The man’s company is about to open a branch in ______. [originaltext]Fisher: Ah,

Fisher: Ah, good morning, Ms. Ross, do come in.
Ross: Hello, Mr. Fisher. Nice to see you.
Fisher: Face to face instead of on the phone, what? Haha. How are you?
Ross: Fine, thanks, very well.
Fisher: Oh, do sit down. Would you like some coffee?
Ross: Oh, yes please, black.
Fisher: Here you are.
Ross: Thanks. Well, how’s it all going?
Fisher: Oh, not too bad, we’re just about to open a branch in New Zealand.
Fisher: Oh ! ... I’m hoping to--if I can justify it to the marketing director ! How’s your little boy, has he started school yet?
Ross: Oh, yes, he’s in the second year now.
Fisher: What, already? Doesn’t time fly! Is he enjoying it?
Ross: Very much, it’s much more fun than being home !
Fisher: Haha. Well, I suppose we’d better make a start. Shall we get down to business?
Ross: Right. First of all can I confirm the time and date of the presentation? It’s Saturday 24 October in the morning. What time exactly?
Fisher: Well, on the invitations we’ve sent out we’ve said that the presentation itself will start at 11 and go on till 12:30.
Ross: So you’ll need the room from about 10 till 2. Would you like us to serve coffee beforehand?
Fisher: Yes, yes--and drinks and snacks at the end.
Ross: Better to have buffet lunch?
Fisher: No, I... people who are invited won’t be expecting a free lunch. They might think that’s overdoing it. They’ll want to get back to their families, as it’s Saturday.
Ross: All right, the normal pre-lunch snack buffet will be what you need--that’s basically the same as what you had last February.
Fisher: Oh, that’ll be fine.
Ross: OK, well, we’ll charge for the room, coffee and snack buffet at the standard rate less 15% , as we agreed. And we’ll charge for the drinks served on a pro-rata basis.
Fisher: Free, fine, yes.
Ross: What type of... um.. , equipment, furniture would you like?
Fisher: Well, let’s have.. , um... four.. , no, no... five tables for our display. Er... we’ll bring our own stands. Now, there’s an overhead projector and sound system already in the room, I believe? Can you get someone to check that before we come, you know, to see that it’s working?
Ross: Oh, of course, the technician will be with you when you’re setting everything up. Oh, the seats in that room have flap-over desk tops, will that be all right?
Fisher: Yes, yes, that’s fine, sure.
Ross: You say you’ve sent out the invitations, any idea how many people there’ll be? Urn... I think you know there’s... the capacity for the room is about 50, but 40 is ideal.
Fisher: Yes, ah... the problem is that we won’t know exactly how many there’ll be until shortly before.
Ross: Can you let me know definitely by Thursday?
Fisher: Mm... no. But I’ll have a rough idea and we’ll budget for the number I give you then. We’ve sent out 100 invitations...
Ross: 100?!
Fisher: Yes, well, in theory that meant that there could be 200 people.
Ross: Yes, but the room won’t...
Fisher: But of course, haha... I don’t expect more than about 30 to come.
Ross: But what if they do? This room is the only one we have that day--there’s a wedding reception in the banqueting rooms, so we...
Fisher: Well, in that case, I suppose...