak up and halt me in mid-flow. I think it would have been better if he had.

The night before, I had joined them for dinner and had become quite chummy with a lot of them, which is probably why I thought I was safe in taking the risk of winding them up.But it was a mistake to assume I understood why people were reacting the way they were. It was a fatal assumption, because it was wrong. As a result, I was more critical about Marks & Spencer than I normally would have been, and certainly more than was necessary.

I still can't believe that, doing the job I do, I didn't find out who was there beforehand. I've had no communication with the company since, but the lesson to be learned is quite simple. In meetings, conferences or presentations of any sort, always make sure you find out exactly who you are speaking to.

Дата добавления: 2014-11-29