The concept of colloquium is used in our language with more than one sense.
Dialogue between two or more people
This is the name given to the dialogue or conversation between two or more individuals.
The distinctive proposal of the colloquium is the meeting of several people in a place with the mission of expressing their opinions about a specific topic.
Literary composition with dialogue format
There is also a reference to the term in the literature where it refers to a composition that presents a dialogue format.
Meeting of several people in which current issues are discussed
The colloquium can also be a presentation of one or more people to a jury or to a specific audience. The prevailing idea in both cases is that the people then gathered have a specific topic, time and objective selected to carry out the debate or communicative exchange.
Meanwhile, one of the most popular uses attributed to it is to refer to a more or less formal type of meeting or encounter in which the people who meet do so to speak or debate on a specific topic, probably previously determined, while that group of people is always limited, that is, the call is open and subscribed to a limited and representative group of what will be debated or discussed.Exhibition before a jury
When we speak of colloquium we are designating different communicative situations that are normal or common in academic or professional fields. Although a debate can take place spontaneously between anyone, the use of the term colloquium is mostly linked to those moments in which a specific, selected and delimited topic is discussed or debated. These topics generally have to do with academic, scientific, political, economic, or professional issues.
Characteristics of the colloquia
The colloquia are usually announced formally and in advance to the participants and interested parties, especially those that are held annually, for example.
They almost always revolve around current and controversial issues that precisely require the debate and presentation of the various positions on an issue.
Normally there is a communication professional who will be in charge of organizing and mediating the debate so that the presentation of the participants is orderly and organized and also after the presentation of the ideas he should take care of organizing the participation of the public, which is usually very active through direct questions to the speakers.
It is also common for strong "confrontations" to take place between the various positions, which of course enrich the debate, which must always take place within a framework of absolute respect and tolerance.
In the academic context they are very common since they also stand as ideal learning tools.
Although it is also recurrent that organizations or companies organize them to deal with current political or economic issues.
For example, the Idea Colloquium, held annually in the Argentine Republic, is a faithful expression of the latter given that the most important local and international leaders meet to discuss issues that concern the business community. It has been celebrated for 51 years and it always arouses great journalistic interest due to the definitions that are produced in it.
The colloquium is also a somewhat formal communication space compared to other forms of communication. This is so because its main objective is the exposition or the debate on something particular and, therefore, there is not much room to ramble since the structure of the subject is quite structured.
The colloquia can be spatially set up in different ways: in the form of an exhibition, in which one person faces the public, or in the form of a round table, in which everyone exhibits at the same time and discusses what has been agreed. The colloquia can have different types of durations as well but that is determined by each particular case, as well as the use of materials, the space to be allocated for questions from the public, etc.
