Hi,
What’s the difference among ‘symposium’, ‘conference’ and ‘seminar’? And are there any other words with similar meaning?
Thank you very much.
A symposium is sometimes informal and social, whereas a conference is generally formal. “Conference” is broad enough to include both a meeting with people at your job and also a trade convention. A seminar can be a type of class or any formal meeting to discuss some relatively important matter. Obviously, overlap is considerable.
Similar words include “meeting,” “convention,” “workshop,” “panel discussion,” and “session.”
Thank you, Mordant. I’ve got your idea quite OK. However, I’ve just come across this:
A convention is a large meeting of an organization or political group.
Eg.
…the annual convention of the Society of Professional Journalists.
…the Republican convention.
= conference
So, are ‘conference’ and ‘convention’ completely the same?
No, they are not. As I said, we can have a conference at the workplace with just a few bigwigs. That would certainly not be a convention. There is overlap, but they are certainly not completely the same.