PROFESSOR (British): All right… We are only three days away from the conference. How are you both feeling?
STUDENT 1 (British): Um, well, nervous, to be honest.
STUDENT 2 (Australian): The same goes for me.
PROFESSOR: No reason to be. You’ve done a great job of organizing this sociology conference and I’m quite positive it will be a fantastic success. Now, I just want to go over a few things while we are all here together. Um, let’s start with the speakers. Has everyone confirmed?
STUDENT 2: We have 9 of the 11 speakers confirmed as of this morning. I tried calling and emailing the other 2, but didn’t receive a response.
STUDENT 1: However, we did chat with them last week and they were getting their presentations ready. So I think they are probably just too busy to get back to us.
PROFESSOR: All right. That’s not a big problem. How much time will each presenter have?
STUDENT 1: 25 minutes.
PROFESSOR: Including questions and answers?
STUDENT 1: No. We leave 5 additional minutes for questions at the end of each talk.
PROFESSOR: OK.
STUDENT 2: And there are 10-minute breaks between presenters.
PROFESSOR: Good, good. Now, I’m assuming you have the schedule all typed up.
STUDENT 1: Yes, but we did want you to look over it before we send it to print.
PROFESSOR: Of course. Let’s see… What about refreshments and snacks?
STUDENT 2: We have set aside some of the budget for catering from the student cafeteria. They are going to provide water, coffee, juices, and some small snacks.
STUDENT 1: I actually spoke with them yesterday, and they are providing vegetables, dips, crackers and some cheese for snacks. If we want pastries, we have to pay extra.
STUDENT 2: But people will leave for the lunch break, so the snacks are just to get them through the morning and afternoon. I don’t think we need to buy anything additional.
PROFESSOR: Well, sounds like you have the logistics under control. 

PROFESSOR: There is one more item we need to discuss, though, and that’s the arrangement of the conference room.
STUDENT 1: We’ve been thinking about this, and have some ideas.
PROFESSOR: Brilliant. Let’s hear them.
STUDENT 2: Well, for starters, we’ll obviously be putting both the registration desk and the beverage table in the entrance area.
PROFESSOR: You mean by the main door?
STUDENT 2: Right. We thought to put the beverage table on the right as you walk in. I know people will be hungry.
PROFESSOR: Actually, I think it’d be better to put the registration table there, and to have the beverage table off to the left. 
STUDENT 2: OK, sure.
PROFESSOR: Um, so, what about the division of the rooms for the speakers?
STUDENT 1: Well, since we have both graduate students and professors presenting, we thought it would be a good idea to divide them up.
PROFESSOR: I agree. But which rooms were you going to assign them to?
STUDENT 2: There are three rooms, so we could put the graduate students in the room on the far left and the professors in the other two rooms.
PROFESSOR: Do you think we’ll need all three spaces? There are only 11 speakers, and about half of them are grad students. I think we could use two of the rooms and leave one open as a break or informal discussion area.
STUDENT 1: That’s a great idea. But the professors should present in the third room, the one on the far right. That space has more seating and a more advanced projection system.
PROFESSOR: OK. And let’s leave the middle room as the break area, and the first room…um, the one on the far left…for graduate presenters.
STUDENT 1: I’ll make sure everything is set up appropriately. We have to meet with the technical support persons tomorrow, so I’ll give them instructions.
STUDENT 2: What about arranging the seating? Who takes care of that?
PROFESSOR: Usually the maintenance department handles that. Why don’t you give them a call today?
STUDENT 2: All right. Then I’ll send you an email with the finalized schedule and a summary of our meeting.
PROFESSOR: Wonderful. And don’t hesitate to call me if you run into any problems.

Answers:

1. 3

2. Sociology

3. 9

4. 10 minutes

5. the student cafeteria

6. pastries

7. Beverage table

8. Registration table

9. graduate presenters

10. professors