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Podcast number 796 Setting Up Conference Calls and Video Conferences.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 796.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
And download a learning guide for this episode that will help you improve your English even faster.
This episode is a dialogue about setting up or getting ready for a conference call and video conferences.
Let's get started.
Who's running the video conference next week?
I am.
Desmond put me in charge of it last week.
Oh, somebody's moving up in the world.
It's nice that he's giving you more responsibility.
Yeah, but I'm not sure I'm ready.
I've set up conference calls and video conferences before.
Maybe you can tell me what you've already done, and I can see if you've missed anything.
That would be great.
Okay, I've scheduled the meeting for three o'clock.
Stop right there.
If the video conference is at 3 o'clock here, it's already 6 o'clock on the East Coast.
That's too late to start the meeting, don't you think?
Oh, I didn't factor in time zones.
But I still have time to reschedule, I think, so it's not a total catastrophe.
Good.
Be sure to initiate the call or the connection at least 10 minutes before the time of the meeting and make sure you know how to reconnect someone if they get disconnected during the meeting.
Are you facilitating the meeting, too?
In that case, make sure you identify each person by greeting them by name.
I'd be ready to troubleshoot.
If Desmond put you in charge of setting up the meeting, he'll want you to take a more active part.
What are you doing?
Hyperventilating.
I don't think I'm ready for this.
Our dialogue begins with Ewan saying to Petra, Who's running the video conference next week?
Who's running meaning who's organizing?
Who is the person who is managing the video conference?
A video conference one word is a meeting where people in different locations, different cities, perhaps different countries, talk to each other by using either a telephone line or an internet line that allows you to see the person, like you're talking to them, on a television set.
It's a video of all of the members who are part of this meeting, this conference.
Petra says, I am.
I'm running the video conference.
Desmond put me in charge of it last week.
To put someone in charge of something means to say that they are going to organize it.
They are going to run it.
Ewan says, oh, somebody's moving up in the world.
To move up in the world means, is an expression, meaning to be doing well or to be doing better professionally, to be getting more money, more responsibility, a better job.
That's to move up in the world.
Ewan is sort of making a joke here.
Ewan says it's nice that he's giving you more responsibility.
Petra says, yeah, but I'm not sure I'm ready.
She's not sure she's ready for this new responsibility.
Don't worry, Petra, you're ready.
I know you.
Well, I don't know you because you don't exist, but if you did, you'd be ready.
Ewan says, I've set up conference calls and video conferences before.
Conference calls are meetings where, like a video conference, you have people in different places, perhaps in the country or even in the world, but typically they don't involve any video.
It's just the telephone, or nowadays it might be on the internet using a service like Skype.
So Ewan says that he has set up conference calls and video conferences before, and we all know what an idiot Ewan is.
So if Ewan can do it, certainly Petra can do it.
That's my opinion.
Ewan says maybe you can tell me what you've already done and I can see if you missed anything, if there's something you didn't think of.
Petra said that would be great.
Okay, she says.
I've scheduled the meeting for 3 o'clock.
Ewan says stop right there, meaning don't say anything else.
Usually we use this expression in a conversation when a person has said something that's either wrong or perhaps not what you should be saying or should have done.
So, for example, I could say, well, I'm going to Europe today.
The first thing I'm going to do is buy myself a little boat so that I can get to Europe.
And someone would say, oh, stop right there.
There's no way you can take a little boat to Europe.
It will take you a very long time.
That's just an example.
Petra says she wants to schedule the meeting or has scheduled the meeting for 3 o'clock.
Ewan says, stop right there.
If the video conference is at 3 o'clock here, meaning if it's at 3 o'clock where we are, let's say Los Angeles, it's already 6 o'clock on the East Coast, meaning there's a time difference between Los Angeles and the east coast of the United States where New York and Washington and Boston and Atlanta and other big cities are Philadelphia and so forth.
Well, She scheduled the meeting at 3, but it will already be 6 o'clock in New York and, of course, people may have already gone home.
Ewan says, that's too late to start the meeting, don't you think?
Petra says, oh, I didn't factor in time zones.
To factor, F-A-C-T-O-R, in means to consider something in your decision.
If you're going to take a small boat from New York to France, you have to factor in all of the time it's going to take you to take your boat from one side of the Atlantic to the other.
So that's to factor in, to consider.
Time zones are one of the 24 geographic areas in the world that we divide up into different hours so that, when it is
Three o'clock in the afternoon here in Los Angeles, it's four o'clock in Las Vegas, it's five o'clock in Chicago and it's six o'clock in New York.
Three o'clock in the afternoon would be, I think, midnight in Rome, in Central Europe.
I think that's right.
Anyway, Petra says that she scheduled this meeting at 3, and of course that won't work.
She says, I didn't factor in time zones, but I still have time to reschedule, to pick a new time.
So it's not a total catastrophe, she says.
A catastrophe is a disaster, right? something that is very serious, very negative.
Normally, we use this word in talking about an earthquake or a hurricane.
Those would be disasters.
If they caused a lot of damage, they could be catastrophes.
Or if you lose a million dollars, that would be, for most people, a catastrophe.
Ewan says good, meaning good that you can reschedule it.
He says, be sure to initiate or begin the call, the telephone call or the connection, at least 10 minutes before the time of the meeting.
The connection would be the connection, in this case, between two or more people.
It could be on the Internet.
It could be on a telephone line.
Ewan says, make sure you know how to reconnect someone if they get disconnected during the meeting.
So to get disconnected means that, for example, you're talking to someone and then suddenly your phone line stops working or your Internet connection isn't working.
You get disconnected.
You are no longer talking or communicating with that person.
So if that happens, you have to get reconnected, connected again.
Petra says, I still need to figure that out.
Meaning, I still need to understand how to do that.
Ewan says, are you facilitating the meeting too?
To facilitate F-A-C-I-L-I-T-A-T-E means really to run the meeting, to be the person who is in charge of getting people to accomplish what they're supposed to accomplish.
Petra says, I don't know.
I guess so.
She's not sure if she's running or facilitating the meeting.
Ewan says, in that case, in that instance...
Make sure you identify each person by greeting them by name.
To greet someone means to say hello to someone.
By name means you use their name.
Hello, Jeff.
Hello, Petra.
Hello, Newman.
Petra says, I was hoping to lurk in the background in case something went wrong.
To lurk, L-U-R-K, means that you are present, you are there, but you're sort of hidden.
Other people aren't listening to you or observing you.
You're not participating.
Petra says she wants to lurk in the background.
The background here means in the environment, but not where everyone can see her.
To be in the background means that no one is really paying attention.
You're there.
You may even be influencing things, but no one sees you.
No one talks to you.
No one thinks about you.
Petra says, I'd be ready to troubleshoot.
To troubleshoot, one word, means to figure out what the problem is and how to solve it.
So Petra wants to be part of the conference, the video conference, but she doesn't want to be actively participating.
We could say
She wants to lurk in the background, and if there's a problem, she will troubleshoot it.
She will figure out what the problem is and what the solution should be.
Ewan says if Desmond put you in charge of setting up the meeting, he'll want you to take a more active part.
To take a more active part means to be an actual participant, to be talking and to be asking questions and so forth.
Petra then begins to breathe heavily.
She starts breathing so that you can hear her breathe.
Ewan says, what are you doing?
Petra says, hyperventilating.
I don't think I'm ready for this.
To hyperventilate means to breathe very quickly and deeply first, usually because you are very nervous or you're frightened about something.
Someone who starts to hyperventilate is breathing very fast, and it could be dangerous.
If they're very nervous or very excited, that might happen.
So Petra isn't really ready to facilitate, much less to set up the conference call or video conference.
Maybe she's not as smart as I thought she was.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Who's running the video conference next week?
I am.
Desmond put me in charge of it last week.
Oh, somebody's moving up in the world.
It's nice that he's giving you more responsibility.
Yeah, but I'm not sure I'm ready.
I've set up conference calls and video conferences before.
Maybe you can tell me what you've already done and I can see if you've missed anything.
That would be great.
Okay, I've scheduled a meeting for 3 o'clock.
Stop right there.
If the video conference is at 3 o'clock here, it's already 6 o'clock on the East Coast.
That's too late to start the meeting, don't you think?
Oh, I didn't factor in time zones.
But I still have time to reschedule, I think, so it's not a total catastrophe.
Good.
Be sure to initiate the call or the connection at least 10 minutes before the time of the meeting.
And make sure you know how to reconnect someone if they get disconnected during the meeting.
I still need to figure that out.
Are you facilitating the meeting too?
I don't know.
I guess so.
In that case make sure you identify each person by greeting them by name.
I was hoping to lurk in the background in case something went wrong.
I'd be ready to troubleshoot.
If Desmond put you in charge of setting up the meeting he'll want you to take a more active part.
What are you doing? hyperventilating.
I don't think I'm ready for this.
Our scriptwriter, Dr. Lucy Say, works in the background.
You don't see her, but she's there, certainly taking an active part by writing these wonderful scripts.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2012 by the Center for Educational Development.
