Company buffet business meeting
with chairing a meeting phrases and discussion, and writing an action agenda
You have to arrange for a buffet lunch in your company’s conference room for a very cosmopolitan group of guests plus some people from your company. Your task is to plan the whole buffet, considering topics like:
- Budget and prices
- Variety of foods
- Dealing with special dietary needs
- Food likely to be popular and unpopular with different nationalities and cultures
- Types of drinks
- Amount of food needed
- Seating arrangements
- Decorations
- Times
- Cutlery, crockery, serviettes etc.
- Other cultural differences
- Final decision on which food and drink
- Final decision on amounts of food and drink
- Any other business
Choose which of the points above you both think you need to discuss, decide how much time you think you will need to discuss each point, then finally decide what order you will discuss the points in.
| Suggested language for discussing meeting agendas Why don’t we (start with)…? Surely, (the most important point is)…? Don’t you think (… is more of a priority)? May I suggest (moving onto the next point)? It might be better to (spend less time on that one and more on the next) To my mind,… If you ask me,… Know what I think?… |
When you have agreed, fill in the first three columns in the table on the next page below, choose a chair for the meeting, then try to think of some useful phrases for the chair to:
- ask for people’s opinions (A)
- move the meeting on(M)
- bring the group to agreement (B)
Label the sentences on the next page with A, M and/or B depending on their use(s).
Roleplay the whole meeting, with the chair filling in the final column in agenda below.
When you finish, compare action points with other groups.
Discuss how well your meeting went and what chairs can do to improve meetings.
Action agenda to fill in
| Agenda point | Topic | Estimated discussion time needed | Action agreed | Action to be taken by: |
| 1 | ||||
| 2 | ||||
Phrases for chairing a meeting to classify
- We’ll have to agree to disagree.
- Shall we take a vote on it?
- Let’s set that point aside for a minute.
- If no one has anything else to add…
- Moving on…
- The next point of the agenda is…
- Can we keep any other questions until a.o.b?
- Let’s go with the majority on that one.
- Shall we get started?
- Any final points to make?
- I think that about wraps it up.
- Let’s leave point 3 there, shall we?
- Well, thank you all for coming.
- Well, that’s been very productive, I think.
- So, are we all agreed then?
- We don’t seem to be making much progress on this point, so…
- To sum up,…
- If I can paraphrase what you’ve all been saying…
- Does anyone (else) have an opinion on this?
- Who’d like to give their opinion first?
- First, let’s talk about…
- So, we all seem to agree that…
- The consensus seems to be that…
Use these ideas to extend your discuss on what people can do when chairing meetings:
Being strict about following the agenda
Making everyone feel comfortable with a bit of small talk at the beginning
Giving your own opinion strongly
Giving the casting vote
Giving everyone a chance to speak
Taking minutes
Calming people down
Playing the devil’s advocate
Discuss as a class.
Brainstorm phrases for doing the most useful things above.
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