"began conversations" is correct and usable in written English.
You might use it to describe the start of a discussion, for example, "The meeting began with several conversations about potential solutions to the problem."
"Subsequently, we began conversations again" about the site, he said.
The Guardian, with whom he now began conversations, seemed on the face of it a less than likely destination.
As the fighting began, conversations with friends confirmed that we shared the same baleful feeling of the country dashing headlong into a useless, bloody quagmire.
During that time, Intiman's trustees, working with an arts consultant, undertook a far-reaching analysis of the theater's finances, identifying problems over many years, and then began conversations with artists like Mr. Russell about Intiman's future.
On Wednesday, November 1st, the Shah, apparently convinced that Sharif-Emami could not continue, received Ali Amini for the first time in years and began conversations concerning the formation of a coalition regime.
And then when the final report came forward then we sat down and said, 'Alright, where do we go from here,' and I began conversations with the executive committee.
By bringing them together, you begin conversations with both of them.
Already, he said, the Episcopal Church had begun conversations with the Moravian Church in America, a Protestant denomination, and the Presbyterian Church.
People here often begin conversations with a phrase that is still not uncommon in today's China: "We are poor".
Gottesman agrees, and has begun conversations with graduate students and NIH researchers to identify concrete ways to implement these goals.
It's a place to BEGIN conversations.
