- 1 a large official meeting, usually lasting for a few days, at which people with the same work or interests come together to discuss their views The hotel is used for exhibitions, conferences and social events. a conference room/centre/hall She is attending a three-day conference on AIDS education. The conference will be held in Glasgow. delegates to the Labour Party’s annual conference Wordfinderconferenceconference, delegate, exhibition, name tag, plenary, register, speaker, talk, venue, workshop Oxford Collocations Dictionary adjectiveinternational, national, regional, … … of conferencesseries verb + conferenceattend, go to, hold, … conference + verbmeet, take place, begin, … conference + nouncentre/center, facilities, venue, … prepositionat a/the conference, in conference with, conference about, … See full entry
- 2 a meeting at which people have formal discussions Ministers from all four countries involved will meet at the conference table this week. He was in conference with his lawyers all day. see also press conference Oxford Collocations Dictionary adjectiveinternational, national, regional, … … of conferencesseries verb + conferenceattend, go to, hold, … conference + verbmeet, take place, begin, … conference + nouncentre/center, facilities, venue, … prepositionat a/the conference, in conference with, conference about, … See full entry
- 3(especially North American English) a group of sports teams that play against each other in a league Southeast Conference football champions Word Originearly 16th cent. (in the general sense ‘conversation, talk’): from French conférence or medieval Latin conferentia, from Latin conferre ‘bring together’, from con- ‘together’ + ferre ‘bring’.Extra examples Few reporters turned up to his press conference about low pay. He was in conference with= in a meeting with his lawyers all day. Management had a joint conference with the union. The conference adopted a resolution on minority rights. The conference agreed to adopt a set of compromise proposals. The conference brought together historians working in a variety of fields. The conference featured a keynote address by one of our most eminent scientists. The conference heard an appeal from a representative from one of the more deprived areas. The party leader made a morale-boosting speech from the conference platform. We met at an international conference. a conference about Internet piracy a conference between the warring parties a conference devoted to the topic of peace a conference entitled ‘Strategies for Epidemic Control’ a conference examining cross-border cooperation a conference for catering managers a conference on economic aid a conference on economic monetary union an inter-governmental conference examining cross-border cooperation Delegates to the Labour Party’s annual conference will be staying in the Grand Hotel. The AIDS conference will be held in Glasgow. The meeting was held in a conference centre in Birmingham.
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