This meeting we saw club members competing against each other in two very special events – the International Speech Contest and the Evaluation Contest.
Club president Glen Long opened the meeting by welcoming new guests and members, and likened the contests to the joining of two great traditions from Ancient Rome – oratory and gladiatorial combat – and reassured the audience that contestants would be battling with only “words” and not “swords”.
After wishing all the contestants good luck, Glen handed over proceedings to the first contest chair – Aaron Wood from Covent Garden Speakers and Early Bird Speakers.
International Speech Contest
Aaron gave an overview of the format for the International Speech contest and invited audience members to do their own judging (just for fun!) using the criteria printed on the evening’s agenda.
The first speaker was Kate with a speech entitled “Bicycle For Life”. As a keen cyclist Kate told us in a very pragmatic and often amusing speech about her various attempts to thwart London’s bike thieves and included three tips for maintaining a bike that no-one wants to steal!
The second speaker was Neil with his speech “Riches, Rags and Waking Up”. In an inspiring speech Neil told the story of a man focussed on material goals who was given a wake-up call by a visit to Cambodia where he saw children lacking even basic essentials like clean drinking water.
The third speaker was Joyanta with a speech entitled “The Perfect Product”. He asked the audience to suggest their own perfect products and the iPhone and iPod were inevitably among the responses. But Joyanta suggested the perfect product was not something that needed to be changed and improved every year, but instead something that stayed exactly the same – something with timeless appeal. His perfect product was Coca Cola!
The fourth speaker was Swarajit with “Falling Differently”, a speech about some of history’s greatest thinkers. Over the course of a very interesting and educational speech Swarajit covered figures such as Aristotle, Galileo and Einstein. Using clever props and a passionate style Swarajit was able to explain quite complex concepts in a very engaging way.
The fifth speaker Ratan then gave his speech “Beyond The Call Of Duty”. He started by telling us he was an accountant and asked us not to hold it against him! Then he told us the story of how a holiday in South Africa and a visit to a budget B&B whose owners went “beyond the call of duty” inspired him to give a “Rolls Royce” service to his own budget clients – with great results.
The final speaker was Hari with a speech entitled “Two Wheels, a Map and a Goal”. In an interesting and often humorous speech, Hari told us about his adventure of cycling from London to Paris and how he found himself leading a group of mixed-ability strangers from England to France with the “help” of some wholly inadequate maps. By the end he felt he’d experienced first-hand the old maxim about life being about the journey not the destination.
After the final speaker had stepped down, Aaron thanked all the contestants and gave the judges a couple of minutes to determine their personal ranking for the six speakers.
Evaluation Contest
After the break it was Nazia Soon’s turn as contest chair and she introduced the format of the evaluation contest, where five contestants would have just five minutes to prepare a spoken evaluation of one speech – from a mystery guest speaker.
The guest speaker was soon revealed to be Saj from Holborn Speakers who delivered a rich and nuanced speech entitled “Regret” which told the epic tale of Hannibal’s lifelong battle against the Romans. Saj used this demonstration of the power of story as a launching pad to invite all Toastmasters present to use their skills as a force for good.
Having scribbled furiously during Saj’s speech the five contestants were led away by Henry the contest’s Sergeant at Arms and given just five minutes to write up their notes. While they did this Nazia ran a short impromptu speech session for those remaining in the room.
When the time was up, the evaluators then appeared one after the other to deliver their reports about Saj’s speech. In order they were: Elena, Neil, Glen, Ratan and Hari.
The Results
After another round of table topics to allow the judges time to complete their final deliberations, the Chief Judge Alan Mountain from Holborn Speakers took the stage to announce the results.
In the International Speech Contest, first place went to Ratan, second to Kate and third to Swarajit.
In the Evaluation Contest, first place went to Glen, second to Hari and third to Neil.
Wrapping up the meeting as president, Glen thanked everyone who had helped make the contest a success including all those members of other clubs who’d agreed to be judges and counters and particularly Femi Asaolu the VP of Education for pulling it all together.
Area 34 Final – 29th March 2012
The winners of the two contests will compete against the winners from other clubs in the Area 34 final hosted by TubeTalk on Thursday 29th March 2012 at:
TubeTalk
10th floor meeting room
London Underground
55 Broadway
London SW1H 0BD
Note: The venue is above St James’ Park underground station – use the Broadway exit.
Please arrive at 6.30pm for 7pm start. Finish around 9pm.
IMPORTANT: Please email TubeTalk President John Nyaruwa at John.Nyaruwa@tube.tfl.gov.uk by 27th March if you want to attend as security passes need to be prepared in advance.
Next Meeting – 26th March 2012
Our next meeting is on Monday 26th March at The Real Man Pizza Company, 91-95 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5BX.
See you there!
