Symposium / Seminar / Conference / Workshop ?

Q: I have attended several scientific meetings that were labeled in a different way (congress, conference, forum, workshop, etc.), but I really didn't see any difference in the way they were held.What are the differences between these types of meetings?

A: The answer is in your own experience, I think. People can label their activity as suits them. My take on these is: A workshop would usually be a relatively small / intimate event with some sense of involvement by all in creating something particular such as a new policy or a solution to an issue; A forum suggests some sort of discussion / talking point / learning from other people in the same field; A seminar is often one person giving perhaps an hour-long lecture, although there could be more than one speaker as well. A congress is usually pretty large. A conference is pretty general and in fact could mean something with thousands of participants or something with just a few participants. It basically means a group of people who discuss different things.None of these are hard and fast rules though.

From my recollection, a symposium and a seminar are different in that a symposium is like a public seminar.