College Conference 2009 - IELTS Listening Answers & Explanations

Sam: So ... Mr Peters has finally agreed that we can organise this year's college conference, so we need to really go through all the most important items in order to establish a general schedule for the conference and how we are going to put it all together.

Kate: Yes, I agree. We can't leave things to the last minute and there are quite a lot of good speakers who have offered their services for this conference.

Dave: It's important that things go smoothly. Don't forget that Mr Peters has been against the idea of this conference for the last two years so we need to make it worthwhile and get at least 100 students to attend, so that we can prove this is an event that students can benefit from.

Lucy: The most important thing we need to consider is the range of speakers who we will invite to the conference. If they are well-respected in their different fields then the students will be very keen to come and hear the talks. We don't have a massive budget either, so we have to negotiate on the fees that the speakers will charge.

Kate: Sam, you mentioned before this meeting that you have had some calls from some interesting potential speakers. Can you give us the lowdown on the rough list that you have at the moment?

Sam: Yes, the main person on my list, who is an expert in the field of Business Management, is Professor Harman. He would be good at running workshops where students can discuss how to start a business and he likes to include role-plays, which make the sessions more interesting.

Kate: Yes, I've heard of him and people have told me that he is dynamic and interesting. He doesn't like just giving lectures; he likes to get the students involved more in the discussion. We should definitely send him a formal invitation. What about another area of study such as Maths?

Sam: Well, I have done some research on Mr Steve Bishop, I heard about him because my brother went to see him give a lecture at a University in his area. Apparently, he is well-respected among many Universities in England for his knowledge in the field of Maths. He's even done some research with some famous Mathematicians.

Lucy: My sister studies Maths at University and I think he came to her University, too, to give some extra lectures. He would be a good one to keep on the list. I could send the invitation to him if you want, Sam.

Sam: That would be great, thanks. We have speakers now, to talk about business and mathematics so it would be a good idea to invite someone who is an expert in an Arts subject, like English or Drama. I haven't actually got any ideas for Arts subjects.

Kate: Well, I'm planning to do Drama at University and I know of a lady who is the head of Drama at a well-known University. Her name is Sandra Bolton. She would give some Drama seminars where students can discuss aspects of theatre and production in smaller groups. I also know a professor called Mr Max Wallington. He is a Professor of English Literature and he would come and give a lecture about Shakespeare. I'll send invitations to Ms Bolton and Mr Wallington then.

Sam: Great! That's two Arts subjects covered then. The final main subject area we need to think about is Science. Dave, you want to study Biology at University, don't you? Do you know of any Professors we can contact?

Dave: Well, there's the famous Professor Sean O'Brien. He's done quite a lot of work in the field of genetics. I'm sure all the budding scientists will really want to come and hear him speak. As well as this, there's the 'mad scientist', Geoff O'Hara who is very knowledgeable about Albert Einstein and he can come and talk about his famous theories.

Sam: Perfect. Now that we have some speakers in mind to cover the main areas of study we need to think about the administration and organisation of the conference. To start with, we need to send the invitations out to all the speakers we have agreed on, on school-headed paper. Kate, Lucy and I will take care of that. Dave, would you be able to contact a photographer to come and take pictures for the newsletter that will be printed after the conference?

Dave: Yes, I know a good photographer who has come to the college for some other events. I will contact him as his photos were of really good quality.

Sam: Lucy, would you be able to order the food and drinks? Which caterers do you think we should use? We don't want to spend too much money. We have about £400 to cover food and drink for 100 students. We need a selection of finger food and soft drinks.

Lucy: I will contact Flying Fish. They are quite cheap and they will do some discounts for us as we have used them before at the college. Don't worry Sam, I'll sort all that out.

Sam: Excellent. We have covered a lot for today. I will book the main college hall and rooms 10, 11, 12 and 13 this week. I think we need to have about two more meetings before the conference. The next one we'll schedule for Wednesday 6th June. Can everyone do that or would Thursday 7th June be better?

Kate: The first date you said is fine with me.

Dave: Me too.

Lucy: Yes that's fine with me as well.

Sam: Last thing to mention before we finish up for today is some things that Mr Peters, our lovely headmaster, has said. As we said at the beginning, he hasn't been so enthusiastic about this conference and he has given us some rules we have to stick to during the conference. I've made a photocopy of them for everyone. I think we should just go through them now to get them out of the way.

Lucy: Good idea.

Sam: Well, the first thing Mr Peters said is that we have to make a record of all the students who attend the conference as he wants those figures after the event to check that the money he gave us to organise it was worth it. He also wants to know which subject each of the students who attended is going to study at University to show that we have provided suitable speakers at the conference. He said that he doesn't mind how many speakers we invite as long as the lectures are well-attended. The last requirement was that we help organise the travel arrangements for the speakers. We can discuss the details of this in the next meeting.

Kate: That all sounds fairly easy to manage. Did Mr Peters not say anything about tidying up the hall and the rooms after? I would have thought that he would have said something about that.

Sam: That wasn't something on the list. I could check with him but the cleaners who clean the college on a regular basis might tidy everything up. They would just have to be paid a bit more. I don't think the conference will produce too much mess anyway.

Dave: It would be good to get some help with all that anyway.

Sam: Yes. So, that's everything then. Let's go for lunch now, I'm starving. We can speak about the next lot of things at the next meeting.