The London Speaker

Corporate Challenge Winners 2009

Facing up to the challenge of speaking in the reverberating space of St Mary le Bow, Cheapside ten speakers competed last night in the final of the second annual Corporate Challenge. London Toastmasters were well represented among the finalists.

The theme for the speeches this year was Recession. The light at the end of the tunnel. As ever it was fascinating to hear the different take that each of the ten speakers had on the subject.

And the winners were:

First Paul Carroll

Second Simon Bucknall

Third last year's winner Rod Sloane

Highly commended:

Mindy Gibbins-Klein

Alan McMahon.

The College of Public Speaking is doing great work putting together this business speaking contest. If you are interested in competing next year email Vince Stevenson so he can keep you informed.

London Athenians, London Cardinals , Excalibur Speakers and Harrovians Speakers can be proud of all their members who took part. Their time at Toastmasters paid off, again!

Pictured above Kate McNeilly/Julie Kertesz enjoy the evening. Michael Ronayne chairs the contest. David Thompson is an enthusiastic Chief Judge.

Wordsmiths celelebrate 300 years since the birth of Dr Samuel Johnson

Posted by Dorothea Stuart

All wordsmiths, Toastmasters included, are celebrating the 300th anniversary of the birth of Dr Samuel Johnson - this week. Read a good article "The book that influenced all others" on BBC News.  Listen again to an In Our Time show on the life of Johnson.  It's a facinating account both of his life, the development of his dictionary, and literary London.

"To illustrate the meanings of words, Johnson supplied 114,000 quotations from books…it made his dictionary into a superior prototype of the internet." John Carey.

As Johnson was from Lichfield the local BBC radio has plenty going on including reminding us of some great words in Johnson's dictionary. How about...dandiprat and fopdoodle? They have a rather nice ring to them. Perhaps a Grammarian could get them back into circulation.

Competition success - tips and feedback work!

Posted by Dorothea Stuart

Bob Ferguson proves his Toastmasters competition tips work - by winning the 2009 Humorous Speech Contest at Excalibur Speakers last night.  To read Bob's tips Click here.

Bob is pictured with Yvonne Masset winner of Excalibur Speakers' Table Topics contest. Both will compete again in the Area 47 contest on 12 October 2009.

Other successful competitors this week include Richard Stacey from Early Bird Speakers. He  goes through to give his humorous speech again at the Area 45 Contest on 13 October 2009.

What helped make Richard's speech a winner?

I went to the Division B Toastmasters event at the Whitechapel Gallery, led by Teresa Dukes, DTM. The feedback I got was a big help. The key advice was to REALLY go for it. And I did!

Pictured from left to right at the Whitechapel Gallery: Mike Robinson, Ann Nunn, Iain Duthie, Teresa Dukes, Richard Stacey, Paul Carroll, Jacyntha Crawley.

Presentation Zen Garr Reynolds answer questions

Garr Reynolds of Presentation Zen answers questions: how to give technical presentations and more...

See video answering how many slides should I use? on the Duarte Blog Click Here

The importance of words...Busting the Mehrabian Myth

Posted by Dorothea Stuart

At the UK Speechwriters' Guild conference on 18th September all the speakers reminded us of the power of words - with some useful lessons for Toastmasters.  Martha Leyton and Martin Shovel entertained us with their animation:Busting the Mehrabian Myth

Which led to a discussion about the current trend in public speaking to value performance over substance, content or anything memorable.

Another take on the power of words can be found on National Public Radio. Listen to the story of the contest to find the ten best 140 character tweets on Twitter. A few words can convey so much...

Or how about storytelling in 140 characters?  NPR has another piece which includes extremely short yet powerful stories by Arjun Basu such as:

The talk had been open, with hurt feelings. Shouting. They knew the relationship was done. She would never put ketchup on her hot dogs again.

Read more...

Corporate Challenge support your Toastmasters friends

On Monday 28th September 2009 The College of Public speaking holds the final of the second annual Corporate Challenge, a business public speaking contest.  The purpose of the event?  To promote and encourage public speaking excellence in the corporate world and to find the UK's top corporate speakers. 

The final includes a number of Toastmasters- Hurrah! Simon Bucknall, Paul Carroll, Fergus McClelland, Alan McMahon. Our friend Rod Sloane is back defending the title he won last year.

Please come and support our contestants and enjoy all ten of the six minute speeches.  No booking required for this free event. The church is a big space so a large and friendly audience will be appreciated. Coming along might inspire you to enter the Corporate Challenge next year...

Where?  St Mary le Bow Church, Cheapside, London EC2V 6AU.  The home of Bow Bells.  200 yards from St Paul's underground station.

When? 6.45pm

Pictured above Alan McMahon (Harrovians) and Paul Carroll (London Athenians).  Both looked considerably more cheerful after the judges announced that they were through to the final.  Hope to see beaming smiles on the 28th. Unless you are at a humorous speech/table topics contest put it in your diary now!

Michael Ronayne and Vince Stevenson of the College of Public Speaking preside at the first rounds of the 2009 Corporate Challenge.

Bob's Top Tips for Competing in Toastmasters Contests

From Bob Ferguson, DTM, Excalibur Speakers/Hertforshire Speakers (and winner of many Toastmasters contests)

1. Record your speech ideas in a book as they come along so you have plenty of good ideas when it comes to writing a speech.
2. Use a personal story in your speech to hook the audience in emotionally so they feel involved in what you say.
3. Remember to think about “What’s in it for me” from the audience’s viewpoint. Speeches are always more compelling when they address our needs.
4. Listen to other speakers. See what they do that builds rapport with the audience. Can you customise that technique to your style?
5. The key to a good humorous speech is to think how many people will recognise the humorous situations you describe. Good observational humour, where everyone recognises the humour, will make it easy for them to laugh - personal jokes that only you appreciate can be hard to deliver.
6. Practice doing your manual speeches outside your club to build your confidence in front of different audiences.
7. Prepare for your club speech like it’s the District final. Every District champion starts by winning a club contest and it could be your club – imagine if you beat them!
8. Record yourself practicing and put it on a CD and play it in your car while you drive around. That way you learn the speech by a natural learning method and you can think while you learn.
9. Don’t rehearse in front of a mirror it can be distracting. Instead, video yourself and then watch it back.
10. Get as much stage time as possible. Look for every opportunity – family groups, business meetings, any group to practice your competition speech in front of.

Looking ahead

**For International Speech competitors only Start writing three speeches now. Most winners of the International speech are not focussed on competing in America and forget their winning District speech took a lot of effort to polish. Enter the contest with three speeches so that you’re ready if you win.**

To hear Bob putting his top tips into action come to the Excalibur Contest Night at 7pm on Wednesday 23rd September.

Gareth McHale talks contests and what he learned competing in US

From Iain Duthie, Tube Talk

As a new contest season starts we thought it was time to catch up with Gareth McHale, winner of the UK & Ireland International Speech contest 2009 and find out what he learned from competing at the Toastmasters International Convention in Connecticut, in August.

ID: How did you enjoy your transatlantic Toastmasters experience?

GM: It was a good time in Connecticut. Regrettably, I didn't get beyond the semi final - in retrospect my speech was probably not ideally suited to a non-UK audience. It went well when I road-tested it at my club, but perhaps it was a bit rapid-fire for non-native English speakers. (of which there were many in the heat I spoke in). No matter- I will learn from the experience.

ID: You didn’t use your District contest speech ‘Good Point’?

GM: Sadly not. It has to be a different one for the Semi final and if I’d won a place in the World Final I would have had to deliver another new speech.

ID: What did you think of the speeches at the World Final?

GM: The final was a very polished affair, although many of the speeches seemed a bit cheesy to the cynical British mind! I was very pleased that the winner, Mark Hunter, rose above that standard and delivered a very sincere, well constructed speech which made especially good use of language and just seemed a bit more cerebral than the others.

An Aussie in a wheelchair - although he didn't go for the sympathy vote. If anything, he used the wheelchair as an asset, looking particularly comfortable and rolling around the stage in a very cool manner! The speech was about disability, but in a very grown-up way and a very worthy winner.

ID: Did you get time to take in the convention itself?

GM: The convention was everything you'd expect of a big corporate group of (mainly) Americans! It was a great experience, but to be honest I was glad I had a car so that I could escape every so often and do some non-TM things. It's a lovely part of the country with a bit of genuine culture and something approaching history.

ID: There’s just so much to see in such a vast country...

GM: It is said that the main difference between us and them is that we consider 100 miles a long way, whereas they consider 100 years a long time.

ID: So what’s next in the Toastmaster calendar for you?

GM: I’ll be at the York conference in November. I've got your job as Contest Chair and am looking forward to it very much. I relish the chance to have control on the stage without worrying about the lights!

ID: So you decided not to compete this year?

GM: Normally, I'd be hoping to compete in the humorous contest, but this year I am unable to get to my club on the contest night. In any case would find it very hard to get to the Division contest as it is in Glasgow!

ID: That’s Division E for you – we’re a tad closer together here in Division B.

GM: I’m really looking forward to hearing all of the speeches and am looking forward to the York Conference. Not too sure about the pantomime themed fancy dress on the Friday though.

ID: Oh yes you are.

GM: Oh no I’m not.

ID: You’d look great as a Pantomime Dame.

GM: No comment! The White Rose Conference takes place in the Royal York Hotel, 13th – 15th November. For more details go to www.whiteroseconference.org, but be quick as places are filling up fast!

Listen and learn from World Champion of Public Speaking Mark Hunter

Posted by Dorothea Stuart

Thanks to Michelle Cheng for pointing out that you can listen to Mark Hunter's winning speech when he became Toastmasters World Champion of Public Speaking.  You can also hear him giving his tips on public speaking including how he develops the ideas for his speeches.  Both on ABC Radio, Brisbane, presenter Madonna King. Click here

"if you can live what you are saying you have the capacity to connect with your audience." Mark Hunter

How um...er...important is that?

Posted by Dorothea Stuart

Yesterday I was given my own copy of the book Um... by Michael Erard in which he talks about the everyday occurance of verbal blunders, including Spoonerisms (I'll ride my well boiled icicle), Freudian slips and speech disturbances such as ums...and ers...

Erard has a full chapter where he talks very positively about the popularity and effectiveness of Toastmasters International: "a self-help public-speaking club founded more than eighty years ago,[which] is to public speaking what General Electric is to lightbulbs."

He discusses Toastmasters emphasis on removing or reducing ums, ers, and filler words.He suggests that these are all more common and acceptable in everyday conversation than in prepared speeches. However, Erard seems pleased to have heard a winning contest speech by Randy Harvey which was the only speech with verbal blunders.

My own conclusion is that it's worth striving to reduce blunders and fillers if they're at a level where they irritate or distract your audience. However a small number will probable not be noticed and may even endear you to your listeners.

Yesterday I also listened to some National Public Radio clips from the Diane Rehm show (which is celebrating 30 years on the air). And what do you know...in conversation Barack Obama has lots of ums, ers etc.(19 second clip)

In 2000 Diane Rehm was the first radio talk show host to interview a President in the Oval Office. And you'll hear a filler "you know" from Bill Clinton.(11 second clip)

Read more about Diane Rehm on NPR