What is the difference between a symposium and a colloquium

Colloquium noun an academic meeting or seminar usually led by a different lecturer and on a different topic at each meeting. Symposium noun a meeting or conference for the public discussion of some topic especially one in which the participants form an audience and make presentations. Colloquium noun an address to an academic meeting or seminar. Symposium Illustrations. Popular Comparisons. Adress vs. Comming vs. Label vs. Genius vs. Speech vs. Chief vs.

Teat vs. Neice vs. Buisness vs. Beeing vs. Amature vs. Lieing vs. Preferred vs. Omage vs. Finally vs. Attendance vs. Latest Comparisons Tubercule vs. Glyptal vs. Faucet vs. If you're working on a concept or an idea for an experiment but you want to hear some feedback on it before you develop it further, offer to present it at a seminar.

This kind of small group is perfect for getting honest feedback and you might even get some suggestions for improvements to your ideas. Check out our insight into tips for a more interesting and memorable conference presentation if you're planning on presenting at any of these types of events this year. The difference between a workshop and a conference is that workshops are generally smaller than conferences, and are usually only a day or two long and are dedicated to discussing a specific topic.

Although these events are held as part of a department, you will often find outside visitors who attend them too. The atmosphere is somewhere between a seminar and a conference, meaning it is less structured than a conference but more formal than a seminar. Workshops are also sometimes more diverse in terms of attendees than other events. You'll find people from different departments and fields attending workshops together, and you may find non-academics such as journalists or people in business will attend too.

The best workshops have a specific, action-oriented purpose, and aim to generate some concrete answers to current problems in the field. Workshops are a good opportunity to learn new skills and to familiarise yourself with a topic you don't know well. If this piece has inspired you to apply to a conference, workshop, symposium or seminar, read our piece on how to get accepted to an academic conference.

The main difference between a symposium and a conference is that a symposium tends to be similar to a conference, but smaller. The definition of a symposium isn't completely clear — the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary describes it simply as 'a small conference'. However, similarly to a workshop, a symposium tends to focus on a particular issue rather than a more general theme. Generally a number of experts will come together in order to present their ideas and papers to one another.

Similar to a conference in that the focus is on presentations and lectures, and less hands-on than a workshop, a symposium is typically completed in a single day. Symposiums may be more prestigious than a conference, with an emphasis on experts presenting their work and occasionally discussing it afterwards though not to the extent of a seminar. Finally, symposiums will generally be smaller than a conference.

Saying all this, it's likely you'll visit a symposium that seems more like conference and a workshop that could easily be called a seminar. The difference isn't always clear, and there's usually some grey area. What's important is that you learn something while you are there, and get to listen to some of the leading experts in their fields discuss their work.

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Colloquia and seminars both happen in an academic setting. At my university we have a weekly physics colloquium that — in general — is geared to a well educated, but not specialized audience.

A seminar on the other hand, in an academic setting, is a much more specialized meeting, also with a formal academic presentation. There is also an invited speaker, but the audience is much more technically versed and the topics tend to be much more technical or specific to the field.

Generally someone from outside the field will have trouble understanding a seminar presentation. In a grand sense the two words are equivalent, but a colloquium, as pointed out, is literally a "conversation" and in general has a connotation of being more broad, more accessible, or on a more popular topic.

I have only heard the word colloquium with respect to universities and the like, in a very academic context. But seminar is used by a broader class of people. You can have seminars for professionals e.

In regular usage I don't think there is much difference. An individual institution may use different terms for different types of talk - but I don't think there is an ISO standard for what each constitutes. If you did want to partition them I suppose Colloquium literally conversation implies a more informal side-meeting while Seminar is a more formal talk to an audience.

They have different historical meanings - but unless you are attending Plato's academy that probably doesn't help you decide which one to got to. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group.