1.   Although camouflaged marksmen and commandos have been deployed around the airport, the emphasis remains on maintaining calm and keeping the conversation going.

2.   He gave him a job in his accounting business, confided his shortcomings to Sands and kept the conversation going when Sands brought up the fires.

3.   He gets the conversation going, then speaks up only to describe the food as it arrives, or to drop in a recommendation or a bit of gossip.

4.   Locals might respond to your Spanish with English at first, but keep plugging and before long you might have a semblance of a conversation going.

5.   She could always keep a conversation going.

6.   The bottom line is to ask open-ended questions to keep the conversation going, Dugan says.