U.S. President Barack Obama greets participants in a town hall-style meeting with young people at the Museum of Science and Technology in Shanghai November 16, 2009.  [Agencies]

何为town hall-style meeting?

A town hall meeting is an informal public meeting. Everybody in a community is invited to attend, voice their opinions, and hear the responses from public figures and elected officials, although attendees rarely vote on an issue. In today's heterogeneous communities with large populations, more often, town hall meetings are held so that people can influence elected officials in their decision making or to give them a chance to feel that their voices are being heard.

There are no specific rules or guidelines for holding a town hall meeting. If the turnout is large, and the objective is to give as many people as possible an opportunity to speak, the group can be broken down into smaller discussion groups. Participants all hear an opening presentation and then group-up to discuss an aspect of the presentation. Each group appoints someone to summarize their group's discussion.(Source: Wikipedia)

“Town hall meeting” 指一种非正式公开会议、市民会议、座谈会等。一般而言，规模不会太大，话题宽泛自由，气氛也比较轻松，与会成员常以分组的形式讨论议题。

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