Written by Rufina

Introductions

Our President Swarajit – opened the meeting by quoting from former World Champion of Public Speaking Darren LaCroix who, in the style of Tony Blair, gave the three most important factors in becoming a world class speaker as stage time, stage time and stage time!

Swarajit then introduced Stella, who was the evening’s Toastmaster. Stella, after running through the agenda for the meeting, introduced her theme “Life is a Circus”, asking every participant “If you were asked to join the circus, would you do so, and why”? She then introduced her supporting functionaries, the Timekeeper and Grammarian.

Michelle, the timekeeper, explained the timings for the programme and demonstrated the use of the lights to signal these timings to the speakers.

On to the next functionary, the Grammarian Jo introduced the word of the day, “Innocuous” which means not harmful or offensive.

Prepared Speeches

The first speech “The Ultimate Accessory” was a No. 2 speech by Faith-Rose, in which she shared with us the manufacturing process, the practice of wearing hats and what characteristics they exhibit. Faith-Rose’s hats compromised a vision, the moment where two cultures (Ghanaian and Malawian) are infused and lastly the feeling of nostalgia which symbolises happiness. To give us a clearer picture, Faith-Rose exhibited three different, stunning hats pressing on us to forget the shoes – it’s all about the hats!

On to the second speaker and Rebecca, with a No. 2 speech entitled “Just My Cup of Tea”, took us back to her childhood where she’d earned the right to be the “best tea maker” in the family and neighbourhood.  Rebecca let us into her three-part secret of obtaining the perfect cup of tea: the context, the content and lastly the process of making it. The tea goes in first before the milk and not the other way round.

The third speaker was Ash with a No. 3 speech called “Taking Love Offline”, where she revealed intriguing information about how dating has transformed from traditional meetings to 21^st century online dating. With over half of singletons in London choosing online dating on the 4,100 dating websites in the UK, the deception is endless and everyone is judged by their looks rather than common interests, dislikes and aspirations. The moral is that online dating deprive us of the organic romance with physical people by chasing unrealistic profiles.

Peter, the final speaker with his No. 6 speech entitled “Who is Your Voice?”, reconnected us back to an amazing tool in our body – the voice. Without it we cannot speak nor engage in public speaking. Peter, demonstrating with his own silky tones, informed us that the voice is a machine that needs air, alignment and algorithm of the throat because the wrong posture affects how our voice projects a message. A simple exercise for the voice is to breathe in deeply, slowly release the air and relax.

Evaluations

Ahmed evaluated Faith-Rose’s speech about the “ultimate accessory”. He commended the use of props in a number two speech which added credibility and a sincere touch to it. She was not fazed by the use of props but was confident and the delivery was well executed.  However, Ahmed felt that Faith-Rose could improve on her transitions and use of phrases.

James evaluated Rebecca’s No. 2 speech. He commended her on a very clear and structured speech. It showed her background and the impact it has made on her life while engaging the audience. He recommended combing two stages into one and practice to help with the timing.

Tracey evaluated Ash’s speech on online dating. She commended Ash on a well delivered and confident speech with no signs of nervousness and interjection of humour.  She recommended Ash did not need the notes in her hands and could improve on the speech organisation but, all in all, met her objectives.

Rufina evaluated Peter’s No. 6 speech. She felt he started off with a great opening by using a rhetorical question.  Peter had a well projected voice, relaxed and poised; however some of the action could have been demonstrated to enforce the message. Overall, it was well researched and engaging speech.

Table Topics

Carrie was the topicsmaster with a theme based on the stress of everyday life.

• Emily was asked to describe a healthy work life balance in London – she responded that everyone needs to find what works for them and taking a break from work sometimes.
• Jon was asked if he believes in therapy – he said there is no right or wrong answer, but he likes to work and talk to friends and strangers about his worries.
• Emma was asked, what do you do to combat stress? She testified to being a walking self-help book from trying therapy to acupuncture and yoga, which is the best.
• Ahmed pondered what in life makes one happy? There is no constant happiness, he said, but a mixture of fun times and hardship.
• Robert considered whether we should avoid stressful activities or just accept them. Work hard, he responded – if you go through stress or make mistakes, learn from them. Take a 30-minute break, or a shot of whisky!
• Marcella was asked to discuss the statement, when it comes to the hard times in life all we need is love. She concurred by saying love yourself, work hard, and take a break in the countryside like she does.

Henry, the table topics evaluator, opened by congratulating each topics participant on their well delivered, engaging and sincere speeches from the heart – especially since they were all guests! Henry went on to give each speaker thorough commendations and recommendations for how they could perform even better next time.

Closing and Awards

Our very own Ratan was the General Evaluator tonight and he gave his assessment of all those participants who’d not previously been evaluated and also presented some great feedback for the club as a whole.

The president Swarajit then handed out the awards based on the audience votes:

• Best Table Topic Speaker was awarded to Emma
• Best Evaluator was awarded to Henry
• Best Prepared Speech was awarded to Ash

The President’s discretionary award went to Michelle for her role as timekeeper for the first time.

Next Meeting

Our next regular meeting is Monday, 28^th April in the normal venue: upstairs at The Clerk & Well, 156 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5DU.

Written by Svetlana

Introduction

Our President Swarajit opened the meeting by giving a concise description of what Toastmasters is about and how it can help build confidence in public speaking and leadership skills. He went on to speak about Bloomsbury Speakers itself and its executive committee, which includes, among others, the Vice President Education Jo, Vice President Public Relations Rufina and the club’s Treasurer Ahmed and is now planning for its succession in June.

After that, Swarajit introduced the evening’s Toastmaster Ratan who has been with Bloomsbury Speakers since its creation.

Ratan gave a brief overview of the Toastmasters competent communication programme before running through the agenda for the meeting. His theme of the day was “Why I joined Toastmasters” which he’d put as a question to all the evening’s participants. His own reason for joining Toastmasters was to gain confidence with public speaking, and it had also helped him a lot in his professional and social life.

Ratan then introduced the functionaries of the meeting who would assist him that evening:

• Svetlana, the Timekeeper [she said she was at the start of a new career in London and polishing her public speech skills and her goal is to balance the fear and excitement of her new life.]. She explained the format of the meeting agenda and the use of the “traffic lights” to signal timings to the speakers, and that one of the skills to be practiced in speech training was that of expressing a thought within a specific time.
• Kate, the Harkmaster [her reason for joining Toastmasters was to improve her confidence and speaking in groups]. Kate explained her role and encouraged the audience to listen to the speakers carefully as she would check their attention and memory in a quiz at the end and reward the correct answers with chocolate incentives!

Prepared speeches

With an Icebreaker speech entitled “Chance and Destiny: A Little Case Study” Egor [who wants to become a better all-round communicator and story teller;] introduced himself to the club. We all feel a need to be in control of our lives, but it is mostly chance that changes and shapes the human destiny, Egor explained. Many people born in the former Soviet Union experienced unfathomable changes in their life situations. Others had encounters that affected their private lives in unexpected ways. Egor shared his story of how he ended up in the UK pretty much by accident. “If you want to make God laugh, tell him about you plans” – pretty much sums up his dense and personal speech.

The second speaker, Tracey, used her No. 2 speech “The Introvert Advantage” to share with the audience the main message of the topic: that introversion can be beneficial. She cited some interesting research which showed that introverted people differ from so-called “extraverts” in that they recharge themselves from within, while extraverts do so from the people they communicate with. Introverts spend more time reflecting and are capable of high level of concentration, which enables them to have deeper understanding of things; they prefer one-to-one communication. These were features that underlined the difference between introverts and extraverts.

Our third speaker was Carrie who gave her No. 6 speech “An Alternative Option” and encouraged the audience to become entrepreneurs. After giving a short overview of the tremendous business successes of the McDonald brothers and KFC founder Colonel Sanders who started from scratch or even from initial failures, Carrie shared her 5 points of advice distilled from entrepreneurial experiences: 1. Have an idea; identify a need; find a solution; develop a credible product. 2. Create a product or service which you absolutely love. 3. Network, learn from people, use shortcuts. 4. Learn to love your failures because with each step you get closer to success. 5. Have faith. She concluded by sharing her business idea of creating personal development services similar to Toastmasters.

Our fourth speaker Henry gave his No. 10 speech entitled “Live Ferociously” starting off with a quote from Socrates: “The unexamined life is not worth living”. He shared a very emotional as well as intellectual and concise review of his own life so far, taking us through the milestones and turning points when he made decisions, such as leaving a comfortable and prestigious job at the BBC to become an entrepreneur. And now too, he was at the point where he had to decide which definition of success would be more suitable to his values and would give him a feeling of success and deep inner satisfaction. He shared that his set of attributes would include being incurably curious, interested in the world, courageous, open to new ideas and people, not to conforming to stereotypes, being passionate about what he did and possessing integrity. He demonstrated an exercise with a string, which revealed to everyone that, in fact, even a long life is much shorter than we assume and it is worth living ferociously, living it for real, without wasting a minute.

Evaluations

Bronia evaluated Egor’s Icebreaker speech and commended him for being brave and able to connect with the audience without fear of being vulnerable. Egor had a good balance of humour, eye-contact and movement on the stage. Her recommendation was to train to project his voice. Bronia praised Egor for a level of poetry, which was probably the influence of Russian literature, a skill which should be enhanced.

Damien evaluated Tracey’s No. 2 speech, pointing out that it was convincing, had a good strategy and effective use of questions, which helped her organise her speech. She managed to link the main messages of the speech to herself, which made her speech very clear and relatable to the audience. As a recommendation, Damien advised to use cards instead of notes and to concentrate on deeper breathing to cope with nervousness. Tracey had a clear stable voice, good eye contact and confidence.

Peter evaluated Carrie’s No. 6 speech with a number of commendations, such as her presence, poise and strength of voice. In fact, she made her audience listen to her, which was a great skill in itself. Her speech had structure, the body of the speech contained instructions and reflections on what she wanted to do and her voice changed. The instructional part of her speech was clear with the right pitch and good articulation and, overall, Peter felt the speech was inspiring and he wished her good luck with her aspirations.

Swarajit evaluated Henry’s No. 10 speech, which was a milestone in competent communication programme. Henry exuded confidence from start as he opened his speech with a quote from Socrates and launched into several personal example. The trick with a string was a good use of visual aid in getting his message across. His arm gestures were very effective too. The only recommendation concerned Henry’s stage position as he was too rooted in one place while occasionally shifting his weight between his legs. He could have probably done better if he either had a more solid pose or walked around the stage. The interaction with the audience was very good.

Table Topics

The table topics (impromptu speeches) section was chaired by Ahmed who explained the “rules of the game” as being able to think on your feet and produce a speech with a beginning, middle and end. He asked the table topic speakers various questions, which they never heard before.

The first question went to guest Peter: which role would he choose and why if he were to auditioned for an acting role? Peter said he would choose Superman, because it would hopefully help him acquire some of his skills and make his life more efficient and effective and more super.

David answered the question “what was the single funniest scene in the films you have seen?” Although all comedy films escaped his mind in the beginning, he resorted to the audience for ideas and nonetheless managed to entertain everybody.

James discussed the question, “How would you convince the government to give more money to the film industry?” He said it was difficult to convince governments to give money for anything, although films are worth funding. The example of that is French film industry, which is funded by the government. French films are known everywhere and possess the unique flavour and keep the idea of French-ness while the only English film funded by the government is “Four Weddings and a Funeral”. We need more films, which could deliver the idea of Englishness to the world much better than the image of Hugh Grant drinking tea, James concluded.

Rory had the question, “Why are X Factor and The Voice bad for the music industry?” Rory said that X Factor was a horrendous charade and not much about music anyway. The Voice, in his opinion, was a more interesting concept as contestants are judged by the voice and not appearances.

Nate had to answer the question “Which film villain is the worst ever?” he managed to mention quite a few of them off the cuff. Then, he asked his own question, “Why is being a villain such a bad thing?” He answered that maybe to be a villain is a good thing as the villain is integral to any story – and if the villain is not very good then the film or the plot is not that good either. Thus, the worst villain is not bad at all!

Robert’s topic was “worst film you’ve ever seen”. His answer was it was a film which he had to watch together with his little sister, who loved fairy tales, while he, in contrast, loved horror films. That particular film, although it had a dragon in it, was still the worst film he had watched in a decade.

Tracey’s question was about “music on CDs vs MP3”. She said MP3 music was much handier to deal with, but she was sorry for the authors who were losing money because free or very cheap downloading was available and people were not buying CDs these days as they used to in the past.

Jo evaluated the topics session by commending all who took part for rising to the challenge, being very natural, delivering with good energy and humour with the general recommendations to use more body language and use the stage more.

Awards

After Harkmaster Kate had done a quick quiz with chocolate rewards, Swarajit brought the meeting to a close by handing out the awards:

• The president’s award went to Svetlana as the evening’s Timekeeper and report writer
• Best evaluator went to Jo
• Best table topic went to Nate
• Best speaker went to Henry

Next meeting

Our next regular meeting will be held on Monday, 14^th April upstairs at The Clerk & Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DU. Doors open at 6:30pm.

This Friday, 4^th April (7pm onwards) our member Janet will be competing in the Division L International Speech contest final at the City Temple Conference Centre, Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2DE. Please go along and show your support!