Socializing - BE 3

Socializing

Hi, I am Christ. Nice to meet you.

Please to meet you too. I am Derry.

Where are you from, Derry?

I am from Medan. That is in Indonesia. How about you?

I am from Ottawa in Canada.

You have come a very long way! How was your flying here?

It was fine, but a bit tired. Nine hours is a long time to be in a plane. I managed to get a good rest yesterday, though. By the way, are you staying at the Regency, too ?

No, they booked me into a small hotel called The Winston.

What is it like?

Well, it is all right, I suppose. A bit noisy, but the food and service are good. And it is within walking distance of the conference centre, so I can not complain.

First meet in Conference - Introduction

Hi, I am Anton, nice to meet you

Nice to meet you, too. I am James Witson. Call me James.

Where are you from, James?

I am from Atlanta, Georgia. How about you?

I have come along way.  I am from Belozonte in Brazil. I am a sales manager for an office equipment group, Techno. Maybe you know us?

Yeah, I have certainly heard of your company. I work for New Era, in New York. I am a system analyst.

Right. How is business going for you? Is it a bit tough, like for most people?

No, not so far. Actually, our sales were up last quarter, but it is early days, I suppose. To be honest, we are all worried about the future, no doubt about that. How about your company?

Things are not too good at all. We have had quite a few redundancies lately. All departments have been told to cut costs this year. It is not going to be easy, but we have got to do it.

Mmm, doesn’t sound too good.

No, but there are difficult times for everyone.

Relax …

How was your journey here? I suppose you came by air, did you?

Yeah, it was quite a long flight, a bit turbulent at times, but the food and service were ok, so I am not complaining. How about your journey?

Pretty exhausting. But I stopped over at Los Angeles and did some business there. So I did get a rest before coming here. Are you staying at this hotel?

Actually, I am not. I am lucky, I am staying with my daughter. She lives downtown, not far from here, and she insisted I stayed with her. It is fine by me. She is a fantastic cook!

Wow, you are lucky. I am staying in a pretty cheap hotel a few blocks away to cut costs, an I am not at all happy.

How is that?

Well, the room is very small, and the hotel doesn’t have many facilities. It would be nice if there was a pool or gym, so I could have a workout. I couldn’t use their business centre yesterday. Apparently, there was no one to run it. It was really annoying!

Maybe you should change your hotel.

I don’t think I will bother. The main thing is the conference. If the speakers are good, I can put up with a bit of inconvenience at the hotel.

Yeach, you are right. We all want to enjoy the conference and listen to some good speakers.

Examples 2

Hi, Klaus, please join us, there is plenty of room.

Thanks we would love to. I don’t think we have met.

Let me do the introduction. I am  James, I am from Atlanta, Georgia, and I am a system analyst for New Era. This is Anton from Brazil. He is a sales manager with  an office equipment firm.

How do you do?

So, ,..have any of you had time to visit the city yet? I suppose you want to explore it a bit.

Well, I would live to, I have never been to Seattle, and I have heard a lot of good things about it. But I just don’t have time. I am only here for two days, and I want to go to as many talks as possible.

That is not much time, but you should try to see a few of the sights here, like the famous space needle. It is a real landmark. And if you go to the market area, you can see where the fist starbucks store was located, back in the early 1970s.

Ok, well, I might try to sneak away for a few hours if possible. What about you, Ludwina, are you going to check out the local area?

Actually, I have already done that. I came here early so I could look around a bit. I have seen the space needle and visited the civic centre. I was really impressed with the columbia centre – it is a massive skyscraper, much bigger than the ones I saw in  New York.

What about the conference? Anyone special you want to see, anton?

I will definitely go to Mark’s talk. He is always worth listening to. I don’t know much about the other speakers, though. Can anyone recommend a good speaker?

Well, I have registered to go to David’s presentation. He has written a lot of books on information systems. I think he will be the star of the conference. He is a very stimulating speaker.

Yes, I can confirm that. I went to one of his talks in Munich last year, and the questions afterward went on for over half an hour. He went down really well with the audience because he was obviously so knowledgeable about his topic.

Ye, I want to go to his talk, too, if it is not already booked up. Another good speaker is jerry chin. He is an expert on management software. He is another speaker who shouldn’t be missed.