The London Speaker

Welcome to The London Speaker!

Hi! If you are new to Toastmasters please take a look around. Toastmasters International is the world’s largest educational organisation devoted to public speaking, communication and leadership skills development.

This site is dedicated to members of Toastmasters based in and around London and those people interested in learning more about what we do. Details for each of our clubs are listed in the side bar. Please get in touch if you have questions not answered by this site.

If you are a member of a London club, this site will highlight ideas from neighbouring clubs that may be of benefit to you and your club. You will also learn about your fellow members, pick up a few tips and hear about events looming on the Toastmasters calendar. Just leave your comments below - this is just the start of the conversation!

Finally, if you are from a club outside London, Hello! You will find plenty here for you too. Please just join in and let us know the great things happening in your part of the world too.

If you have features you would like to see added, an idea for an article, or an event to publicise just get in touch either in the comments or directly by email. Thank you.

Toastmasters Debate - Socrates Cup - Tuesday 8th July

Mahin Driskill, President London Athenians and Chris Jolly, VP Education West London Speakers  shape up for their clubs' annual debate contest.  Both are determined that their club will win!

The motion to be debated by the two teams:  "Is democracy the best form of government".

Please come along - test your views on the subject and join in the fun.

Tuesday 8th July 2008.  7pm at the Hop Poles, 17-19 King Street, Hammersmith, W6 9HR.  (Upstairs function room).

London Athenians meets every Tuesday at the Hop Poles.  West London Speakers meets on 2nd and 4th Monday every month at the Hop Poles.

 

Technorati Tags: Toastmasters,debate,London Athenians,West London Speakers

This Sundays Speakers Corner event is cancelled

Unfortunately, this Sunday’s trip to Speakers Corner has been cancelled. Only a few expressions of interest have been given so far, and the event really needs a good crowd to make it worthwhile. My guess is a mix of the changeable weather and the fact that the odd person may be watching a certain footie game on Sunday may have had something to do with it. Anyhow, we will try to re-arrange for later in the summer.

PS Please don’t forget the Division B Evaluation workshop next Wednesday. Two UK and Ireland champions passing on tips that people of all levels of experience can benefit from. It will be a great event. Still plenty of tickets! Details are here:

http://thelondonspeaker.typepad.com/weblog/2008/06/learn-how-to-do.html 

Hopefully see you there.

The Grand Toastmasters Tour of Ireland, Part 2

Having just done Killarney, we’re now off to Kilkenny!

I have just received a short note from Lucia Hughes for readers of The London Speaker. She is the organiser of the Three Castles Toastmasters conference in Kilkenny, Ireland. It is on Nov 7-9th. I’ll let her take it away:

Are you feeling left out of the loop? Are you tired of reading about the great fun fellow members have had at the conference in Killarney? Well, now is your chance to join that great club of conference goers and experience the fun and benefits of attending for yourself. Come along to Kilkenny on November 7th, 8th and 9th for the Three Castles Conference and attend the Humorous Speech Contest, Table Topics Contest and Education Workshops. Both your Division Governor, Dick Dixon, and Area Governor, Freddie Daniells, will tell you, any chance they get, about how they were welcomed and enjoyed coming to Ireland on each of their visits. If you are in any doubt that they are exaggerating (Ed – moi??) ask your Asst Division Governor,Iain Duthie, for verification, because he is not given to overstating the facts!

At Three Castles we can offer you an incentive to attend by becoming your club’s conference booking coordinator. This task could earn you a step along the way in your Competent Leader manual in project 6 ‘Organizing and Delegating’, - module ‘Help Organise a Club Special Event’. If you take on the role of conference coordinator in your club it involves encouraging fellow members, (more than two, in order to derive some value from the exercise) to commit to attending. Help them fill out the form, compile the applications, arrange payment and forward all to the Bookings Secretary Noel O’Farrell (chrisjof@gmail.com).

This done, you will have learned and used quite a lot of organizing and delegating skills on the way and earned a positive evaluation for your efforts. Many clubs may not have a special event coming up every year, so why not run with this idea. It is a ready-made opportunity to complete ‘Organising and Delegating’ Project 6 (only one module is required).

One more thing, when you are booking could you assist us by having your booking with us before the end of August when bookings are certain to become very brisk with the return of club meetings in Ireland. We at Three Castles are committed to maintaining the sanity of our Bookings Secretary Noel O’Farrell. You can play your part by making your booking sooner rather than later. Noel will be glad to discuss payment methods with anyone who makes contact with him at 00 353 85 1741506.

I look forward to meeting you in Kilkenny for the Contests, Workshops and seeing you sporting your 60’s style for the fun and frolics on Friday evening. Best efforts will not go un-noticed - a weekend break is on offer to the best 60’s guy or gal!

So please get November 7th-9th in the diary! All the information you will need is here on the d71 site:

http://d71.org/portal.php?page=36

Interestingly, I was recently asked my thought on projects that members could do for Project 6 of the Leadership manual. Lucia has an excellent idea. It would be great if each club appointed an aspiring leader to keep conferences in people minds and help co-ordinate registration. If you can get a small group from your club to go it is even more fun. Perhaps bring this up at your next committee meeting?

I had a great time in Killarney so barring major catastrophes you will see me in Kilkenny too! I hope to see you there as well.

An easy catch up on your Public Speaking reading

 

Recently I was asked by a fellow Toastie whether I know of any good blogs or websites on Public Speaking. I sent through links to a few sites. As of this week, I would send them to Alltop.

A short while ago, Guy Kawasaki, renowned venture capitalist and speaker, launched a new site called Alltop (www.alltop.com). The site collects the most recent stories from ‘all the top’ sites around the Internet. These are then aggregated by topics of interest. There is a page with all the top sports stories, one for political stories, one for cars etc etc.

Anyhow, this week a page has been launched based on Public Speaking and Presenting. The link is here:

http://speaking.alltop.com/

This is a great way to quickly get an overview of current public speaking articles across the Internet. Several of the sites are specifically focused on the Toastmasters audience. You may also notice that our very own Jason Peck of Grosevenor Square is included on this list of top authorities on the subject. Well done Jason.

I will add this to the list of sites on our Links and Resources page. If you know a good site or resource that we can all benefit from let us know.

Learn how to do Evaluations from the best

 

2nd July - get this date in your diary! A special opportunity this one – a chance to learn from not one, but two UK & Ireland Champion Evaluators in one evening!

Division B is hosting an Evaluation work shop on Wednesday July 2nd. Firstly, we have Hilary Briggs of Grosvenor Square Speakers, fresh from winning the 2008 UK and Ireland Evaluation contest just a few weeks ago. Her co-presenter is Bob Ferguson of Excalibur Speakers, the 2004 UK & Ireland Champion. Bob is also a Distinguished Toastmaster, the highest award at Toastmasters. Both are top flight evaluators, presenters and regularly train people in the dark arts of public speaking. This will be an amazing double bill in giving quality feedback.

Evaluation skills are a crucial part of Toastmasters – and of life for anyone who engages with other human beings at home or work!

Good quality evaluations help speakers to learn and develop more quickly. And a good evaluator will help the whole audience learn as well. Yet how do you do it, and more importantly, how do build your skills in a systematic way?

This workshop will cover:

• What makes a great evaluation
• The Do's and Don'ts for Evaluations (inc Topics Evaluations and General Evaluations)
• A process you can use to develop as an evaluator

Please join us on July 2nd at the Swedenborg Hall, 20-21 Bloomsbury Way, London, WC1A 2TH. The entrance is on Barter Street, just off Bloomsbury Way. A map is below: 

  

Doors open at 6.30pm and the event starts sharp at 7pm. There will be a short break and we will be finished by 9pm. A local hostelry may benefit from our patronage after (not included in ticket price!).

Tickets are £4. There are only 100 tickets for this event so get yours early. Click on the button below to buy a ticket!

PS We have raised the price slightly. We managed to lose money on the last workshops – obviously not a sustainable situation! No presenter gets any money from the proceeds. It is all swallowed up by the cost of hire for the venue, cost of the booking system and whatever (non-alcoholic) refreshments we can afford to get you!

Toastmasters Clubs - Special Events

Creating traditions. Making your club even more special.

In London (Div B) we all get involved in annual club contests culminating in the UK & Ireland finals or beyond.  But some of our clubs have special contests of their own.  Unique, fun events reflecting the culture and interests of those particular clubs.  And also giving members another outstanding opportunity to hone their speaking skills.

Two such events will be happening soon. Get out your diary and put in the annual Persuaders Contest at London Corinthians (this Thursday 12th June) and the Socrates Cup (Tuesday 8th July), an annual debate between London Athenians and West London Speakers.

Describing the Persuaders Contest Amy Jackson VPE, London Corinthians says "it gives a opportunity for new members to take the plunge and enter a contest, as well as challenging all the participants." 

How does it work? In the first round everyone gives a three minute persuasive speech on any subject they wish.  Having attended last year I can confirm that there was an extraordinary range of passionately argued speeches both serious and humorous.  The second round, for the five finalists is topics style so you hear very different persuasive arguments on the same subject.  As Amy says, "Persuaders is now a tradition. We couldn't imagine the end of the Toastmasters year without it."

At West London Speakers President Kimra Argus is looking forward to the next Socrates Cup debate.  Having just celebrated their second birthday in effervescent style the "Champagne Club" of Hammersmith is more than ready to field its team for the debate with its sister club. 

Why did they choose a debate? As Hakan Akbas, President London Athenians confirms, with the proud tradition of ancient Greece behind them they really had no choice.  He particularly values the Socrates Cup as "a way to encourage members to think more creatively."  The debate team members use all their Toastmaster speaking skills in a format  demanding persuasiveness and quick thinking.  "The debate brings out the skills we practice in table topics, as well as encouraging the audience to evaluate the arguments put forward. It's also an opportunity to bring the two clubs together in friendly rivalry."

All three clubs would love you to visit them on their big nights.  Perhaps they can persuade you to start up your own special tradition.

Technorati Tags: Toastmasters,debate,speech contest

Toastmasters Educational Awards May 2008

Great news - eighteen more educational awards were achieved by members of London Toastmasters (Division B) in May 2008. 

Having heard many of you speaking and seen you active in your clubs in committee roles etc. we know that these awards are the result of hard work, focus and, of course, natural talent coming to the fore!

If you have completed an award recently, and your name is not listed, talk to your Vice President Education and make sure it's submitted to Toastmasters International.

May 2008 Awards

Competent Leader

Mahin Driskill.  London Athenians. Area 29

Carrie Gillespie.  London Athenians. Area 29

David Adams.  Berkeley Square. Area 34

Old Competent Leader

Simon Porch.  Trojan Speakers. Area 29

Freddie Daniells.  Holborn Speakers. Area 34

Heike Vogt.  Holborn Speakers. Area 34

Advanced Leader Bronze

Dave Brooks. Excalibur. Area 6

Competent Communicator

Carrie Gillespie.  London Athenians. Area 29

Charya Long.  Riverside Communicators. Area 29

Emmanuel Sodipo.  Canary Wharf Communicators. Area 31

David Adams.  Berkeley Square. Area 34

Jeremy Robinson. Holborn Speakers. Area 34

Jay Surti.  Holborn Speakers. Area 34

Advanced Communicator Bronze

Esther De Angelis. London Corinthians.  Area 6

Desire Lan. London Olympians.  Area 6

Deepa Srinivas. Women in Banking and Finance.  Area 31

Advanced Communicator Silver

Camilla Allwood.  Women in Banking and Finance. Area 31

Andrew Klimaytys. Riverside Communicators. Area 29 

Technorati Tags: Toastmasters,competent communicator,competent leader,advanced communicator

Practice 'Public' Speaking at Speakers Corner

So you think you are ok at this Public Speaking lark, eh? Well here is a chance for you to put the Public back into Public Speaking!

Dave Brooks, Area 31 Governor, is arranging this years first trip to Speakers Corner on the 29th June. All Toastmasters are welcome. Feel free to bring friends and family too.

The main event will be a Table Topics session held in front of the general public. This should last for around one and an half hours depending on your stamina. The event is going to kick off at 1pm and everyone will meet at the corner.

Weather permitting, it will be followed by a picnic in the park. Please bring along a bottle or two of whatever it is that you enjoy and some food if you are hungry. Suggestions for games will, I am sure, be welcome. Weather not permitting a small delegation is bound to find its way to a local hostelry.

Marble Arch is the nearest tube and you can see where to meet on the map below.

A flyer for the event is available here:

Download the flyer for the Speakers Corner event on June 29

Those who came last year to one of the two Speakers Corner events will remember how much fun these days are. They will also recall that the event is a massive change from speaking at our clubs. The general public has yet to learn the finer points of 'providing a supportive environment'! It is a great fun challenge none the less. To read a first hand tale of one of last years events click here.

This will also be the last get together of this Toastmasters year so will be a fun way for you all to see out the old before bringing in the new!

If you are interested in coming along, make sure to get your President let your Area Governor or Dave know.

Hope we see you then.

Watch the speakers of tomorrow!

Earlier this year, I spent a day at a school in Putney helping deliver a days speech training to Year 10 students. At the end of our days training, we held a contest amongst the students for the best speaker. Each student was to deliver a short speech using the techniques that we had taught.

Towards the end of the contest a quiet girl stood to deliver her speech. She told us about how she knew no English when she arrived in the country 5 years ago. She was tormented by other children who thought of her as 'thick'. She became determined to learn English. We learnt how, after school, she watched young children's cartoons - this was the only English she could understand. We heard that bit by bit, through sheer determination her English had improved. Today, whilst still making the occasional mistake, she was no longer regarded as thick by her fellow classmates. She finished with a plea asking that other young people not judge people new to English as stupid, but rather understand.

It was a powerful speech. It covered the struggle and eventual victory that we see in many Toastmasters speeches. It had a message that was strong for those in her age group. Needless to say, we voted her the winner.

And then a strange thing happened. As we announced she had won, we saw her shock, surprise and finally emotion. It suddenly occurred to us, the judges, that this was the end of a journey for her. She had come to a foreign country, mastered a language, and then beaten her classmates in that language. At that second I felt tremendously proud for her and honoured that I had been a part of giving her such a moment. We had helped make her day and she had made ours.

I tell you this because it is typical of the great work of the organisations behind these training days - The Jack Petchey Foundation and SpeakersBank.

Set up by Sue Warner, former Toastie at London Communicators, SpeakersBank is a charitable organisation that helps people get access to formal public speaking training that may not otherwise be able to get it. These include people in schools and the voluntary sectors.

The programme I was on is called the Jack Petchey Speak Out challenge. Paid for by the Jack Petchey Foundation, this programme gives two days of public speaking training to children at 550 schools across London and Essex .

The winners from each school compete in a Borough final. The winners from each Borough then go forward to compete in the Gala Grand Final. This is probably the worlds largest youth speaking contest with over 20,000 students having entered.

This year the Gala Grand Final is being held in the Mermaid Events and Conference Centre, London EC4V 3DB on the 10th July at 7.00pm. On the night 18 of the finest young speakers will `Speak Out` on any subject they feel strongly about. The winner will win a prize valued at £5,000.

Our very own Sean Kennedy of London Communicators has contacted me about the event as he would be love to see some Toastmasters come. The event is ticket only and if you would like to attend please email seankennedy@speakersbank.co.uk asap with your name, number of tickets required and your postal address. To learn more about the project please visit www.speakoutchallenge.com.

This is one of those events that will make you feel good I can promise.

A belated Cill Airne conference report

(This is a long post so make sure to get a cup of coffee and a comfy seat!)

And so another conference is over. And yet again a great time was had by all.

For me the things kicked off on on Wednesday. Following was our regular Division B Council meeting, it was off to the Princess Louise pub to join our Area 33 Governor, Eleanor Smith, to celebrate her 21st yet again. Then a Brazilian bar and restaurant where much more wine, beer and a little food was imbibed. As ever, the usual reprobates were led by our Division B governor, Dick Dixon. Please see photo!  

Thursday was a sore head and a flight to Kerry Airport via Stansted. We tried to involve the plane in an impromptu table topics session but Ryanair were having none of it. That night, the town was awash with Toasties.

First thing Friday, a lot of very bleary eyed folks arrived fresh from a 7am flight from Stansted. The hotel was now in full TM swing. Mrs Fred and I escaped on a coach trip around the Ring of Kerry - highly recommended if you are planning coming this way.

Surprisingly, I awoke on Saturday morning bright and early (for me) with no more than a slight foggy head. A solid brekkie and then off to the workshops.

I started with a thought provoking workshop from Past District Governor, David Thompson entitled 'Motivating Ourselves, Motivating Our Members'. A key focus was on how we can help maintain our existing members as they grow through the TM programme.

The second workshop I attended as The Art of Writing Humorous Speeches delivered by Mike O'Donnell. Mike highlighted the need to keeping an eye open for humour, the power of exaggeration, the use of characters in humour and the importance of building stories. A really fun knockabout session!

Then off to the District Council meeting. This is where a lot of the official business of Toastmasters is discussed. The key highlights as far as Division B is concerned were:

• A slight re-alignment of Clubs and Areas in London

City of London Speakers is to become part of Area 34 while Berkeley Square is to become part of Area 6. London has been so successful in creating and promoting new clubs that there has needed to be a re-alignment of clubs to ensure a more balanced set of Areas.

• A new group of people running Toastmasters in the UK

Gary Sander was confirmed as the new District Governor, responsible for the growth and success of TM across all of the UK and Ireland. Joe Gibbs is to become the new Lt Governor for Education and Training, Teresa Dukes the new Lt. Governor for Marketing and James Hegarty joined the committee as District PR Officer. As far as the Divisions are concerned the appointees are:

Division A - Caroline O'Connor

Division B - er, me

Division C - Kate Thornhill

Division D - Pat Foley

Division E - Michael J Clarke

Division F - Deirdre O'Brien

Division G - Sandra Lawes

Division H - Samantha Babister

• Finance is still available for clubs

Money is still available to be claimed by both new clubs and those that are at risk of failing. If you think you may qualify get in touch with your Area Governor asap!

• Upcoming conferences

The next conference is called the Three Castles conference and is being held in Kilkenny, Ireland. It sounds a lot of fun - details are here. It will be held on November 7-9 - put it in your diary! Next year sees the conferences return to the UK. They will be held in Oxford in May and York in November. Plans are afoot to make them even bigger and better than before.

After lunch, the keynote was by Dr. Ed Walsh, Founding President of Limerick University, a leading thinker in the re-generation of Ireland over the past twenty years and most importantly a former Toastmaster! He gave a fascinating insight into why Ireland had succeeded economically and what he felt were the big challenges ahead facing Ireland.

Phew - my lunchtime beer was making me sleepy but I had no time for that as now was the 2008 UK and Ireland finals of the International Speech Contest. I have to say the venue was probably the most scary I have seen for one of these contests as you can see below. Westlife are playing exactly the same stage in a few weeks time - take a look below, you get the idea!

The back part was screened off but, by heck, I didn't envy those people up there!

The speaking was top notch. The first two speakers gave serious speeches with a strong message. The third speech was a wonderfully poetic look at the speaker's love of the sea. Our Division B candidate David Jones was next. I think he suffered a little from being the first with a more humorous speech - it took a while for the audience to get attuned to the lighter tone. However, he did a great job. And in no time we had shot through the remaining speeches.

As ever there has to be a winner. This year I was glad that I was not a judge. Often you can discount a few of the speakers but this time it would have been so hard. But the winner was Sultan Nazir from Dublin with a speech called Fail, Fail, Fail.

After the excitement of the contest we had a little downtime so I decided to go to the gym. Unfortunately, I had to cross the main foyer of the hotel and my rather fancy lycra shorts caused much mirth (can't do much when in the gym, so might as well look good getting there!).

In the evening was the gala dinner - dry ice, dancing girls, big band, plenty of laughs, a late night disco, a beer or two (just to refresh me from my run) and suddenly it was 4am and time for bed. I left, as ever, our Division B Governor, Dick Dixon, leading from the front still strutting his stuff. Various pics from the evening are below.If you would like to see a larger one just click on the image.

Sunday morning and I had (for some reason) volunteered to be a timekeeper for the Evaluation contest. This meant I had to be downstairs at 8.30am for the briefing. Iain Duthie, our Asst Div Guv, was there looking chipper as ever. He had had no sleep at all. How does he do it??

Following my much needed fry-up (off the diet this weekend!) I realised that I was still in sleep deficit mode so back to bed for an hour. I gather Lucia's workshop on The Value of Positive Feedback was very good.

So now for the final event of the weekend - the Evaluation contest. Apart from a screw up with the timing lights (oh, yes, that was my job), everything went very smoothly.

Until, that is, after all the contestants had given their evaluations. The contest chair invited each contestant back on stage to ask a few questions and hand them their certificates of participation. After the first couple we noticed a bit of movement in the crowd. After a minute or two the reason became clear - a leak had sprung from the roof onto the audience! After a few minutes (and as it got much worse) it was decided to stop the proceedings. We had only just cleared that part of the room when the roof panels collapsed!

We quickly re-arranged another room and 300 or so of us de-camped there. Anyhow, we finally got to the winners and yes, our very own Division B contestant Hilary Briggs won. All the folks at my table were from Division B and we let out a large shout as it was announced. Carol West, President of Grosvenor Square, was ecstatic as Hilary was representing their club - see Carol and Hilary below.

All in all, it was a great way to round of a brill weekend. We all staggered through customs and wearily back to our homes. I imagine everyone slept well that night.

Hopefully, you too may think about coming to Kilkenny in November or Oxford next May. If so, I will see you there!