Meeting Report: 23 January 2017

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Written by Julian

The second meeting of the year was held at Wedge Issue. Thirty people braved the cold night and showed up to practice their public speaking skills. Overall, 20 people went on stage to speak.

The evening kicked off with our President, Sheldon. Then the stage was handed over to the Toastmaster of the evening, Clare. The meeting was supported by Yamina as Timekeeper and Julian as Grammarian.

Our first prepared speech was given by Chantal who told is about a book that changed her way of looking at the streets of London and inspired us to read it.

This was followed by Sheldon‘s Speech #8 “Generally Speaking” who nearly convinced us that younger siblings were less intelligent than first childs before totally debunking the idea.

Our third prepared speech and number 10 for Margarita was about how she transformed her mindset and got rid of her fear of dogs. A powerful speech.

Lastly, Helen gave an inspirational speech on setting SMART goals to achieve new years resolutions.

Just before the break Peter welcomed our wonderful guests and gave each of them an opportunity to introduced themselves and make a short 30 second speech.

After the break, we heard from the evaluators who had delivered their feedback on the prepared speeches – Tracey Alexander, Stella, Peter R. and Swarajit.

After the break, we had a fun series of Table Topics around the concept of post-truth. We had four guests come on stage and do an impromptu speech for the first time and were evaluated by Helen.

Finally, our visiting General Evaluator, Tim Shaw from London Victorians, evaluated our club and the meeting, including participants who had not received feedback. Sheldon, the President of Bloomsbury Speakers, wrapped up the evening by announcing the awards.

Afterwards, we switched gears into networking. Several pizzas were ordered, beers were drank and new friendships were made! Come and visit us at our next meeting!

Awards

Best Speaker: Sheldon

Best Evaluator: Helen

Best Table Topic: Peter

Next meeting

Our next regular meeting will be on Monday, 13 of February, at The Clerk and Well (though the venue may be subject to change). Looking forward to seeing you all there! Please get in touch at info@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk if you have any questions.

Meeting Report: 9 January 2017

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Written by Margarita

Introduction

On Monday, 9 January, Bloomsbury Speakers held their first club meeting in 2017. Despite the Tube strike and a heavy rain, many club members, as well as a number of guests, made it to The Clerk and Well pub to practice their public speaking skills.

Roles

President Sheldon welcomed guests and club members with a passionate opening speech and passed the floor to Toastmaster Margarita who set the theme of the evening – gastronomic regrets and highlights of the recent festive season! She introduced Julian, the Timekeeper, to the audience and his job was to make sure the entire meeting ran smoothly and banged on time. Then Margarita introduced the word of the day – ‘ebullient’ – and invited the first speaker.

Prepared speeches

Rupert impressed the audience with his outstanding Icebreaker speech entitled “Growing up slow”. Rupert shared with us some stories from his childhood and adolescence that involved setting up his back garden on fire and getting in a car crash and that taught him important life lessons.

The second speaker was Heleana, who gave an inspiring No. 9 speech entitled “All my muses were men”. She told us about extraordinary people who played a great role in shaping her personality and persuaded us that inspiration can come from unexpected places in unexpected times from unexpected people.

Just before the break Yemina welcomed our wonderful guests and gave each of them an opportunity to introduced themselves and make a short speech.

After the break, we heard from the evaluators who had delivered their feedback on the prepared speeches – Chantal and Matthew.

We were then introduced to our Table Topic Master, Peter R., who structured his questions around the theme of strike. Many club members, as well as some very brave guests, volunteered to take part in this session and all gave impromptu speeches for up to two minutes. Julian, the Timekeeper, then outlined the timings of each impromptu speech.

Swarajit stepped in last minute to give an evaluation of all the impromptu topics speakers, followed once more by Julian, who updated us on the timings for each evaluator’s speech.

Finally, our visiting General Evaluator, Sergey Zabelin from London Victorians, evaluated our club and the meeting, including participants who had not received feedback. Sheldon, the President of Bloomsbury Speakers, wrapped up the evening by announcing the awards:

Awards

Best Speaker: Rupert

Best Evaluator: Matthew

Best Table Topic: Matthew

Next meeting

Our next regular meeting will be on Monday, 23 January, at The Clerk and Well (though the venue may be subject to change). Looking forward to seeing you all there! Please get in touch at info@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk if you have any questions.