Tag: Toastmasters

Impromptu Speeches & Prepared Speeches – 7th June

Post author By London Victorians
Post date June 10, 2016

On Tuesday Eleanor G was Toastmaster, engaging the audience by asking them to solve riddles throughout the meeting. She had a team to assist her; Paul was timekeeper and Terry was Sergeant at Arms. Bruna was Harkmaster and Prateek was Grammarian choosing “Wild” for the word of the day. We had four speakers delivering speeches from the Competent Communication manual.

Eleanor G the Toastmaster of the meeting

First on stage was George delivering speech 2 “Organise your speech”. He had just returned from his farm in Uganda and to coincide, his Ugandan farm was also the subject of his speech. He wore a Ugandan hat during the speech while informing the audience of the hot climate, the traffic, and how he grew pineapples, passion fruit and bananas on his farm.

Second on stage was Hannah delivering her Speech 4, “How to say it”. She tackled the complex subject of the EU referendum. Using clear and concise language she explained to the audience reasons for and against remaining in the EU.

John was next who was also delivering speech 4 from the manual. John spoke about fear, vulnerability and the need for belonging in his speech. He referenced ways we can belong by having courage and acceptance, proposing a new law of the jungle, to keep people connected. He ended the speech in a quote “the strength of the wolf is the pack and the strength of the pack is the wolf”

Finally, Robert delivered his speech 6 “Vocal variety”. His speech was about Bolivia, the best place he’s ever been. He told stories of a friend jumping into water where unknown to his there were crocodiles. He informed us also about the piranhas and also that Bolivia is the only place in the World you can see pink Dolphins!

Eleanor B was table topic master asking volunteers to give an impromptu speech on whether they agree or disagree with her chosen statement. Her statements ranged from the view that computer games encouraged violence, to whether climate change is a load of rubbish. Six volunteers got the opportunity to speak on stage with no prior knowledge of these questions, and then were evaluated by Annabel who provided each speaker with commendations and recommendations for forthcoming impromptu speaking situations.

Join us next week for more speeches, evaluations and impromptu speeches.

Tags evaluation, Past meetings, speaking, speeches, Toastmasters

Past meetings Toastmasters International

Advanced Communication Gold – 24th May

Post author By London Victorians
Post date May 29, 2016

Terry was Toastmaster of the evening choosing the uplifting theme of birthdays for the meeting. Proceedings included birthday poppers, hats and a rendition of happy birthday to amplify the theme.

A team helped assist Terry in the running of the meeting; Joyce was timekeeper, Cleo was Harkmaster, Eleanor G was Sergeant at Arms, and Nuala was Grammarian selecting the word of “Merriment” to coincide with Terry’s theme.

The first speaker to take the stage was Eleanor B. Her speech summarized four art pieces signifying specific movements that she felt contributed to the evolution of Western art, including visual examples from cave men, Degas, Turner, and Da Vinci.

Stephen was the second speaker and his humorous speech describing the struggles he overcame in purchasing a bike and his ambitious plan to cycle from London to Brighton.

Annabel was third, a speech describing her three favourite alcoholic beverages, intertwining both Chinese and Scottish cultures surrounding social drinking, ending her speech with a quote from Churchill “I’ve taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me”.

Founding club President Florian completed his Advanced Communication Gold on Tuesday. His educational speech involved visual aids and background research demonstrating an in-depth knowledge regarding potential reasons why Britain’s economy is weaker than it should be.

Florian's final speech before being awarded Advanced Communication Gold — Florian’s final speech before being awarded Advanced Communication Gold

Join us next week for more speeches and evaluations. We will also be having our Annual General Meeting during the second half where we will be electing our committee, reviewing our successes and planning the future of the club. Everyone welcome!

Tags education, Past meetings, speaking, Toastmasters

Past meetings Toastmasters International Workshop

World Champion of Public Speaking – Tuesday 10th May

Post author By London Victorians
Post date May 15, 2016

On Tuesday we had the pleasure of hosting Mohammed Qahtani the 2015 World champion of public speaking. The workshop was split into two parts, the first part entitled “Conquer adversity and live up to your dreams”, The second section of the workshop was entitled “Inject more humour into your speeches”. Mohammed delivered a very dynamic, humorous and energetic workshop with Q&A sessions after each section.

Mohammed began the first section of the workshop by stating that in order to achieve your dreams the word “impossible” should not exist in your vocabulary. To effectively achieve your dreams successfully, he broke down the challenge of achieving your dream into a number of steps and listed adversities that you may encounter. For each item, he also included a fact or anecdote as an example.

Mohammed explained to the audience the need to have specific goals, and included the advice that goals should not be superficial; ideally they should have a higher or noble cause. Once you have identified your dreams, Mohammed provided advice in facing limiting fears by using facts to dispel worry. He cited that often what we fear is irrational. Using the common fear of snakes as an example, Mohammed stated that “16% of snakes are poisonous, 40% have fangs than can bite, 2% have poison that can kill humans and often snakes only bite when they are being attacked.” Therefore like many fears, the fear of snakes is, in some ways irrational.

Mohammed’s workshop offered practical advice that he finds effective in controlling fear. He demonstrated this in an exercise with the audience, asking participants to breathe deep into the belly to get the benefits inhaling and exhaling slowly, to calm nerves.

Mohammed added a humorous element by demonstrating to the audience how to become more self aware. He did this by utilising Nadia a member of the audience, to throw rolled up paper balls at him if he said anything negative during the proceedings. This added comedy value throughout his workshop and highlighted to the audience that we should have more self awareness and approach life in a more positive manner.

In summary of the workshop in dealing with adversity and living up to your dreams, Mohammed urged the audience not to live an ordinary life. He went on to end the section with the statement “Don’t just exist, live” explaining that he has a bucket list and every year he adds 5 things to this list to complete before he dies. Mohammed told the audience that he reminds himself of this bucket list daily, continually adding and stroking off goals once completed.

The second section of the workshop began with Mohammed explaining the reasons why humour is important in order to catch the audience’s attention, maintain audience engagement, and how humour can often help in delivering an important message. He spoke about his basic rules of comedy, different types of humour, and the benefits and pitfalls of each. He then demonstrated his skills with a very humourous prepared speech in which he recounted an aeroplane journey where he changed his seat multiple times and encountered new issues each time, intertwining a message at the end; that we should take control of our lives and actively change our circumstances if we are unhappy.

Thanking our guest and the audience for an amazing event!

Overall Mohamed’s two workshops were very inspiring and included excellent practical advice on humorous speech making, goal setting, positive thinking and how to lead extraordinary lives.

Refreshments for the break kindly provided by Savse Smoothies. — Amazing refreshments for the break were kindly provided by Savse Smoothies.

We would like to thanks to Savse for the smoothies and Warren Sheng for the photographs!

Tags education, Past meetings, speaking, Toastmasters, workshop

Past meetings Toastmasters International

A Meeting Full of Proverbs – April 19th

Post author By London Victorians
Post date April 24, 2016

Stephen was toastmaster for the evening, with the theme of proverbs for the meeting and he had a team to assist him to ensure the smooth running of the meeting. Terry fulfilled the duty of timekeeper and Sergeant At Arms. Andy was grammarian and Eleanor H was harkmaster imparting the quote to summarise the purpose of her role “if speaking is silver then listening is gold”.

Stephen as Toastmaster, with the theme of proverbs

There were four prepared speeches during the first half and impromtu speaking during the second half of the meeting. Fahad fulfilled the role of Table Topics Master, and keeping with the theme of proverbs he provided each volunteer with a proverb from different parts of the World for each speaker to focus on.

Fahad using the theme of proverbs from around the World as Table Topic subjects

First speaker was Eleanor H delivering her icebreaker. She explained how she has added spontaneity to her life by travelling and setting aside one day a month to do something unplanned. Eleanor H cited the advantages of putting yourself in situations that don’t feel comfortable in order to learn about oneself, resisting our human desire for stability and structure.

Nuala delivered her speech five from the Toastmaster’s competent communicator manual. Speech five focuses on eye contact, posture and body language. During her speech she told the story of the first time she made a poached egg for a family friend when they came to visit.

Eleanor G delivering her speech about tears

Eleanor G delivered a well researched speech on the topic of tears, and crying. She explained how crying is often a reflection of society and one’s environment. The research touched on many aspects of the act of crying; interestingly studies show that people cry more frequently in warmer climates and affluent countries such as America and Australia.

Prateek began his speech lying on the floor describing a time when he felt the fight or flight response. His speech outlined the survival instinct of humans explaining the effects of stress hormones. He made the point that the brain can’t always differentiate from a real threat or a perceived threat. Often the stress hormone in our body reacts similarly to a stressful situation, for example, giving a speech as our body would react to a life threatening event.

Join us on Tuesday 26th of April for our next meeting

Tags education, Past meetings, speaking, Toastmasters

Past meetings Toastmasters International

An Energetic Meeting – 12th April

Post author By London Victorians
Post date April 17, 2016

Toastmaster Prateek hosted an energetic meeting with a team to assist him during the meeting. Eleanor B was timekeeper, Fahad was harkmaster, Kirsten was table topics master and Rob was Sergeant at Arms. Karen took on the role as grammarian, enlisting “Rapturous” as word of the day, which in turn encouraged the audience to give rapturous applauses throughout the meeting.

Florian’s speech was first and taken from the High Performance Leadership Manual. Florian reflected on his three years at Toastmasters; how he has overcome many of his limiting beliefs and fears, learning valuable leadership skills on his journey. Florian described to the audience the lessons he had learnt from setting up London Victorians which as a result has prepared him in the launch of his own business endeavour.

Next was Tattiana who delivered her icebreaker speech ‘Game of Life’. When describing the many vocations she has undertaken throughout her life, Tattiana explained to the audience the importance of a smile. She employed the use of metaphors relating her view of life to some aspects of playing a computer game. This technique helped her describe to the audience how she felt during the different “modes” she has experienced; from modelling, to research engineer.

Annabel’s nostalgic speech described to the audience about her trips home to Scotland, how many of her masterplans are conceived in the solace of her home environment. Annabel employed metaphors such as “like honey and lemon”, trips home are “soothing to the soul” and reciting quotes from Maya Angelou and Charles Dickens to fully describe to the audience her hometown landscape and family life.

At London Victorians we always welcome guests, and it was our pleasure to host Saba who is a member of a Toastmaster club in the Netherlands. Saba delivered an inspirational speech to London Victorians. He imparted three golden rules he lives by; passion over tradition, happiness over norms, and people over prejudice. An energetic and dynamic speech which even featured the Macareena song!

Join us on Tuesday 19th of April for our next meeting

Tags education, Past meetings, speaking, speeches, Toastmasters