Contest Report for 12 March 2012

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This meeting we saw club members competing against each other in two very special events – the International Speech Contest and the Evaluation Contest.

Club president Glen Long opened the meeting by welcoming new guests and members, and likened the contests to the joining of two great traditions from Ancient Rome – oratory and gladiatorial combat – and reassured the audience that contestants would be battling with only “words” and not “swords”.

After wishing all the contestants good luck, Glen handed over proceedings to the first contest chair – Aaron Wood from Covent Garden Speakers and Early Bird Speakers.

International Speech Contest

Aaron gave an overview of the format for the International Speech contest and invited audience members to do their own judging (just for fun!) using the criteria printed on the evening’s agenda.

The first speaker was Kate with a speech entitled “Bicycle For Life”. As a keen cyclist Kate told us in a very pragmatic and often amusing speech about her various attempts to thwart London’s bike thieves and included three tips for maintaining a bike that no-one wants to steal!

The second speaker was Neil with his speech “Riches, Rags and Waking Up”. In an inspiring speech Neil told the story of a man focussed on material goals who was given a wake-up call by a visit to Cambodia where he saw children lacking even basic essentials like clean drinking water.

The third speaker was Joyanta with a speech entitled “The Perfect Product”. He asked the audience to suggest their own perfect products and the iPhone and iPod were inevitably among the responses. But Joyanta suggested the perfect product was not something that needed to be changed and improved every year, but instead something that stayed exactly the same – something with timeless appeal. His perfect product was Coca Cola!

The fourth speaker was Swarajit with “Falling Differently”, a speech about some of history’s greatest thinkers. Over the course of a very interesting and educational speech Swarajit covered figures such as Aristotle, Galileo and Einstein. Using clever props and a passionate style Swarajit was able to explain quite complex concepts in a very engaging way.

The fifth speaker Ratan then gave his speech “Beyond The Call Of Duty”. He started by telling us he was an accountant and asked us not to hold it against him! Then he told us the story of how a holiday in South Africa and a visit to a budget B&B whose owners went “beyond the call of duty” inspired him to give a “Rolls Royce” service to his own budget clients – with great results.

The final speaker was Hari with a speech entitled “Two Wheels, a Map and a Goal”. In an interesting and often humorous speech, Hari told us about his adventure of cycling from London to Paris and how he found himself leading a group of mixed-ability strangers from England to France with the “help” of some wholly inadequate maps. By the end he felt he’d experienced first-hand the old maxim about life being about the journey not the destination.

After the final speaker had stepped down, Aaron thanked all the contestants and gave the judges a couple of minutes to determine their personal ranking for the six speakers.

Evaluation Contest

After the break it was Nazia Soon’s turn as contest chair and she introduced the format of the evaluation contest, where five contestants would have just five minutes to prepare a spoken evaluation of one speech – from a mystery guest speaker.

The guest speaker was soon revealed to be Saj from Holborn Speakers who delivered a rich and nuanced speech entitled “Regret” which told the epic tale of Hannibal’s lifelong battle against the Romans. Saj used this demonstration of the power of story as a launching pad to invite all Toastmasters present to use their skills as a force for good.

Having scribbled furiously during Saj’s speech the five contestants were led away by Henry the contest’s Sergeant at Arms and given just five minutes to write up their notes. While they did this Nazia ran a short impromptu speech session for those remaining in the room.

When the time was up, the evaluators then appeared one after the other to deliver their reports about Saj’s speech. In order they were: Elena, Neil, Glen, Ratan and Hari.

The Results

After another round of table topics to allow the judges time to complete their final deliberations, the Chief Judge Alan Mountain from Holborn Speakers took the stage to announce the results.

In the International Speech Contest, first place went to Ratan, second to Kate and third to Swarajit.

In the Evaluation Contest, first place went to Glen, second to Hari and third to Neil.

Wrapping up the meeting as president, Glen thanked everyone who had helped make the contest a success including all those members of other clubs who’d agreed to be judges and counters and particularly Femi Asaolu the VP of Education for pulling it all together.

Area 34 Final – 29th March 2012

The winners of the two contests will compete against the winners from other clubs in the Area 34 final hosted by TubeTalk on Thursday 29th March 2012 at:

TubeTalk
10th floor meeting room
London Underground
55 Broadway
London SW1H 0BD

Note: The venue is above St James’ Park underground station – use the Broadway exit.

Please arrive at 6.30pm for 7pm start. Finish around 9pm.

IMPORTANT: Please email TubeTalk President John Nyaruwa at John.Nyaruwa@tube.tfl.gov.uk by 27th March if you want to attend as security passes need to be prepared in advance.

Next Meeting – 26th March 2012

Our next meeting is on Monday 26th March at The Real Man Pizza Company, 91-95 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5BX.

See you there!

Meeting Report for 27 February 2012

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Written by Jo

Introduction

The meeting was opened by Club President Glen who welcomed new and returning guests as well as regular and new members. He described a typical Toastmasters meeting and assured the audience of a safe and friendly environment in the club for practising public speaking.

The Toastmaster of the meeting was our Membership and Mentoring VP, Hari. His theme for the evening was Lent and, as he introduced members up to the stage, he informed us what each member had decided to give up for Lent – although some members were not denying themselves anything! Hari was assisted by the Timekeeper, Ahmed, who was performing the role for the first time and Harkmaster, Kate, who gave us an enlightening summary of the different types of listening and encouraged us to participate in active listening for the duration of the meeting.

Prepared speeches

This evening we were fortunate enough to have two Ice Breakers.  The first was from Janet whose speech was entitled “525,600” Janet explained that this was the number of minutes in a year and told us about her experiences in 2004 which was the year her life took an unexpected turn with the arrival of her daughter.

The second Ice Breaker was from Eleanor, who presented her speech entitled “Life, Love and Freedom – My Family and Other Pets”. She very humorously talked about the pets she and her family had owned and related several anecdotes about the various animals.

The third speaker this evening was Joyanta with his No. 5 speech (which focuses on body language) entitled “In Start Up and Life You Need A Plan A, B and Z“. He told us about a recent book he had read which discussed the idea that everyone should have a Plan A – your current course of action – Plan B – a future planned course of action – and a Plan Z which can be implemented when all else fails.

The last speaker this evening was Joe, who presented his No. 7 speech (which focuses on researching a topic) entitled “Warming Up”. He informed and educated us about climate change including the main causes of global warming and what we, as responsible citizens, can do to help protect the Earth.

Speech evaluations

After the break we had the evaluations part of the meeting in which the speeches from the first half are critiqued by other members of the club for the benefit of both the speakers and the rest of the audience.

Adam gave an evaluation of Janet’s Ice Breaker speech in which he commended her use of the titular number and chronological structure to capture and hold the audience’s interest throughout. The main recommendation for Janet’s future speeches was to be conscious of her body language and avoid hand clasping.

Neil’s evaluation of Eleanor’s Ice Breaker commended Eleanor’s humorous language, speech structure and use of vocal variety, eye contact and body language.  He recommended that Eleanor could have had a louder and stronger opening line but was very appreciative of the advanced elements she’d used in her speech.

Elena evaluated Joyanta’s No. 5 speech and noted his relaxed posture and style. She praised Joyanta’s structure and clear conclusion and his variation of pace. Her recommendation was to have a stronger opening and to vary his gestures more.

Paula gave a very descriptive and comprehensive evaluation of Joe’s No. 7 speech. She commended Joe for leading us in without immediately revealing the topic and using multiple sources and facts but recommended that he try to reduce the number of filler words such as ‘uhm’ and work on the timing as there was so much information included that Joe had given the evening’s longest speech.

Table Topics

Table Topics enable members and guests to practice their impromptu speaking skills.

Henry performed as the Topics Master this evening; after explaining why the ability to speak for one or two minutes on an off the cuff subject could be a useful skill, he asked six participants to persuade the audience that what mattered most in life was one of: money, health, love, family, friends or passion.

Both members and guests took part and were evaluated by the Table Topics evaluator this evening, Swarajit. He commended participants for using their time to recap on the question and talk around the topic while waiting for inspiration, using anecdotes and finishing with strong conclusions.  His recommendations were to avoid filler words, be conscious about how you are using the stage and avoid hand clasping and excessive gesticulation.

Rounding off the meeting, Kate returned to test how well we had been listening and to reward those who correctly answered her questions with chocolate.  Jennifer, the General Evaluator for this evening and a frequent guest of the club evaluated all the meeting participants who were yet to be evaluated and highlighted how much she had enjoyed the meeting.

Awards

Closing proceedings, Glen gave out the awards based on the votes cast during the evening and one President’s discretional award.

Both Janet and Eleanor received certificates for successfully completing their Ice Breaker speeches and taking their first steps in their respective Toastmasters careers.  The Best Evaluator award went to Adam for his evaluation of Janet’s Icebreaker, the Best Table Topics speaker award went to Jo for her explanation of why it is passion that matters in life. The highly coveted Best Speaker award went to Janet for her very heartfelt speech and, finally, the President’s discretional award went to Ahmed for the confident delivery of his timekeeping duties despite being a very new member.

Next meeting

Our next meeting is on Monday 12th March at The Real Man Pizza Company, 91-95 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5BX.  This is our International Speech and Evaluation Contest meeting which promises to be an action packed evening!

Meeting Report for 13 February 2012

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Written by Elena (edited by Swarajit)

Introduction

This meeting was just a day before St. Valentine’s Day and the speeches were full of love too: a birthplace (India); children and a blonde-haired lady.

The meeting was opened by Club President Glen who welcomed new and returning guests as well as regular and new members. He described a typical Toastmasters meeting and assured the audience of a safe and friendly environment in the club for practising public speaking.

The Toastmaster of the meeting was one of our most experienced members and also the Club VP of Education Femi. As he introduced members up to the stage, he reminded the audience how many speeches have been given by each speaker and which roles in the club they performed. Femi was assisted by the Timekeeper, Paula, and Grammarian, Hari, who were performing their roles for the first time.

Prepared speeches

Since the beginning of this year six new members have joined our club, which is great news. This evening we had an Ice Breaker speech entitled “I Miss Those Days” from our new member Nimit. He told us about his hometown Kolkata (East India) and his warm childhood memories: about his house; climbing a tree, his neighbours and friends and his school days.

The second speaker was Elena, who presented her No. 3 speech (the main purpose of which is to get to the point) entitled “How to Get On with Children”. She described how to get on with children by emphasising three main points: kids have huge energy, a natural curiosity and the need for a feeling of safety.

The third speaker this evening was Neil with his No. 5 speech (which focuses on body language) entitled “$12,000 Gamble“. He told us how attending a business seminar allowed him to meet an amazing woman and take a risk of attending an expensive master class business programme that helped him improve his business.

The last speaker this evening was Swarajit, who presented his No. 6 speech (which focuses on vocal variety) entitled “If Newspapers Could Speak”. He imagined and demonstrated the sound of the voice of different newspapers: for instance broadsheet newspapers would have a highly educated and almost patronising voice, while tabloid red-top newspapers would have a drunken town crier’s voice. Swarajit also tried to interpret for us some newspapers’ headlines such as “Toy Boys Sex My Hubby and Me”, which often have their own rules for punctuation, grammar and style.

Speech evaluations

After the break we had the evaluations part of the meeting which is related to the Toastmaster’s Competent Leadership Programme where, through different roles, a speaker can develop their leadership skills.

Femi gave an evaluation of Nimit’s very informative Ice Breaker speech in his familiar, confident and encouraging style. He commended Nimit’s engagement with the audience through asking questions, as well as the chronological structure of his speech. The main recommendation for Nimit’s future speeches was to keep to no more than five points which can help the audience to follow a speech more easily.

Jo was performing the evaluator role for the first time and gave a studied and well-considered evaluation of Elena’s No. 3 speech. She commended Elena’s good three-point structuring of the speech and use of similes such as the comparison of children with a “nuclear power station”. Jo recommended that Elena use more body language in the future.

Joyanta evaluated Neil’s No. 5 speech and commended his very natural delivery style and vivid gestures and movements when Neil spoke about different characters. In Joyanta’s opinion, Neil could have improved the speech by making it more structured.

Kate gave a very descriptive and comprehensive evaluation of Swarajit’s No. 6 speech. She commended Swarajit’s use of humour and vocal variety when reading out sensationalist newspaper headlines, but recommended that he concentrate on holding eye contact with the audience.

Table Topics

The Table Topics part of the meeting is where members and guests are invited to think on their feet and speak for a minute or so on a topic they’ve only just been given.

Joe performed as the Topics Master this evening and chose quite challenging questions for the theme “On an interview”, such as: If you are an animal what would you be and why?; What super power would you have and how would you use it?; Is a Jaffa Cake a biscuit or cake?; What are the three things you would like to take to a desert island?; When you were young what did you want to be?; Which two people who would you invite to a dinner party?

Six members and one new guest took part and were evaluated by the Table Topics evaluator this evening, Nazia. She commended people using the technique of repeating the question as well as the “rule of three” to structure their impromptu speeches.

Finally, Hari presented a comprehensive Grammarian report and Connell, the General Evaluator for this evening and a guest from Northern Lights Speakers in Camden evaluated all the meeting participants who were yet to be evaluated and characterised our club as being very warm and welcoming. Connell’s recommendations useful for all speakers were: do not speak too fast and use more pauses; centre yourself on the stage.

Awards

Closing the meeting, Glen gave out the awards based on the votes cast during the evening and one President’s discretional award.

The Best Evaluator award went to Kate for her evaluation of Swarajit’s speech, the Best Table Topics speaker award went to Hari for his fantastic “Three Animals” topic, and the highly coveted Best Speaker award went to Neil for his excellent speech. The President’s discretional award went to Richard for his humorous table topic on exploiting the power of time travel.

The certificate for successfully completing Icebreaker speech – an important landmark for any Toastmaster – went to Nimit.

Next meeting

Our next meeting is on Monday 27th February at The Real Man Pizza Company, 91-95 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5BX.

February Newsletter – fame, glory and the power of ordinary

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Hello and welcome to the February newsletter for members and friends of Bloomsbury Speakers!

Quick warning: it’s quite a long newsletter this month – but that’s because there’s lot to say! (Anyway, January’s was short and sweet so you could argue I’m just trying to maintain the average…)

This month we’ve got the normal round up of recent news, together with information on the forthcoming contest season and a preview of a new initiative to get to know our members better.

Okay, here we go. See you on the other side…

What happened last month?

We had a great start to the year with two busy meetings in our brand new venue and lots of new guests eager to find out more about the club.

We’ve also had lots of new members so I’d like to wish a very warm Bloomsbury welcome to Sye Yuet, Nimit, Wayne, Janet, Eleanor and Carrie who’ve all joined since the start of the year.

I’m really looking forward to watching everyone take their first steps in Toastmasters and improve their speaking skills and confidence over the coming weeks and months.

Here’s a summary of the highlights from January:

  • New venue – for the first meeting in January we moved to our new venue – The Real Man Pizza Company on Clerkenwell Road. As with any new home, we’re still working out a few things (e.g. room layout and how to minimize any noise from upstairs) but it seems to be working pretty well and the half-time pizza has been going down (figuratively and literally speaking) very well!
  • Bloomsbury in Print – our VP Membership and Mentoring Hari Kalymnios had an article published in the January edition of Toastmaster magazine (page 5) – which goes out to over a quarter of a million people worldwide – thus cementing his worldwide fame! It’s a great article about The Three Peaks Challenge and is fantastic publicity for the club. You can read it online here: http://magazines.toastmasters.org/publication/?i=92560
  • Evaluation Workshop – Chris Boden (current UK & Ireland evaluation champion) ran a great workshop at our sister club Holborn Speakers and a number of Bloomsbury members attended. There was some really great advice for even quite seasoned evaluators and I’m going to talk to Chris about getting some of the main points out to members who weren’t able to attend.

What’s happening this month?

We have our regular meetings as usual this month, with the usual potent mix of prepared speeches, evaluations and table topics:

  • Monday 13th February – this is this coming Monday and we have a packed speaking schedule but still a few slots for evaluators – speech evaluators and topics evaluator
  • Monday 27th February – fully booked again for speakers but we still need evaluators and a topics master.

Don’t be shy – book yourself in for one of the spare roles. Remember – all meeting roles provide an opportunity to speak in front of an audience.

What’s on the horizon?

The big event on the horizon is our contest evening where we’ll be hosting the club round of the International Speech and Evaluation contests (more on these below).

The winners will compete against the winners from City of London Toastmasters, Holborn Speakers, London Business School Speakers and Tube Talk in the area contest.

  • Monday 12th March – Bloomsbury Speakers International Speech and Evaluation Contest – The Real Man Pizza Company
  • Thursday 29th March – Area 34 International Speech and Evaluation Contest – hosted by Tube Talk, Templar House, 81 – 87 High Holborn

International Speech and Evaluation Contests

For those who are new to Toastmasters, twice a year every club holds two contests. In the Spring it’s the International Speech and Evaluation contests. In the Autumn it’s the Humorous Speech and Table Topics contests.

Contests are really good fun, a great way to get experience of speaking in a (slightly) more formal environment and also an opportunity showcase and celebrate the various skills learned in Toastmasters during the rest of the year.

As it says above, our contests are being held on Monday 12th March at the same venue as the regular meetings. We’d love as many members as possible to enter these contests. However, there are some restrictions.

Contestants in the International Speech Contest deliver a prepared speech of 5 – 7 minutes:

  • You must have completed 6 speeches from the Competent Communicator manual by the date of the contest to participate
  • You may use a speech you’ve delivered before – as long as it is original and your own work
  • The speech can be on any topic of your choosing (within normal Toastmasters limits – i.e. nothing that would make your Nan blush).

(BTW The reason it’s called the International Speech contest is that it’s a global competition with the winner of UK & Ireland going to the US to compete for the glory of the “world title”. So there’s everything to play for!)

Contestants in the Evaluation Contest all evaluate the same (mystery) speaker. Everyone gets the same amount of time to write up their notes – these are then taken away until it is your turn to evaluate.

Why You Should Take Part

If you are even slightly inclined to participate (and you meet the requirements) then I strongly recommend it. It’s a great experience and although their is an extra layer of formality to make sure everything is fair, it’s still a very supportive environment and conducted with a sense of fun.

And you’ve still got a month to write a speech (or polish your evaluation skills).

(Note: you can book yourself in as a contest speaker or contest evaluator on ClubPlan, but due to a limitation of the software you can’t book yourself in both contests – just book one slot and email Femi at education@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk to say you’d also like to participate in the other contest too).

If you can’t (or don’t want to) compete this time round then why not take on an official role, such as one of the timekeepers or a vote counter? Email Femi if you’re interested.

Meet The Members!

Hari and I have been talking about how to make sure with a growing membership that we maintain a sense of community and give members a sense of who else is in the club with them.

During every meeting we ask guests to briefly introduce themselves but we never do the same things for members. There wouldn’t actually be time, but it would be nice for everyone to get to know each other a little better.

This month we’d like to find out a bit more about all of our members – the new ones and the not so new ones.

So next week we’ll be emailing all of our members to tell us more about themselves by giving us a sentence or two about themselves answering the following questions:

  • What you currently do for a living? (and perhaps what you’d rather be doing!)
  • Which part of London (or elsewhere) you live in?
  • What do you like to do outside of work? (other than Toastmasters!)

We’ll collate all your answers and send out an email to all our current members so that you have a much better idea who else is in the club with you.

Tip of the Month – Don’t Be Afraid To Be Ordinary!

When selecting a topic for your next speech it’s only natural to seek out a subject you think other people will find interesting, even fascinating.

One approach is to think back to the last time you discovered something really interesting. Maybe you were bowled over by the ideas in the latest bestselling business or personal development book. It blew your mind, so it should blow other people’s minds, right?

Well, maybe it will, but a potential pitfall is that you might end up delivering speech that anyone who’d read the same book could deliver. In fact, if the book’s a bestseller, you’ll probably find that people in Toastmasters clubs all over the country are delivering very similar speeches.

Not to say this is a bad thing, but it’s all too easy to overlook the ordinary in pursuit of the apparently extraordinary. Don’t forget that what’s ordinary for you can often be fascinating for other people. (Just look at the phenomenon of reality TV!)

Your job, your family, your friendships, your everyday experiences – they may seem dull and ordinary to you but they are also unique and might just be a rare treat for other people.

For example, let’s say you’re a G.P. and you’ve just returned from an exotic holiday in Peru where you visited the ruins at Machu Picchu. There’s a pretty good chance your next speech will be be about your visit to Machu Picchu.

Now I’m not saying it wouldn’t make a fine speech, but to be honest I’ve heard people talk about visits to exotic places before. Whereas I’ve never heard anyone talk about what it’s actually like to be a G.P. Now that would be really interesting.

So… Don’t be afraid to be ordinary!

Phew, okay that’s it for another month. I look forward to seeing many of you at a meeting soon.

And if you’re not a member, perhaps February is the month to join. Think of it like this – the sooner you get involved, the sooner you’ll be a skilled and confident speaker!

https://www.bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk/join/form/

Best wishes,

Glen Long
President
Bloomsbury Speakers

Meeting Report for 23 January 2012

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Written by Jo and Elena (edited by Swarajit)

Introduction

The meeting was opened by Club President Glen who welcomed new and returning guests as well as regular members. He invited the audience to use the Toastmasters educational programme as a guide to better public speaking and leadership.

The Toastmaster of the meeting was Mike–a guest from west London club London Athenians– who was making his debut in the role of Toastmaster. His theme for the evening was days of the week which participants liked or disliked and why, with each speaker limited to two words. Mike was assisted by the Timekeeper Jo, who was performing the role for the second time, and Harkmaster Adam.

Prepared speeches

This evening we were fortunate enough to have an Ice Breaker speech from our new member Ahmed, who made his first step into his Toastmasters career through the Competent Communication programme.  Ahmed’s speech was entitled “Growing up in the Docklands East End” and he gave us a very descriptive overview of his life and how London’s Docklands have changed over the years including the impact these changes have had on his community.

The second speaker was Joe, who presented a No. 6 speech (which focuses on vocal variety) entitled “Ice Cream Sandwich”. Joe explained his trials in getting through to his mobile phone company to upgrade his phone and learn about his upgrade options.  (The title of his speech referred to the latest Android operating system and is, apparently, an upgrade to Gingerbread!)

The third speaker was Femi with his advanced speech from the ‘Speaking to Inform’ manual entitled “The Game of Unspeakable Fun“. The main aim of this speech project is to explain and demonstrate a process. Femi presented a very entertaining speech in which he shared his enthusiasm for the game Taboo and, after he explained the rules,volunteer Neil from the audience took a part in an impromptu game.

The last speaker this evening was Glen with his seven-minute impromptu speech on a topic chosen by the audience– recent cinema release, The Iron Lady. He told us how the film (which Glen himself had not yet seen) presented the Hollywood version of Margaret Thatcher’s life:  she was born to be a superhero, went through difficult times when she was Prime Minister and the biggest challenge she faced – the public vote.

Speech evaluations

After the break we had the evaluations part of the meeting, where speakers,  evaluators and the rest of the audience gain some useful tips and experience of public speaking.

The first evaluator Nazia evaluated Ahmed’s Ice Breaker speech. She commented that Ahmed had used anecdotes, dates and very descriptive language for drawing his personal story and we really got to know him. Only one recommendation for further improvement was a bit more eye contact with the whole audience.

The second evaluator was Neil, who evaluated Glen’s impromptu speech. He commented Glen’s very solid posture and body language, openness and power. He liked Glen’s use of humour and his smiling through out the speech. The main recommendation for Glen was to vary the tone of his voice more.

The third evaluator, Swarajit, evaluated Joe’s No. 7 speech. He commented on Joe’s excellent use of emphasis on certain words, and pauses to express emotions as well as humour. The main recommendation from Swarajit was regarding the structure – to make smooth transitions from the body of the speech to its conclusion.

The fourth evaluator this evening was Hari, who evaluated Femi’s advanced speech. He commented that Femi had definitely met the speech objective – he was very warm, smiled, used props to explain the rules and found a volunteer for the demonstration of the game. This all was very engaging for the audience, though Hari would like to have heard a final recap in the conclusion of the speech.

Table Topics

The Table Topics part of the meeting is not only a great practice for both new and experienced members but also a great fun.

The Topics Master of the evening was Joyanta. He introduced the theme – “Where I would like to live”. Members and guests were invited to explain over 2-3 minutes why they would want to live in Joyanta’s rather unconventional suggestions of places to dwell, including a cave, a rainforest and North Korea!

The Table Topics evaluator this evening was Kate, who evaluated all six participants. She encouraged the participants to use more eye contact around the room and hand gestures.

After Adam’s Harkmaster report, in which he rewarded the most alert listeners with Olympic-themed chocolates, General Evaluator Jane evaluated all the meeting participants who were yet to be evaluated and gave useful recommendations for all.

Awards

Closing the meeting, Glen gave out the awards based on the votes cast during the evening and one President’s discretional award.

The Best Evaluator award went to Hari for his evaluation of Femi’s speech, the Best Table Topics speaker award went to Terry for his fantastic topic, and the highly coveted Best Speaker award went to Femi for his excellent speech. The President’s discretional award went to David for a brilliantly tackled table topic.

The certificate for successfully completing Icebreaker speech – an important landmark for any Toastmaster– went to Ahmed.

Next meeting

Our next meeting is on Monday 13th February.  Also on Monday 12th March we will be holding our speech and evaluation contests.

Please note we have a new venue.

The new venue will be: Real Man Pizza Company, 157-163 Gray’s Inn Road, London, WC1X 8UE.