[shakes Toastmaster’s hand]
Mister/Madam Toastmaster, fellow Toastmasters and most welcome guests.
We’ve seen some fantastic prepared speeches this evening, but in real life you often don’t have the luxury of being able to plan what you’re going to say in advance.
For example, you might be sitting in an important meeting at work and your boss suddenly asks you to give your opinion, or to explain some concept to the other people in the room.
Or you might be asked to say a few words at a family gathering or a leaving do.
How would you feel in that situation?
The ability to speak confidently and clearly with little or no preparation is a very valuable skill, and like many things in life, competence simply comes with practice.
At Toastmasters, the Table Topics session allows us to practice our impromptu speaking in a safe and friendly environment. It also gives members who have not yet spoken during the meeting an opportunity to speak.
This is how it works.
I have a list of people who would like to tackle a Table Topic this evening.
I will invite them up one by one to speak on a topic of my choosing. But they will only get the topic moments before having to speak!
This week’s theme is…
[body of Table Topics session]
That’s all we have time for. Apologies to those who didn’t get an opportunity to speak.
Mister/Madam Toastmaster…
[shakes hands]
