After first stage of signal for attention and invitation to start, it is important to continue building communication with the participants. A good structure for this phase of the opening is:
3. Welcome
4. Introduce
3. Welcome
The welcome will make the formal start to the meeting and helps to cement the shift to business in the first stage.
Sample language:
Good morning, thank you everyone for coming here today.
Hello. Thanks so much for coming here at such short notice.
Good afternoon. It’s great to see you all here even though this is a busy time.
To maximize participation, leave a pause after your greeting so that the participants have a chance to respond to “Hello” or “Good morning”.
4. Introduce
If there are any new members, then now is a great opportunity to make sure that they are properly introduced to the other participants. Of course, this stage can be omitted if everybody already knows each other.
Sample language:
Do you all know each other?
Before we begin, I’d just like to welcome David Simons who is visiting us from our London office.
I’d like to start by going round the table and getting each of you to briefly introduce yourself.
