Written by Elena.
Introduction
With a brand new member giving her Ice Breaker speech, the visiting General Evaluator taking the Best Table Topic award and everyone benefiting from insightful speech evaluations, it was another great meeting.
The Toastmaster was Kaveh (from our sister club Holborn Speakers) who hosted the meeting under the theme: “What would you do if money was not an object” He was supported by Grammarian Henry and Timekeeper Saija who gave short introductions to their roles.
Prepared speeches
The first speaker of the evening, Bronia, gave her Ice Breaker speech entitled “Human Rights Campaigning”. Born in France, she told us about her childhood memories relating to her grandmother, who told great stories about the Second World War. Bronia shared that she had joined Toastmasters to practise public speaking for a human rights campaign project.
Next speaker Steven presented No. 2 speech entitled “The Joker in the Pack” in which he discussed the role of jokers throughout history and what we can learn from them. From one point of view a Joker is a man who is a famous comic. Shakespeare’s “King Lear” describes a fool boy who advised powerful people but whose death was consequently very probable. At the conclusion of the speech Steven encouraged the audience to be a bit of Joker themselves and to give honest recommendations with humour or love.
In No. 3 speech entitled “The Bliss of Ignorance” Christopher told the audience about his journey from ignorance (when he was a lot happier) to enlightenment – from arrogance to gaining more social responsibility. Christopher confessed he did not have a master plan to change Britain’s current poverty statistics, but he was very passionate about being part of the change, realising how fortunate he was compared to others.
The last speaker, who stepped in last minute, was Janet with her speech No. 5 entitled “The Future of Work”. While others seemed to think that the future of work being more creative, she felt that work needed to be more human. Every company should have: a pair of eyes to see and encourage talents, ears which would be able to hear good ideas and valuable feedback, and a mouth which would speak wisely. Janet concluded the speech with the phrase: “The future of work does not exist, the future of work is now!”.
Speech evaluations
Evaluating the Ice Breaker speech Michael commended Bronia’s good presentation and great storytelling skills, her good opening and conclusion. He recommended that she concentrate more on the main details and to avoid distracting descriptions.
Jason evaluated Steven’s Jokers speech. He reminded us of the main objective of the No. 2 speech – to organise your speech. Jason liked the beginning when Steven had discussed duality of the Joker, his great use of free-flowing humour and his very engaging smile. Jason would have liked to have seen more clear points in the speech.
Joe evaluated Christopher’s No. 3 speech. He praised Christopher’s enthusiasm and jokes at the beginning of the speech which were very captivated, very good structure of the speech,visual metaphor descriptions and a call to action. However, he noticed that the lectern had created a barrier which prevented full engagement.
Glen gave a thorough evaluation of Janet’s very creative speech. He complimented her on very natural body language which helped emphasise the points and reinforce the speech. He also liked the brilliant metaphor of making a company more human by giving it human attributes like a pair of eyes, a mouth, etc. In Glen’s opinion the speech could have benefited from a clearer transition from introduction to main body.
Table Topics
Topics Master of the evening was Swarajit who took on the role of potential employer and interviewed topics participants by asking them the following questions:
- You are being interviewed for the job of your dreams – why should we hire you?
- What is more important: status or salary?
- What is the worst job you ever had?
- Are women or men better bosses?
- What is your biggest weakness?
Awards
Closing the meeting the club President Femi gave out the awards based on the votes cast during the evening and one special President’s award.
The Best Table Topics Speaker award went to General Evaluator David (like Kaveh, also a member of Holborn Speakers).
The Best Evaluator award was given to Joe for his evaluation of Christopher’s Enlightenment speech.
The Best Speaker award went to Janet for her brilliant “Future of Work” speech.
The President’s discretional award went to Swarajit for his job on filling in the evening’s agenda and last minute stepping in as Topics Master.
Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contest
Bloomsbury Speakers is hosting the Area 34 final of these contests on Monday, 15th October, 2012. Please come along to support Glen and David who are representing Bloomsbury against other local clubs. Venue and start time are the same as our regular meetings below.
Next meeting
Our next regular meeting is on Monday, 22nd October 2012, upstairs at The Clerk and Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5BX. Arrive from 6.30pm for a 6.45pm start.
Extra meeting
We’ve had a lot of new members since we re-opened our membership and to help people get going on their speeches and other roles we’ve added a new meeting – Monday, 5th November, 2012, in the normal place at the normal time.
Book your roles in ClubPlan now!
