Speaker Invitation Letter

Question

Hello. I work for a Korean company which specializes in planning large scale conventions. For one of our projects, we are currently in the process of sending out invitations for speakers. Unfortunately many of our employees do not have a very solid grasp of written English. At times I am charged with proofreading some of their work, but one problem is that some of them do not trust my English ability.

Here is one of the letters in question:

Dear Sir/Madam,

It is great pleasure for us to inform you that the [convention name] will be held in [city, country] from June 15 - 18, 2010.

The program committee of [medical society] recommended you as one of the top-class experts who can give an insight into the most recent knowledge in your field.

So, we would like to invite you to our congress as the chairs/co-chairs/guest speakers in each session and kindly request your acceptance.

Please find the attached invitation letter and let us know your response in writing until [date].

Here is my revision:

Dear Sir/Madam,

It gives us great pleasure to inform you that we have been chosen to organise the [convention name] which will be held in [city, country] from June 15th to 18th, 2010.

The program committe of [medical society] has acknowledged you as a world class expert capable of providing deep insight into the latest developments in your field.

Thus we would like to cordially invite you to serve as a [chair/co-chair/guest speaker] during one of the sessions of our conference.

We have attached a formal invitation letter to this email. Please notify us of your response in writing by [date]. We would be deeply honored to have you.

Thank you in advance for any comments, ideas or suggestions you can offer for either the original letter, my revisions or both.

RayH · Accepted Answer

I assume from the introduction to your post that you are not a native speaker but, as far as I can tell, your revision could have been written by a native speaker of English.

Wetmartini · Answer

Thank you for your kind compliment. I have studied English intensively for many years, several of which were spent abroad. Still, I acknowledge that my English is not perfect and I do make the occasional silly mistake.

I am still interested in any insights readers may be able to provide concerning problems with the original letter or my revision.

Anonymous · Answer

Wetmartini,

I don't know if you received any further comments on your letter. I agree your draft of the letter was much improved over the original. I don't know who your audience of selected experts would be, however. Is English their native language? If they are all native speakers of another language (and English is just a convenient common language), maybe the additional nuance I have included would not be all that helpful.

Bearing in mind the above question on the "audience" for your letter, if it were me, I would probably not start with "It gives us great pleasure to inform you that" as that sounds a little foreign (to me) or we might say "stiff" or "old school" (old fashioned). I left that in, however, because that may well be closer to the way you (and your company) would say it and start a letter. And it is your letter.

In USA, we spell organise as "organize," but I think "committee" would be the correct spelling in the US or Great Britain/ Commonwealth countries.

Here is my thought on the draft. I've put some options in for different ways to say some things (direct and more passive), but I would not use "serve" with "speaker," just invite them "to speak" or to come to the convention as a guest speaker (the word "come" would be understood, and need not be stated if "invite" is used):

StartFragment>
Dear Sir/Madam:

It gives us great pleasure to inform you that we have been chosen to organise the [convention name], which will be held in [city, country], from June 15- 18, 2010.

The program committee of [medical society] has recognized you as a leading world expert in the field of _____].

Thus, we [cordially to invite you] [cordially extend an invitation to you] [to serve as a chair/co-chair of] [as a special guest speaker at] one of the sessions of our conference to share your insights into the latest developments in your field.

We have attached a formal invitation from [the medical society or name of the sponsoring organization] to this email. We would be deeply honored to have you participate in [convention name]. Please notify us of your response [let us know if you are able to attend/serve as _______] in writing by [date].

EndFragment>
Your command of English is very impressive and your colleagues should give you more credit for that (even if they are your "seniors" there). There are grammatical errors in the original draft, but I'm not sure I'm the best person to explain them technically.

I came across your draft letter and question on this site while in search of guidance on typing hangul into my mac word processing application (iWork) to make flashcards for my beginner study of Korean. As I am only at the point of being able to ask where the bathroom is, but not yet really being able to understand any directions back to me to get there, I would be so happy to only make an occasional "silly mistake" in Korean.

Hope this helps. Best of luck in your job.

Anonymous · Answer

IN YOUR CLOSING...
TAKE NOTE: DO NOT SAY THANK YOU IN ADVANCE , WHEN YOU WRITE A FORMAL LETTER. THAT IS HACKNEYED!

Anonymous · Answer

hi.. thanks alot of the invitation letter you have made... its really useful to me...

Chrystabowld · Answer

Thanks for your valuable post. I am very weak in english. I am sure this forum will realy help me.

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you so much for your guidlines in making an invitation letter.. ^_^

Anonymous · Answer

thank you very much for the sample...
it helped me a lot

Anonymous · Answer

thanks for the letter. it help me a lot..

Anonymous · Answer

thaks a lot for letters.it help me a lot

Speaker Invitation Letter

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