Meeting

A meeting is a gathering of two or more people that has been convened for the purpose of achieving a common goal through verbal interaction. Meetings may occur face-to-face or virtually, as mediated by communications technology. This could be a telephone conference call, a skyped conference call or a videoconference. One Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a meeting as “an act or process of coming together” – for example “as […] an assembly for a common purpose […]”.

Meeting planners and other meeting professionals may use the term “meeting” to denote an event externally booked. This could be at a hotel, convention center or any other venue dedicated to such gatherings. In this sense, the term “meeting” covers a lecture (one presentation) or seminar (typically several presentations. Larger options are  conference (mid-size, one or more days), congress (large, several days). The very large options are exhibition or trade show (with manned stands being visited by passers-by).

One can distinguish a meeting from other gatherings, such as a chance, unplanned encounter, a sports game or a concert (verbal interaction is incidental), a party or the company of friends (no common goal is to be achieved) and a demonstration (whose common goal is achieved mainly through the number of demonstrators present, not through verbal interaction).