Lesson 2 – Introducing the Participants
 [bad word] to [bad word] s "Business Meetings" course. I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

In the first lesson of "Business Meetings," we learned business vocabulary for starting formal and informal business meetings. In this second lesson, we're going to learn how to introduce the participants, the people who are at the meeting.

Let's get started by listening to the formal meeting.

Alex: Before we begin, I would like to take a moment to introduce the

participants who have graciously agreed to share their time with us today. I believe that all of you already know me, Alex Aurora, the CEO of Vision Corporation.

On my immediate right is Ms. Hannah Graff, the account representative from our marketing consulting firm. She has been a visionary leader in coordinating the focus groups and helping us identify our target market.

On my far right, the gentleman in the gray suit is Mr. Chris Banda, who is the Senior Vice President of Product Development. Over the past few months, he has shown great flexibility and willingness to These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2007). Posting of these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

And last but not least, I'd like to introduce our Senior Vice President of Marketing, Mr. Shawn Edwards. He has been coordinating our marketing efforts for the past seven years, and his hard work is culminating in today's presentation.

With that, I'll turn it over to our Senior Vice President of Marketing, Shawn Edwards, who will lead the proceedings today. Thank you to all of you for being here, and [bad word] 

Alex starts by saying, "Before we begin, I would like to take a moment to introduce the participants." To "take a moment" means to do something for a short period of time or to pause or [bad word] something for a short time. In this case, he is delaying the beginning of the meeting because he wants to introduce the participants first. For example, you might "take a moment" to put on your jacket before you go outside.

Alex says that the participants "have graciously agreed to share their time with us." The word "graciously" (graciously) means generously, kindly, or very thoughtfully. If someone graciously accepts an invitation, it means that he or she did so very kindly and politely. Then Alex introduces himself as the CEO of Vision Corporation. "CEO" means Chief Executive Officer; this is the person who leads a business, like a president, but more important. Some other titles you may hear related to leaders in [bad word] are "CIO," which "stands for" (or means) Chief Information Officer, and "CFO," which is the Chief Financial Officer.

Then Alex begins introducing the other participants. He says that on his "immediate right" is Ms. Hannah Graff. To say that she is on his "immediate (immediate) right" means that she is right next to him on his right-hand side. And note that Alex uses Hannah's title, "Ms.," because this is a formal meeting. "Ms." is the [bad word] title for a woman, whether she is married or not. You won't hear "Mrs." or "Miss" as much anymore in formal business meetings. In the informal meeting you'll see that people call each other by their first names.

Alex says that Hannah "has been a visionary leader in coordinating the focus groups." "visionary (visionary) leader" is someone who has many new, creative, and intelligent ideas. [bad word] from the word "vision," which means a plan for the future. "Visionaries" usually refer to people who are very creative. "Visionaries" today might be thinking about flying cars or space travel.