Welcome to ESLPod.com's Business Meetings course, lesson three.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillin, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
In the second lesson of Business Meetings, we learned business vocabulary for introducing the participants at formal and informal business meetings.
Now in this third lesson, we're going to learn how to begin a presentation and let people know what's going to be discussed.
Let's begin by listening to the formal meeting.
Thank you, Alex, and thank you to everyone who is here today.
As you know, today's presentation is designed to present our recommendations about how vision corporation can increase its market share by reaching more of its potential market.
You should each have a copy of our handouts in front of you that correspond to the slides up here on the screen.
This first slide shows our agenda for the day.
First, I will begin with an overview of how our market share has been declining during the past 12 months and the reasons for that decline.
Then Ms. Graph will present the data that she gathered from the focus groups and her ideas for clarifying our target market.
She will be followed by Mr.
Hanson who will discuss adapting our product to meet market needs and he'll conclude with our main recommendations.
Since we have limited time today, please hold your questions until the end of the presentation.
Sean begins by thanking the people for coming to hear his presentation.
He says that today's presentation is designed to present our recommendations.
To be designed to do something means to be made or created for a specific purpose.
The ESL podcast, for example, are designed to help you learn English.
In this case, the presentation is designed to present recommendations.
A recommendation, RE-COMMEM-EMDATOM, is a suggestion, an opinion or advice about what someone should do.
A doctor's recommendation might be for you to stop smoking or a teacher's recommendation might be for you to study more.
Sean's recommendations are about how vision corporation can increase its market share by reaching more of its potential market or the people who don't buy the product now but might be interested in it.
So Sean is going to make suggestions about how vision corporation can raise or increase make larger its market share by reaching or getting to more of its potential market.
Market share is the percentage of sales that a company has in a specific market or specific area or group of people.
For example, Chinese companies have a large market share of the clothing sold in the United States.
A lot of the clothing sold in the United States is made in China.
So Chinese companies have a large market share, a large percentage of these clothes sold here.
Companies want to increase their market share by getting more customers to buy their products.
And that's what Sean's presentation is about.
Sean says that each person should have a copy of the handouts, H-A-N-D-O-U-T-S.
A handout is a piece of paper that is given to people in the audience, people who are listening to the presentation, during a presentation so that they have more information.
It's a piece of paper that has usually information related to the presentation that you give people who are listening.
Having handouts means that you don't have to spend as much time writing down notes as you're listening because the information is already there on a piece of paper.
Sean says that the handouts correspond to the slides on the screen.
To correspond to something means to match up with something or to be related to something.
The amount of homework you have probably corresponds to the number of classes you're taking, meaning that if you take more classes, you'll have more homework.
They correspond to one another.
In this case, the handouts correspond to the slides.
They relate to the slides.
A slide, S-L-I-D-E, is one page in a visual presentation, such as a PowerPoint presentation.
So what Sean means is that the handouts have information for every slide in the presentation.
Sean also says that the slides are on the screen.
A screen, S-C-R-E-E-N, is a large piece of white fabric, white material that hangs on a wall and is used to display pictures and images during a presentation so that many people in the room can see it.
When you go to a movie theater, you watch the movie on a large screen.
In a meeting, the screen is smaller.
Sean says that the first slide shows our agenda for the day.
An agenda, A-G-E-N-D-A, is a plan or a list of topics for a meeting.
In other words, it's a list of things that will be discussed in a meeting and for how long.
The agenda for this lesson is to listen to the formal meeting, discuss the vocabulary, listen to the meeting again, and then do the same things for an informal meeting.
Then Sean talks about the specific things on the agenda for this presentation.
He says, first, I will begin with an overview.
First means before anything else or to begin.
When you want to cook dinner, first you need to buy the ingredients, what you are going to use to cook.
So Sean is going to start with an overview.
An overview, O-V-E-R-V-I-E-W, is a summary or a broad view of something without very much detail.
On the first day of a class, a professor usually provides an overview of what the class will be about.
In Sean's presentation, the overview is about how the company's market share has been declining during the past 12 months.
The verb to decline, D-E-C-L-I-N-E means to decrease or to become less or smaller.
For example, populations of lions and elephants are declining.
In this case, market share is declining, meaning that the company is losing customers.
Sean says, then Ms. Graph will present the data she gathered from focus groups.
The word then means next or later.
So Sean means that Ms. Graph will speak after he finishes the overview.
In this lesson, after we discuss the formal meeting, then we'll talk about the informal meeting.
Ms. Graph is going to present her data.
Data, D-A-T-A, can be any information, facts, or results from a research project.
In this case, Hannah's data is about why customers aren't buying the product as much as they used to.
Hannah or Ms. Graph's data was gathered from the focus groups.
To gather G-A-T-H-E-R means to collect something or to get something from many sources or places.
When you're planning a trip, you might gather information from many different travel books about the place where you're going.
Hannah, Ms. Graph, gathered her data from the focus groups.
Focus groups are the people who were asked to give or share their opinions about the company's product.
Usually a focus group has maybe 5, 10, possibly 15 people in it.
It's a way for companies to get detailed information about what people think about their products, the things they make.
Sean says that Hannah will present her ideas for clarifying the target market.
To clarify C-L-A-R-I-F-Y, something, means to make something clearer or more understandable.
If someone doesn't understand something that you say, you may have to clarify it by saying the same idea again using different words.
Hannah is clarifying the target market, meaning she will clearly identify who the company should be selling its product to.
Sean says that Hannah will be followed by Mr.
Hanson. To be followed by someone or something means to finish and to have something else begin.
My explanation of the vocabulary will be followed by listening to the formal meeting at a native rate of speech.
Hannah being followed by Mr.
Hanson means that once Hannah finishes speaking, Mr.
Hanson will begin his part of the presentation.
Sean says that Mr. Hanson will discuss adapting or changing the product to meet market needs and that he'll conclude with the main recommendations or suggestions.
To conclude, C-O-N-C-L-U-D-E means to end something.
Secondly, this is a verb we use with a presentation or a discussion.
A speaker might conclude his speech by thanking people for listening or by asking people to fill out an evaluation form before they leave.
That's to conclude to end a presentation or a discussion.
Finally, Sean says that there isn't very much time, so he asks people to hold their questions until the end of the presentation.
To hold one's questions means to wait to ask a question until the end of a meeting or presentation.
This is very common in formal meetings, but you'll see that in informal meetings, it's more common for people to ask their questions whenever they think of them.
That concludes or ends our presentation of the vocabulary for the formal meeting.
Let's listen to the meeting again this time at a normal speed.
Thank you, Alex, and thank you to everyone who's here today.
As you know, today's presentation is designed to present our recommendations about how vision corporation can increase its market share by reaching more of its potential market.
You should each have a copy of our handouts in front of you that corresponds to the slides up here on the screen.
The first slide shows our agenda for the day.
First, I will begin with an overview of how our market share has been declining during the past 12 months and the reasons for that decline.
Then Ms. Graff will present the data that she gathered from the focus groups and her ideas for clarifying our target market.
She will be followed by Mr.
Hanson, who will discuss adapting our product to meet market needs, and he'll conclude with our main recommendations.
Once we have limited time today, please hold your questions until the end of the presentation.
Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of the formal meeting.
Now let's see how Sean begins his presentation at an informal meeting.
All right, let me start by saying thanks to all of you for your interest in this presentation.
Does everyone have the printed handouts?
Great. Let's start by taking a look at what we're going to cover today.
As you can see in this outline here, we'll start off by talking about how our market share has been falling over the past year and the reasons why.
After that, Hans is going to tell you about the focus groups she conducted and what we can learn from them.
She'll also share her ideas about who our target market really should be.
We'll finish off with Chris talking about how his team has been able to change our product so that it has more appeal to our customers.
Then he'll wrap things up with our team's recommendations.
Any questions so far? If you have questions later on during the presentation, please feel free to interrupt me at any time.
In the informal meeting, Sean begins by thanking everyone for coming and then asks if everyone has a copy of the handouts or the pieces of paper that have some of the information that will be presented.
Then Sean says, let's start by taking a look at what we're going to cover today.
Let's start or let's begin by taking a look at or examining what we are going to cover today.
The verb to cover, C-O-V-E-R, here means to talk about or to discuss.
This lesson covers the vocabulary for beginning a presentation.
Your English class probably covers if you have one grammar vocabulary, conversation, listening, and so forth.
Sean says that he'll start off by talking about how our market share has been falling.
To start off is an informal way of saying to begin.
For example, when you start off studying English, you should use a basic textbook.
So Sean's presentation is going to start off or begin by talking about the falling or decreasing, declining market share.
He says that after that, Hannah will talk about the focus groups.
The phrase after that means next or once something else has finished.
In other words, after Sean finishes talking about the falling market share, Hannah will begin talking about the focus groups that she conducted.
To conduct C-O-N-D-U-C-T something means to organize or lead something or to arrange or do something.
Hannah conducted the focus groups, meaning that she organized them, invited people to them, and led the discussion.
Sean says that Hannah will also share her ideas about the marketplace.
To share one's ideas means to say one's ideas or your thoughts and opinions in front of other people.
In class, your teacher might ask you to share your ideas about what you read the night before.
Sean says that Chris will finish off.
To finish off something means to end something or to finish doing something.
We often finish off our phone calls by saying talk to you later.
In this case, Chris is going to finish off or end the presentation by talking about how his team has been able to change the product so that it has more appeal to the customers.
Appeal, A-P-P-E-A-L, is the ability to attract people or a pleasantness, a niceness that other people like.
The appeal of going to a restaurant is that you don't have to cook at home.
The appeal is what makes me want to go.
It attracts me there. The appeal of a dishwasher might be that it makes your life easier because you don't have to spend as much time washing dishes.
Sean says that Chris will wrap things up with the team's recommendations.
To wrap, W-R-A-P, things up has the same meaning as to conclude to end a presentation or a project or to finish something.
In other words, Chris is going to end the presentation by talking about the team's recommendations.
We're going to wrap things up in this lesson by listening to the informal meeting at a native rate of speech.
Sean asks the participants to please feel free to interrupt him during the presentation if they have any questions.
When we tell someone to please feel free to do something, it's a polite way of asking someone to please do something or to let them know that it's okay to do something.
For example, you might say to someone, please feel free to call me if you have questions.
It's okay for you to call me.
The verb interrupt, i-n-t-e-r-r-u-p-t means to say or do something while another person is talking so that the other person has to stop speaking.
It's usually very rude, not polite, to interrupt another person.
But in this case, Sean is asking people to please feel free to interrupt him, meaning that they should ask their questions whenever they have them, not waiting for him to stop speaking first.
Let's listen to Sean again as he speaks at a faster native rate.
All right, let me start by saying thanks to all of you for your interest in this presentation.
Does everyone have the printed handouts?
Great. Let's start by taking a look at what we're going to cover today.
As you can see in this outline here, we'll start off by talking about how our market share has been falling over the past year and the reasons why.
After that, Hannah is going to tell you about the focus group she conducted and what we can learn from them.
She'll also share her ideas about who our target market really should be.
We'll finish off with Chris talking about how his team has been able to change our product so that it has more appeal to our customers.
Then he'll wrap things up with our team's recommendations.
Any questions so far? If you have questions later on during the presentation, please feel free to interrupt me at any time.
I hope this lesson has helped you understand how to begin a presentation in formal and informal meetings in English.
Our next lesson, number four, is about giving the actual formal and informal presentations in English.
This course has been a production of the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at pslpod.com.
This course was produced by Dr.
Jeff McQuillan and Dr. Lucy Saye.
Copyright 2007.
