How to Start a Business Meeting in English

Learn how to start a business meeting in English.

One of the most common requirements of business English is holding meetings in English. 

We will go through the following sections of a business meeting:

  • introductions
  • reviewing past business
  • stating the principal objectives
  • introducing the agenda
  • introducing the items on the agenda

Table of Contents

How to Start a Business Meeting in English

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How to Start a Business Meeting in English

Introduction

1. Formal introductions

Let me introduce myself … (your name)

Please join me in welcoming …. (name of participant)

It’s a pleasure to welcome … (name of participant)

I’d like to introduce … (name of participant)

I’d like to introduce myself

Have you already met … (name of participant)

2. Replying to a formal introduction

Nice to meet you

Pleased to meet you

I’m delighted to meet you

3. Informal introductions

Hi, my name is Peter

I’m Peter

Peter

4. Replying to an informal introduction

Lovely to meet you

How are you?

Good to meet you too

Intermediate to Advanced English Marathon

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

INSANITY: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Reviewing past business

To begin with I’d like to quickly go through the minutes of our last meeting

First, let’s go over the report from the last meeting, which was held on (date)

Here are the minutes from our last meeting, which was on (date)

Stating the objectives

We’re here today to …

I’d like to make sure that we …

Our main aim today is to …

I’ve called this meeting in order to …

Introducing the agenda

Have you all received a copy of the agenda?

There are X items on the agenda. First … second … third … lastly …

Shall we take the points in this order?

If you don’t mind, I’d like to go in order today

Let’s skip item 1 and move on to item 2

I suggest we take item 3 last

Introducing the first item on the agenda

So, let’s start with …

I’d suggest we start with…

Why don’t we start with…

So, the first item on the agenda is …

Peter, would you like to kick off?

Shall we start with … (name of participant)

Would you like to introduce this item?

Let’s start by beginning with …

The opening issue today is …

Item number one is …

Point A is …

Let’s kick off with …

How to Start a Business Meeting in English

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Help other students to improve English skills

Introducing the next item

Let’s move onto the next item

We can now move on to

We need to go on 

The next item on our list is

Shall we continue?

Now that we’ve discussed X, let’s now …

The next item on today’s agenda is…

Now we come to the question of …

Presenting data in order

Firstly, secondly and to end

To start with, then and to conclude

Initially, next and finally.

In first place, following on from and to finish

Let us begin by, afterwards and last but not least

More Information

For more information on English idiomatic expressions, English vocabulary words and English phrasal verbs, check out the following links:

Food Phrases and Idioms

How to Give Your Opinion in English

16 Phrasal Verbs with Push

Free resources are always available at BBC Learning English.

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