Meeting Report for 11 April 2016

/in /by

wordle11april

Written by Peter R.

Introduction

On Monday 11th April Wedge Issue Pizza played host to the regular meeting of Bloomsbury Speakers. It proved to be a very enjoyable evening with a superb standard of speaking throughout.

Roles

Toastmaster Henry compered the evening, taking the floor with a relaxed and confident style. He introduced us to Peter F, the Timekeeper, who made sure the entire meeting ran smoothly in line with the schedule. Henry also introduced Peter R, the Grammarian, who offered the word ‘illuminating’ as the Word of the Day.

Prepared speeches

After opening remarks, the first speaker was Abraham. Abraham delivered an assured and fluent Icebreaker speech entitled ‘Because decisions do matter!’. Abraham recounted his childhood, his formative experiences and his experience of working as an engineer in China.

11_april_bloomsbury_speakers2

The second speaker of the night was Fabiano, who delivered a No. 2 speech entitled ‘Starting Up? My 3 Tips to Help You Succeed’. Fabiano made effective use of a visual display on his laptop to offer advice on making a career in business.

The third speaker was Margarita, who gave a No. 6 speech with the title ‘The Top of My Not-To-Do List’. Margarita recounted how she had found much more happiness in turning off all forms of technology while on holiday, and advised the audience to do the same.

The final prepared speech was delivered by Helen, who performed an advanced storytelling speech with the title ‘Desdemona’. Helen narrated the real-life tale of one of Shakespeare’s most famous characters in vivid detail. Sadly, the ending to this alternative story was similarly tragic!

After the break, we heard from the four evaluators who had been preparing feedback for the prepared speeches – Clare, Robert, Sheldon and Nathaniel.

The Topics Master for the evening was Egor, who asked participants a range of questions on music and songs.

Topics Evaluator Tracey provided constructive feedback for each of the participants in the table topics, and then Peter R reported back on the use of language throughout the evening.

Finally, Ga Lok Chung, the visiting General Evaluator, summarised the evening’s speaking and offered feedback for those who had not yet been evaluated.

Awards

Best Speaker: Helen

Best Evaluator: Nathaniel

Best Table Topics: Charlotte

11_april_bloomsbury_speakers

Next meeting

Our next meeting will be Monday 25th April at the Clerk and Well (though the venue may be subject to change). Please get in touch at info@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk if you have any questions!

Meeting Report for 14 March

/in /by

14March2016

Written by Margarita

Introduction

What a night! Bloomsbury Speakers held the International Speech and Evaluation Contests on the 14th of March 2016. They took place in a different from the regular meetings venue, on the second floor of The Perseverance in Lamb’s Conduit Street. Each contestant certainly demonstrated perseverance and commitment to winning on the night!

Pub

The evening started with an energetic and positive opening from President Helen, who reminded us that every contestant had made an extra effort and was already a winner. Then, Contest Chair Peter took the floor and eased the atmosphere with his ironic remarks about the lack of light and space in the room. He explained the rules of the contests and introduced the speakers as well as the timekeepers Sebastian and Olga.

International Speech Contest

The first to speak was Janet with her speech entitled “A quest for the perfect song”. She shared with the audience her story of search for acceptance and inspired everyone to embrace the differences. At the end of her powerful speech, Janet made everyone in the room sing!

Swarajit was the second with his “Positive and Uplifting speech”, which was devoted to… death. His brilliant irony and touching personal story left no one in the room unmoved. Swarajit emphasised how important it is to appreciate every single moment of life.

Hari was the third with his speech called “The life changing realisation I learnt in the dark”. He took the audience through his experience of meditation and revealed a secret of dealing with all sorts of issues which people face in life. The secret was to remember the simple but wise truth – “this too shall pass”.

And the final speech, “The Dinner Bill”, was delivered by Helen. In her thought-provoking speech full of great jokes, she raised an issue of gender equality and posed a question: “When two human beings go on a date, who pays the bill?”

After all speeches were delivered, the meeting moved on to guest introductions, which culminated with an emotional announcement of Janet’s engagement!

Evaluation Contest

After the break, the meeting continued with the Evaluation Contest.

While evaluators were receiving instructions from the Chief Judge, Contest Chair Peter entertained the audience with friendly table topics. This night, Ella, Ayla, Carlos, Ivelina, Helen and Charlotte amazed the audience with their hilarious impromptu speeches.

Contest Chair Peter then introduced the Mystery Speaker – Danica of Holborn Speakers. In her highly informative speech “Predicting the future of films”, she shared with the audience her knowledge about modern methods of predicting movies’ success and the possibilities they open to the filmmaking industry.

Her speech was then evaluated by the Evaluation contestants, Margarita, Hari and Swarajit.

While the Committee members were registering votes made by the judges, the Chair introduced the “And then” game. Helen, Sheldon, Ella and Ayla entertained fellow toastmasters and guests with a fascinating impromptu story about a large octopus who enjoyed climbing landmarks.

Awards

After the hilarious “And then” game, Contest Chair Peter announced the winners.

The winner of the International Speech Contest was… Janet.

Janet

Helen came a triumphant second.

Helen

Overall, the contestants showed such a high standard of speaking that no one in the room would have confidently bet on anyone taking the top spot.

On the Evaluations, Hari, who put in a strong performance, came in top.

Hari

Next meeting

The next regular meeting of Bloomsbury Speakers will be on Monday, 11 April 2016, upstairs at The Clerk and Well (156 Clerkenwell Rd, London EC1R 5DU). Doors open at 6.30pm. Everyone is welcome to join.

Bloomsbury Speakers are grateful to all judges who volunteered and contributed to the contest!

Meeting Report for 22 February 2016

/in /by

wordle_20140929

Written by Ash

Here we go
The evening’s meeting was opened by long-serving member Hari, who stepped in as acting president for the evening. Hari, a professional public speaker, knows only too well the value of Toastmasters and reminded us all, members and guests alike, that the Toastmasters tried and tested formula develops not only great speakers but great leaders.

We were then handed over to our Toastmaster for the evening – Henry, who was later described as a ‘natural leader ‘ by our general evaluator for the night.

With inspiration from his youngest daughter, Henry introduced us to his theme for the evening – Toast, and what we most like to eat on it.

 

Roles for the evening

Grammarian: Eloquent and articulate as always, our grammarian Nathaniel introduced us to his insightful word of the day ‘Perspicacious’.

Time Keeper: Sheldon kept us all to time

Sergeant At Arms: Swarajit, our former president, welcomed a high volume of guests. Great to see so many potential members!

 

Prepared Speeches and Evaluations

Revitalised Education Program

Subodh

Our first speech of the evening took a different turn to our usual Monday meeting.  Our general evaluator, Subodh, discussed the ‘Revitalised Education Program’ being rolled out by Toastmasters in this educational slot. We learnt that Toastmasters are combining the current 2 tracks, communications and leadership, to become 1, currently in alpha testing and due for roll out from January 2017. The aim is to engage members further and increase achievement.

 

Speech 2: Organise your speech: If we found alien life near earth, should we be happy or sad?

Heleana

A thought-provoking question raised by Heleana in her number 2 speech. She provided a balanced and well-structured take on the question, offering the pros and cons. Overall she thought that maybe they should be more afraid of us than we should be of them – due to our history of invading other territories and the risk of subjecting them to Justin Bieber’s latest album – clearly Heleana is a non–elieber, sorry Justin!

Evaluation: Robert

Robert evaluated Helena’s second speech and felt she went from strength to strength in her delivery. Careful with the ums and pauses said Robert, and less looking at notes but all in all great energy Robert thought – well done Heleana!

Speech 6: Vocal Variety: Conflict over conflict: have humans always made war?

Sarah

Next up was Sarah, with her informative and educational number 6 speech. We learnt that Hobbes and Russo had differing views on whether humans lead a quiet peaceful hunter-gatherer lifestyle or a life of warfare.  She considered our closest relatives, the chimps, renowned for attacking lone chimps and destroying other colonies. Like the chimps, we also share 98% of our DNA with the Bonobos – who prefer to settle disputes through sex – good news there then, Sarah.

Evaluation: Janet

There was a great deal to see, hear and feel throughout Sarah’s speech according to Janet.  A well thought out speech by an ‘extremely confident woman’, well-educated and with impressive knowledge.  Janet heard the nerves at times throughout Sarah’s delivery and encouraged her to slow down and breathe – a good tip for us all.

Advanced Speech: Regrets… hell yes!

Atul

What’s Atul’s biggest regret? Well, let’s just say that in Atul’s advanced speech we learnt that for him, 3 is not the magic number.  Atul delivered an inspirational speech encouraging us all to take more risks and just say YES. A message we can all relate to. Atul did a great job driving the message home – ‘regret is a disease, don’t let it stop your awesomeness’. You certainly didn’t stop your awesomeness, Atul – well done on a well deserved winning speech of the night.

Evaluation: Egor

In his evaluation, Egor noted that Atul went out on a limb at times with his content and took the risk of alienating some of the audience, but this showcased Atul’s confidence.  Atul factored in great examples we can all relate to in life and ended on a quiet note, which Egor found very effective. Egor rounded his assessment up with the simple close – ‘just great’!

 

Table topics
Our table topics master for the evening was Hari – who posed questions on the evening’s theme of ‘Toast’.

·         Heleana – when asked ‘what would you say to toast a CEO who had just announced redundancies’ concluded she would deliver ‘less of a toast and more of a roast’.

·         Victoria did a sterling job selling the benefits of bread, especially being gluten free herself.

·         Guy considered a new super hero – Toastman and decided he might be square and thin but with the array of possible toppings, he would be one versatile guy.

·         Ash sold the benefits of Toastmaster recounting her chance encounter with Mark Owen from Take That.

·         Ed creatively decided a way to use toast without eating it would be as a canvas for his art or a weapon.

·         Sam sold us sliced bread – informing us that it will fit in our toasters perfectly.

·         Manish convinced us that we could power London by giving up bread.

Evaluation: Peter R.

A fan of the quintessentially British favourite, cheese on toast, Peter R. gave a very British but far from cheesy round up of our impromptu speaking session – toasting all participants on a great job.

Awards

Best speaker: Atul

Best evaluator: Peter

Best table topic: Ash

 

Close

We ended the evening with a round up from our general evaluator, Subodh. He complimented a ‘well managed and excellent club’ that should wave its banner proudly.

See you all at the next meeting, which is on 7 March from 6:30pm-9pm        at our usual venue    The Clerk & Well pub 156 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1R 5DU

Don’t miss Exceptional Evaluations with Freddie Daniells on 29 February 2016 same place same time

Come to the             International Speech & Evaluation Contest on 14 March 2016 from 6:30pm-9pm  at          The Perseverance                 63 Lamb’s Conduit St, London, WC1N 3NB

Meeting Report for 23 November 2015

/in /by

wordle2

Introduction

President Helen opened this regular meeting – back at our regular venue, The Clerk & Well – by extolling the virtues of the Competent Leadership manual, one part of the Toastmasters International educational programme that is often overlooked. Helen then passed proceedings on to Carrie to run the rest of the meeting as Toastmaster.

Carrie’s chosen theme for the evening was parties, and she had prepared her introductions for the meeting by asking each speaker what their ideal form of party would be. Before the prepared speeches began, Julia (who would like to throw a Star Wars themed party) explained her role in keeping the meeting running efficiently as timekeeper.

Prepared Speeches & Table Topics

New member Sebastian got the prepared speeches started off with his Icebreaker speech entitled “One World”. Growing up with parents from Spain and Argentina, Sebastian spent much of his youth between various countries, ending up in Italy by the age of 15. His father had once said to him that ‘the world is getting smaller’ and this had certainly proven to be accurate with experience.

In her No. 2 speech “Running with Purpose”, Margarita told us how she was required to enter a half-marathon after taking a job with a children’s charity. While the race took place in France, Margarita was unable to obtain a visa and so ran an equivalent race in the not-so-glamorous location of Milton Keynes. Regardless, the experience taught her that although she was not a sporty person, she was capable of more than she thought.

Olga‘s No. 7 speech “How to Lose the Tour de France” explained the origins of the Lanterne Rouge, awarded to the race’s last placed competitor and how some of its recipients achieved this dubious honour. Techniques included hiding behind a car and walking across the finish line!

Finally, Helen gave an advanced technical presentation entitled “Responsive Rebuild”, describing why Bloomsbury Speakers’ own website should be brought up-to-date in terms of compatibility with web browsers on modern smart phones and tablet computers. In a very informative and persuasive talk, she explained how search engine rankings for our website are affected by how responsive it is, and even obtained some volunteers from the audience to help take the suggested improvements forward.

After the break, each of the four speeches was given an individual evaluation by Hari, Egor, Peter and Paul.

This evening’s topics master was Ahmed, who began by explaining the benefits of practising impromptu speaking in Toastmasters to gain confidence in speaking elsewhere. Using Carrie’s theme of parties, Ahmed asked participants a range of questions, including how they might persuade people to attend a party at the north pole, what their craziest party experience had been and what the best and worst party-based films they had seen were.

Topics evaluator Jo gave each of the impromptu speakers some constructive feedback on their speeches, before visiting Area 34 director Jay evaluated the meeting as a whole as general evaluator.

Awards

Closing the meeting, president Helen returned to present the awards for the meeting.

  • Sebastian was presented with a commemorative ribbon for his Icebreaker speech;
  • Peter was voted best evaluator;
  • Hari and Paul were jointly awarded the best table topic certificate; and
  • Helen herself was voted best speaker.

Next Meeting

Our next meeting is on Monday, 7th December and our last meeting of the year is on Monday, 14th December at The Clerk & Well (venue subject to change).

We’re having a joint Christmas dinner with our friends from Clerkenwell and Kings Cross Speakers on Tuesday, 15th December at Mem & Laz in Islington. Get in touch via info@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk if you’d like to come along.

Contest Report for 21 September 2015

/in /by

After a last-minute change of venue, Bloomsbury Speakers’ autumn contest night was opened by Helen in the dual role of club president and contest chair for the first of the night’s contests.

IMAG1338_c

Humorous Speech Contest

With the order of speakers determined earlier by a random draw, the Humorous Speech contest was started by Samuel with his speech “Finding the Fire”. Sharing funny anecdotes from two of the worst jobs in his career, Samuel encouraged us to consider what it is we’d do for free in order to find our own ‘fire’ within us.

IMAG1354

In her speech, “Sleep Your Way to Success”, Svetlana used humorous albeit dubious facts about the benefits of sleep to explain how it might help us overcome all our problems.

IMAG1345_c

Paul‘s speech, “Wipe-out”, recounted his surfing trip to Cornwall with work colleagues. Using his storytelling skills entwined with physical comedy, Paul described his hopeless struggle to even get over the very first challenge – putting the wet-suit on!

IMAG1356

In Peter F‘s speech – simply entitled “Public Speaking” – he told us about some of the occasions where addressing an audience proved even more challenging than usual – including being baffled by hecklers at Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park.

IMAG1349_c

Finally, in her speech “Three Essential Skills While Travelling”, Olga shared the tale of a trip to Greece with her family that was memorable for all the wrong reasons!

Table Topics Contest

After a short break, Rufina took to the stage to chair the Table Topics contest. All of the contestants were given the same topic to speak about for 1-2 minutes: “What would you do if you were Mayor of London?”

Svetlana, Peter R, Olga, Matt, Helen and Peter F each addressed the audience with their individual responses to the question. Answers included hiring a DJ to keep morning commuters entertained and making sure all election promises are fulfilled, even if they contradict each other!

IMAG1367_J

Results

After the judges’ votes had been counted and verified, the contest chairs returned to the stage to present the winners with their awards.

In the Table Topics contest, the results were:

  • Third place – Matt
  • Second place – Peter R
  • First place – Helen

IMAG1369

The results of the Humorous Speech contest were:

  • Third place – Svetlana
  • Second place – Samuel
  • First place – Olga

IMAG1358

Next Round

Congratulations to Olga and Helen who will now go on to represent Bloomsbury Speakers at the Area 34 finals on Thursday, 1st October. Please go along and show your support!

Next Meeting

Our next regular meeting is this Monday, 28th September, upstairs at The Clerk & Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DU. Doors open at 6:30pm.