symposium -
a meeting or conference for the public discussion of some topic especially one in which the participants form an audience and make presentations
The symposium was a drinking party (from Greek sympotein, "to drink together"). Literary works that describe or take place at a symposium include two Socratic dialogues, Plato's Symposium and Xenophon's Symposium, as well as a number of Greek poems such as the elegies of Theognis of Megara. Symposia are also depicted in Greek art, and Etruscan art shows similar scenes.
