Different Kinds of Meetings Nowadays, there are thousands of international meetings held worldwide every year. However, their names are different. They can be generally differentiated as follows. Meeting Meeting is a general and summary term of various kinds of assembly of people for a particular purpose. Its original meaning is to 'meet with each other' or to 'put heads together.' In this sense, if there are more than two persons coming together, talking and discussing, the event can be called a meeting. So we often say or hear 'Let's have a meeting.' Since the definition of meeting is rather extended and not clearly demarcated (划分界限), it can mean any kind of gathering, pre-arranged or non-arranged, formal or informal the time can be long or short the scale, large or small the participants, many or a few, and so on. To specifically clarify a meeting, therefore, the names of meeting should be further demarcated. Conference Conference is a kind of formal meeting, often lasting for a few days. It is organized on a particular subject to bring together people who have a common interest. At a conference, formal discussions usually take place. Comparatively, conference generally refers to a specialized professional or academic event. We can say, for example, 'Mr. Smith attended a conference on environmental protection in Beijing last week.' People often use the term international conference to mean a meeting held at the international level, with the participants coming from different countries. Symposium Symposium (pl. symposia/symposiums) is also a kind of meeting, but it refers exclusively to the meeting for specialized academic discussion. At a symposium, experts, scholars, and other participants of a particular field discuss a particular subject. Compared with conference, a symposium is usually narrower and more specific in the range of topics. For instance, we may say 'They are going to participate in the Second International Symposium on Teaching English at Tertiary (高等教育的) Level in Hong Kong next May. The teaching of language skills, language learners' styles and strategies, new technology and methodology as well as other relevant issues will be discussed there.' In terms of scale, a symposium may be smaller than a conference, because sometimes a conference may include several symposiums held simultaneously (as satellite symposiums). Some of this kind of meeting can be called 'working conference'. This, however, does not apply to symposium. Furthermore, some meetings held by the government for political consultation can be called 'political conference' but not symposium. Congress The basic characteristic of a congress is that it is usually attended by representatives or delegates who belong to national or international, governmental or non-governmental organizations. It is held to discuss issues, ideas, and policies of public interest. And it is usually rather large in scale and generally representative and extensive. For example, 'The Fourth World Congress on Women', which was sponsored by the United Nations, was held in Beijing in 1994, with over 20,000 representatives from countries all over the world. Convention Convention is a kind of routine meeting, at which a large gathering of people meet and discuss the business of their organization or political group, such as the annual convention of the union, the biannual(一年两次的)convention of the Metal Society. Usually it is regularly organized by a learned society, a professional association, an academic institution or a nongovernmental organization. Forum Forum is in fact a kind of public meeting, at which people exchange ideas and discuss issues, especially important public issues. For example, the 99 Forum on Asia Economies was held in Singapore and a regular forum for the