Meetings
In this lesson, you will learn useful vocabulary and expressions that you can use in a job interview. The more you practice, the more comfortable you will feel on the big day! Interview skills will help you get a good job.
Part 1
Warm-Up and Vocabulary Preview A
Work with your teacher. Discuss the questions.
Topic A: Meetings
How often do you attend meetings at work?
Do most of your meetings have a clear purpose or agenda?
Do your meetings usually take place online, in person, or both?
What do you find easy or difficult about communicating in meetings (whether it’s in English or in your first language)?
Topic B: Online Travel Agencies
What are the advantages and disadvantages of booking a hotel through an online travel agency (OTA)?
How do online travel agencies make a profit?
Match the words on the left with the correct meanings on the right.
commission ___
a sharp or quick increase
paid promotion ___
one’s position on a search engine’s results page
surge (in sales/bookings/interest) ___
a type of marketing that rewards third parties for helping a company gain customers or sales, usually through online traffic
ROI ___
an acronym that stands for “return on investment,” which is the ratio between net income and investment
search ranking ___
paying for advertising space, product placement, etc.
affiliate program ___
a fee paid to a company or individual for making a sale, usually a percentage of the sale price
Part 2
Vocabulary Preview B
Rewrite the sentences. Replace each phrase in bold with a word or phrase from the box.
I think we have some issues with the internet at the moment. The signal isn’t good.
_____________________________________________________
Your screen has stopped moving when you speak.
_____________________________________________________
It’s great to meet you over a video call.
_____________________________________________________
There are quite a lot of details. I’ll summarize the main points.
_____________________________________________________
I’m not sure how to answer that question right away—it’s difficult and I have no time to think!
_____________________________________________________
I read the news online every morning, so I’m aware of the latest information on many topics.
_____________________________________________________
He’s finding it very difficult to keep up with his workload.
_____________________________________________________
I think there are advantages and disadvantages to holding meetings online.
_____________________________________________________
Sales have improved since the start of the year.
_____________________________________________________
We don’t know enough yet to make a decision. Let’s wait until we have more information.
_____________________________________________________
Part 3
Listening 1, 2, 3
Listen to the beginning of a meeting (Part 1) among senior staff members at a popular hotel chain. The company mainly operates in Southeast Asia. Answer the question. What is the main purpose of the meeting?
to discuss a completely new marketing strategy
to discuss changes to an existing marketing strategy
to introduce a new employee
Match the details with the correct speaker.
Listen to first part of the meeting again and check your answers.
Speaker
Details
Mai
marketing manager
Mark
based in Malaysia
Claudia
has some connection problems
Celeste
taking the minutes
Nina
seems to be the most senior staff member
Sergio
new employee
Listen to the next part of the meeting (Part 2). Make notes on each speaker’s opinion and their experience with the Premium Affiliate Program.
| Speaker | Notes |
| Celeste | |
| Claudia | |
| Sergio |
Part 4
Listening 4, 5
Match Celeste, Claudia, and Sergio to their opinions.
Use your notes from Listening 3 to help you. If you are unsure, listen to Part 2 again.
Complete the Experience column for each speaker with the following details:
• Is familiar with the Premium Affiliate Program through work at Learner Hotels.
• Has previous experience with more than one Premium Affiliate Program.
• Has no first-hand experience of the program mentioned.
| Speaker | Opinions | Experience |
| • Doesn’t think joining the Premium Affiliate Program is a good idea for the company. • Suggests that the Premium Affiliate Program is not as good as the Basic Affiliate Program. | ||
| • Feels other companies may not have used the Premium Affiliate Program in the best way. • Believes demand for more expensive services may increase. | ||
| • Doesn’t think the Premium Affiliate Program is a good return on investment. • Thinks the demand for the hotel’s more expensive rooms is currently low. |
Listen to the end of the meeting (Part 3). Answer the questions.
What task is Sergio given to do after the meeting?
What does Nina agree to do?
When is the next meeting?
Part 5
Language Functions
Identify the function of these sentences from Parts 1 and 2 of the meeting.
Functions:
• Signaling the start of a meeting
• Addressing technical issues in online meetings
• Highlighting roles in the meeting
• Encouraging participants to share thoughts
• Acknowledging other people’s comments
• Introducing a new employee during a meeting
• Making small talk
• Explaining why the meeting is happening
| Signaling the start of a meeting | • Yes, that’s everyone. Should we get started? |
| • How’s the weather down there in Phuket? | |
| • Oh, before we start, can I just introduce you all to Claudia? | |
| • I think there’s a bit of a delay. • Oh, Sergio’s screen has frozen. It looks like he might have some connection problems. | |
| • The purpose of this meeting is to… | |
| • Nina has kindly agreed to take the minutes today. Thanks, Nina. | |
| • So, any thoughts? • Celeste, will you start us off? • Do you have anything to add? | |
| • Okay. That’s interesting. • I see. These are really useful insights, thanks. • I know where Celeste and Claudia are coming from. • Yeah, I see what you mean… • I get what you’re saying, Sergio… |
Part 6
Language Functions cont. and Speaking
Read the transcript from Meeting (Part 3). Find the following phrases.
a phrase Mai uses to acknowledge everyone’s opinions
_____________________________________________________
a phrase Mark uses to begin summarizing the views shared during the meeting
_____________________________________________________
a phrase Mark uses to signal the action to be taken after the meeting
_____________________________________________________
a phrase Mark uses to see if participants would like to talk about anything else
_____________________________________________________
Work with a partner. Think of a phrase you can use to accomplish each of the following tasks:
Address a technical issue.
Signal the start of a meeting.
Acknowledge someone’s comment.
Introduce a new employee at the start of a meeting.
Encourage someone to speak.
Find out if people want to talk about any other topics.
Explain who is taking the minutes.
Explain why the meeting is happening.
Part 7
Speaking cont.
You work for the online travel agency bookrooms.com. You will attend a meeting to discuss possible changes to the company’s Premium Affiliate Program. Read your role card and prepare ideas for the task.
Person A
You are the manager of the Premium Affiliate Program.
You are leading the meeting.
Your clients seem to be losing interest in the Premium Affiliate Program.
There has been a 20% decrease in affiliate numbers this year. Affiliate numbers for the Basic Affiliate Program, on the other hand, have increased by 7%.
Remember, you need to:
• explain the purpose of the meeting
• encourage others to share ideas
• acknowledge others’ viewpoints
• summarize comments
Don’t forget to introduce your new representative (Person D).
Person B
You are a member of the Premium Affiliate Program sales team. Your job is to encourage affiliates who subscribe to the Basic Affiliate Program to upgrade to Premium.
You find this difficult because…
• it doesn’t cost much more than the Basic Affiliate Program, but the
commission is much higher.
• room fill in most hotels at the moment is low, but companies aren’t
investing in marketing.
You think the problem is the high commission bookrooms.com expects for confirmed bookings through the Premium Affiliate Program.
Share your thoughts.
Remember, you need to:
• acknowledge others’ viewpoints
You work for the online travel agency bookrooms.com. You will attend a meeting to discuss possible changes to the company’s Premium Affiliate Program. Read your role card and prepare ideas for the task.
Person C
You are a member of the Premium Affiliate Program sales team. Your job is to encourage affiliates on the Basic Affiliate Program to upgrade to Premium.
You find this difficult because…
• it doesn’t cost much more than the Basic Affiliate Program, but the
commission is much higher.
• room fill in most hotels at the moment is low, but companies aren’t
investing in marketing.
You think the problem is that the Premium Affiliate Program should be
more exclusive. It doesn’t work well for budget or mid-range hotels, like
those on the Basic Affiliate Program. You should be trying to attract new,
higher‐end hotel companies to join the Premium Affiliate Program instead of trying to upgrade existing customers. Share your views.
Remember, you need to:
• acknowledge others’ viewpoints
Person D
You are a new employee on the team.
You previously worked for a hotel. Your former employer was a member of the bookrooms.com Premium Affiliate Program.
• The program helped increase bookings on more expensive rooms at
your hotel (such as business suites).
• However, the commission taken by bookrooms.com was very high, around 25%.
• Your hotel eventually changed to another affiliate program with Hotels4u.com, which took only 20% commission.
Share your experience.
Remember, you need to:
• acknowledge others’ viewpoints
You’ve been having connection problems this morning.
Discuss these questions with the group at the end of your meeting.
How well did Person A lead the meeting? Could they improve in any way?
Who gave the best reasons to support their viewpoint?
Was it easy to acknowledge other people’s viewpoints? Why or why not?
Part 8
Transcripts
Transcripts for Listening 1, 2.
(sound of someone joining a virtual meeting)
Mai: (in mid conversation as the new participant joins) Let’s certainly discuss that, but not today, okay?
Mark: Sure, sure.
Mai: I think we need a bit more information first before… (cuts herself off) Oh hi, Sergio! Sorry, I didn’t notice you’d joined us! Is that everyone, Mark?
Mark: Yes, that’s everybody. Should we get started?
Sergio: (clearly on delay) Hi, everyone.
Mai: Hi, Sergio. I think there’s a bit of a delay. How’s the weather down there in Phuket? It looks like you’re on the beach!
(pause 2 seconds)
Sergio: Ha! I wish! No, it’s just my background screen. The rain… (interference) …all morning and… (interference)
(pause 3 seconds)
Mai: Oh, Sergio’s screen has frozen. It looks like he might have some connection problems. Okay, no problem. If he can join us again, great. If not, we’ll let him know what he missed. Nina has kindly agreed to take the minutes today. Thanks, Nina. Oh, before we start, can I just introduce you all, well, virtually at least, to Claudia?
Claudia: Hello!
Mai: Claudia is taking over for Eric. She will be dealing with bookings in Bangkok. Claudia doesn’t officially start until next month, but she’ll be joining meetings like this just to keep up to date. Claudia, you’ve met Mark, our marketing manager. This is Nina, who deals with bookings outside Thailand, mainly Vietnam and Cambodia. Sergio, who’s not here right now, but that’s who you’ll be working with in Thailand. And then Celeste, who’s based in Malaysia.
(multiple greetings)
Mai: Okay. There’s only one item on the agenda today. Mark, could you give us a quick overview?
Mark: Okay. So, as you know, almost all our bookings come from online travel agencies, mainly bookrooms.com. As with the other hotels and chains, we pay a commission to bookrooms.com, which is currently between 10 and 15% per booking made through their website. We expected a surge in hotel bookings post-COVID, but, as you’re aware, things haven’t really picked up. So, we’re considering our options. One of those options is to upgrade our bookrooms.com account from Basic Affiliate to Premium Affiliate, which doesn’t seem to cost much more. The purpose of this meeting is to ask you all about your experience with the Premium Affiliate Program. Some of you will be familiar with this program from your previous roles. Basically, we want to try and establish whether upgrading to the Premium Affiliate Program would be a good move at this time. So, any thoughts?
Transcripts for Listening 3, 4.
Mark: So, any thoughts?
(silence)
Mark: I know we’re putting you on the spot here, but we’d just like your honest opinions. Celeste, will you start us off?
Celeste: Okay, well, personally, I don’t think it makes much sense to join the Premium Affiliate Program right now. I just can’t see this being a good ROI.
Mark: Okay. That’s interesting. Based on what? Based on your marketing experience with Leaders Hotels?
Celeste: Yes. I mean, I won’t go into too many details, but, basically, we were members of bookrooms.com Premium and the program did help generate more bookings. However, it wasn’t the best ROI. Premium Affiliate is basically paid promotion. When customers search for hotels, the paid promotion helps you achieve a higher search ranking.
Mark: Which sounds good…
Celeste: It does, but there’s a massive increase on commission for those bookings. The OTA gets between 25 and 30% commission for Premium Affiliate bookings.
Mark: What? How? That sounds like far too much. How come the commission is so much higher?
Celeste: I don’t know the ins and outs, to be honest.
Claudia: Can I just add something?
Mark: By all means, Claudia.
Claudia: Thanks. I agree with Celeste. The company I just left was a Premium Affiliate with two OTAs, one of them being bookrooms.com. As Celeste said, we found that although bookings increased, the higher commission actually meant less profit. The Basic Affiliate Program just seems better.
Mark: I see. These are really useful insights, thanks. Sergio, it looks like you’ve joined us again. We’re talking about the pros and cons of the bookrooms.com Premium Affiliate Program. Do you have anything to add?
Sergio: I do, yes. I know where Celeste and Claudia are coming from. I certainly see your points about the higher commission. A couple of friends of mine working at Leaders Hotels have said the same. Having said that, I think a lot depends on our target customers.
Mark: Go on…
Sergio: Someone I know suggested that the reason Leaders Hotels didn’t profit from the Premium Affiliate Program was that they used it to promote all available rooms. If it were used to promote our more expensive rooms, which we are struggling to fill in most of our hotels, then perhaps the higher commission won’t matter as much.
Mark: Yeah, I see what you mean, but the thing is that with bookings being so low at the moment, we are giving customers a lot of free upgrades upon arrival. We know that this approach has led to repeat business, but it also means our suites and more expensive rooms are often unavailable.
Sergio: Which is fine, but I feel like we might be making things harder for ourselves by offering so many upgrades.
Celeste: I get what you’re saying, Sergio, but given the current lack of demand, I just don’t think that focusing our efforts on promoting higher-end rooms and services is what’s needed.
Sergio: Why not? Lots of people haven’t been on vacation for a while. They have money to spend…
Transcripts for Listening 5.
Mai: Okay, so thanks for all your thoughts on this. It’s been a really worthwhile conversation. What do you think, Mark?
Mark: Okay, sure. Just to recap, it sounds like it might be a risk to upgrade our affiliate program at the moment, based on Celeste’s and Claudia’s experiences. However, Sergio has agreed to look into the Premium Affiliate Program in more detail for us. At this stage, let’s keep an open mind, I think. So, moving forward… Sergio, can you do some additional research into Premium and give us more information when we come together next week?
Sergio: Will do.
Mark: Great! We’ll send out meeting invites later in the week. While we are all here, is there any other business?
(silence)
Mark: Okay. It must be lunchtime then! Thanks everyone for joining. Uh, Nina, could you just send those minutes later today if possible?
(silence)
Mark: Great! A thumbs-up from Nina there. Okay, everyone, have a great day. Thanks, Claudia, for joining us too!
Claudia: Thank you, Mark. Nice to meet you all.
Celeste: Nice to meet you too!
Sergio: Thanks, Claudia!
Mai: Thanks, everyone. Keep up the good work.
Mark: Bye!