Introductions
Brand new President Swarajit opened his very first meeting by telling the story of how he came to join Toastmasters three years ago before handing the meeting over to his immediate predecessor Femi who was the evening’s Toastmaster.
Femi explained the three-part programme – prepared speeches, evaluations and impromptu speaking – and introduced his theme for the evening: favourite smartphone apps. He then introduced two of the ‘functionaries’ who would be helping him run the meeting:
- Rufina – the Timekeeper – explained the three colour codes for speech timing and cautioned speakers to be mindful of the gavel. She also shared the story of a colleague who was supposed to give a 15-minute speech but ran on for 45 minutes, delaying everyone’s lunch.
- Alex – the Grammarian – introduced herself alliteratively as the “Grumpily Grateful Grammarian” (grumpy because of a missed morning coffee, grateful because of the weather) and introduced the word of the day – “malleable”.
Prepared Speeches
The first prepared speech was an Ice Breaker speech from Liz entitled “My Life”. She told the story of her eventful early life, which included being born in central London, growing up with a foster mother and attending the Judi Dench acting school. She told us that having her own daughter gave her a “steely determination” to succeed while a period of overwork gave her a different perspective on life.
The second speech was a No. 4 speech from Samuel who told us about his experiences of boarding schools when he was growing up in Africa. In the first school he was forced to stand with his face to the wall for 2 hours and “think about why he was there” and on another occasion to roll a pencil across a field with his nose! His second school was even worse – pupils were forced to exercise from 3am-5am in the mornings and bad behaviour was punished by beatings.
Henry gave his No.8 speech entitled “Digital Disruption”. Despite challenges with his visual aids (computer and external screen refusing to play together) he calmly presented his speech while balancing his laptop in one hand! Henry told us of the highly disruptive nature of digital technology and its ability to fundamentally change whole industries in a very short space of time. We learned that while it took radio 38 years to reach 50 million ‘users’, it took Facebook less than 4 years.
Glen gave his first advanced speech from the Storytelling manual entitled “Folk Tale: Death’s Messengers”. By way of introduction he told us about his search for a lesser-known tale to tell, which he picked from more than 200 fairy tales published by The Brothers Grimm. His final choice was a story about a boy’s chance encounter with Death which led to a rather unusual promise being made.
Evaluations
Mike, evaluating Liz’s Ice Breaker speech, commended her on the level of detail in her speech which demonstrated lots of preparation, but cautioned against trying to fit too much content into one speech.
Peter commended Samuel’s great voice projection and said that he connected strongly with Samuel’s choice of topic. He thought the speech was particularly impressive given that Samuel had stepped in at the last minute.
Jo said that she felt Henry’s technical issues had been due to him tempting fate by giving a technical presentation about “digital disruption”! She said he had good body language despite holding the laptop throughout and also liked his use of repetition and the variety of his language.
Renars was impressed by Glen’s storytelling and said that it took him back to a time as a child when he would listen to fairy tales on an old Russian radio. His only recommendation was to watch the time because he felt the speech had ended a little abruptly.
Table Topics
Topicsmaster Ahmed introduced his theme – Work – and challenged members and guests alike to answer a number of work-related questions, including:
- You are Boris Johnson’s PR manager – how do you persuade people he’s a serious person?
- What’s the most embarrassing situation you’ve ever encountered at work?
- If you lived 100 years ago what would your job be?
- Why do some companies prefer graduates to have a 2:2 degree instead of a 2:1 or 1st?
- You are a “parking enforcement officer” – tell us why you are good for the economy
Reports
Bronia was the Table Topics Evaluator and took on the tricky task of almost immediately providing feedback to each topic speaker.
Alex presented her Grammarian’s report, highlighting her favourite uses of both language generally and of the word of the day “malleable”.
Immediate District Governor for UK and Ireland Freddie Daniells was our General Evaluator and gave expert feedback for all those not evaluated elsewhere and for the club as a whole.
Awards
Swarajit gave out the awards for the evening. His president’s award went to Samuel for giving a speech at short notice after another speaker dropped out. The remaining awards (voted for by the audience) were as follows:
- Best Table Topic went to Ben for his persuasive defence of traffic wardens
- Best Evaluator was shared by Jo and Bronia for their evaluations of Henry and the table topics respectively
- Best Speaker went to Glen for his folk tale “Death’s Messengers”
Closing the meeting Swarajit reminded members that Bloomsbury would be hosting a free Humorous Speech and Table Topics workshop on 29th July (get tickets here), run by past UK & Ireland champions Ola Aralepo and David Jones.
Next Meeting
Our next meeting is a special “Speakathon” and will be held on Monday 15th July 2013 upstairs at The Clerk & Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DU.
Doors open at 6.30pm for a prompt 6.45pm start.
