The London Speaker

London Athenians "evaluate" next Prime Minister for TV news show

Posted by Dorothea Stuart

Two London Athenians, Jessica Bass and Paul Carroll, were invited to participate in a Listening vs Watching experiment for the final Prime Ministerial debate on TV and radio last night.  The segment was broadcast this morning on Sky News and contains an evaluation of the language by radio listener Jess. 

The Sky researchers were pleased that the viewers and listeners groups came to different conclusion as to which of the three leaders came across best. Does image matter? It's Kennedy vs Nixon all over again!

To watch the 3 minute segment CLICK HERE. 

I'll be looking for tips from Jess and Paul as, next week, I have my first go at the TV interview project from the Toastmasters Communicating on Television Manual.

Help sought for organising leadership event

Fabian Nobrega (DTM)), has recently arrived in Division B from his previous Toastmasters life on the island of Curacao,The Netherlands Antilles (part of District 81). He is setting up a project, the objective of which is to give busy professionals the tools and motivation to follow a healthier lifestyle.

He is seeking volunteers for his leadership team that will be coordinating a one day event with workshops, aimed to equip the 300 or so planned participants with valuable tips on how to have control over their hectic lives, eat more healthily and exercise more.

Although it is not a Toastmasters International event, participation could count towards a High Performance Leadership (HPL) project or as part of the Competent Leader (CL) manual.

Anyone interested should contact Fabian directly email here

Special Meeting with Darren LaCroix World Champ Public Speaking

Posted by Iain Duthie, Tube Talk

If you are interested in going to the District 71 Conference in Sligo next month (14th – 16th May) but haven’t booked your flights yet, why not fly over a day early and come along to the 2nd joint Anglo/ Irish Toastmasters meeting hosted by Dublin club Clontarf Marino? Not only will you experience the fun of an Irish Toastmasters meeting, Darren La Croix 2001 World Champion of Public Speaking will be in action. The evening also includes dinner and over night accommodation. The venue will be the Regency Airport Hotel Whitehall,15 minutes from the Airport. The rooms are of a good standard and it also has a leisure Centre on site.

If that wasn’t enough (yes there’s more), on Friday morning, a coach will whisk everyone from the hotel to the conference in Sligo, returning to Dublin Airport no later than 18:00 on Sunday 16th. So instead of dragging yourself from the airport to town to catch the train, soak up the gorgeous Irish countryside to and from what is billed to be an ace conference!

Costs – the hotel will cost €79 (per room single or twin), dinner is approximately €40 and the coach (return) is €22. If you come to the joint meeting only it’s €10

Places are limited so grab yours while you can!

Hotel arrangements and the coach transfer are being coordinated by Peter Kieran email here and anyone interested in attending the joint meeting is welcome to contact me, Iain Duthie email here.

Learning about Evaluation from Bob Ferguson DTM

From David Adams, Area 45 Governor. One of London Toastmasters premier poets.

Written after listening Bob Ferguson's Evaluation Masterclass on Saturday 24 April 2010.

Number 1 – we have to be eclectic

Nick other people’s ideas

This is the way I do it

Borrowing versus research

Work hard

No short cuts

Develop yourself

As an evaluator

Polish yourself every day

As a speaker

Engineer the process

As an evaluator

Understand the elements

Of the speech

Of the speaker

All the information

Refine

Turn into rules

But

Don’t reinvent the wheel

Just hoard it

Just hoard the literature

Keep the resource pack

Read The Toastmaster

Magazine – even read –

The manual

Identify the spectrum

Of bad to good

See the judging forms

What I saw

What I heard

What I felt – and

What I understood

To give a great summary

That’s different

That’s fun

Even resorting to the Manual

For the speech profile

Above all, give tips

If I have to

In the spirit of a gift

A gratuity

Oh sugar!

The entire speech

On the mat.

Listen and observe

One thing at a time

At each meeting

And look for the tough

Speakers.

CC RR CC and S

Observe and copy –

Direct your audience

To learn in three minutes

And prioritise

Plus detail and

Mind Maps if you like

Cheers to origami Bob

In the pink

He’s got you in the palm

Of his hand and that’s the

Left hand.

In summary, in control

With the amber light

Highlight first and

Be in control

As a super Toastie

Do everything except speak

Hone your techniques –

CRC for table topics

On the fly

Ready to be

A general evaluator

Share your knowledge

Give it back

In Toastmasters.

David Adams

After Bob Ferguson

That’s www.bobferguson.biz

Join us at the 2nd Public Speaking Olympiad Saturday 29 May 2010

From Paul Carroll, London Athenians

With all the excitment of contest season you may have missed the post about the Public Speaking Olympiad which is taking place on Saturday 29 May 2010. It's an event well worth coming to or taking part in.

London Toastmasters will be competing again in Coger's Second Public Speaking Olympiad (sponsored by The College of Public Speaking) on Saturday 29 May 2010, against teams from three other speaking organisations. Each team will participate in four events: a speech (with introduction and vote of thanks), table topics and two forms of debate. Would you like to be involved?

In 2006, London's first Public Speaking Olympiad was held by the Society of Cogers to mark their 250th anniversary as the oldest-free-speech society in the English speaking world.  Four teams from different speaking organisations competed.

The Toastmasters team of Matthew Syed, Riverside Communicators, Nicholas Brainsby and Paul Carroll of London Athenians took first prize. 

If you'd like to attend or put your name forward to be one of our team of three, email me for further details.

London Toastmasters Division B Contest Results April 2010

Posted by Dorothea Stuart

Saturday 24 April.  130 people came together for the London Toastmasters (Division B) mini-conference and London International Speech and Evaluation Contest Finals.  We enjoyed 6 workshops in the morning and the contests after lunch. A high energy day with lots of learning.

Our evaluation contestants were: (back row from left) Erroll Williamson, Area 29.  David Jones, Area 47, Clive Broadbent, Area 31, Mystery Speaker, Martin Berry, Woking Speakers, Ewan Wong, Area 33. (front row from left) Iain Duthie, Area 34, Laura McCracken, Area 6, Gautam Chadda, Area 45.   The contest was Chaired by David Adams.

Our International Speech contestants were:

(from left). Errol Williamson, Area 29, Ola Aralepo, Area 34, Clive Broadbent, Area 31, Simon Bucknall, Area 6,Liz Hobb (who chaired the contest), Andrew Chuks, Area 47, Beate Rissbacher, Area 45, Alan Thomas, Area 33.

The Results

The Division B 2010 Evaluation Contest

First Place: Laura McCracken. Second Place: Iain Duthie. Third Place: David Jones.

The Division B 2010 International Speech Contest

First Place: Simon Bucknall. Second Place: Errol Williamson. Third Place: Ola Aralepo.

Laura McCracken and Simon Bucknall will represent London Division B at the UK & Ireland Contest Finals at the conference in Sligo 14-16 May 2010.

Our thanks to Chief Judge Chris Howell, Division H Governor and Jim Hegarty, District 71, who came over from Ireland for the day.

And a huge thank to all our workshop leaders, judges, functionaries and everyone else who contributed to the success of the day including ace photographer Julie Kertesz.

Toastmasters and other public speaking events week commencing 19 April

Posted by Dorothea Stuart

Mon 19 April. 7.30pm New Toastmasters club in Woodford Green would welcome support from other Toastmasters. Napier Arms,Woodford New Road, E18 2QD.  See club website.

Mon 19 April 7pm The Society of Cogers is holding a debate on The UK Constitution. Come and have your say.  Venue: The George, 213 The Strand.  More info...

Sat 24 April 10.20am onwards. The London Toastmasters mini-conference and contest finals.  If you haven't got a seat put yourself on the waitlist.

London Toastmasters Area 34 Contest Results

From Christopher Hall, Area 34 Governor

On Thursday 15 April the London Toastmasters Area 34 competition was set in the daunting surrounding of London Business School's largest lecture theatre.

The result: a resounding victory for the smallest club the in the Area: Tube Talk with Ola Aralepo winning the International Speech Contest and Iain Duthie winning the Evaluation Contest.

Runners up were Kenneth Adjei, City Speakers for the International Speech Contest and Rosalind Oakley, Holborn Speakers for the Evaluation Contest.

Ola and Iain will represent Area 34 in the All London Contest Finals on Saturday 24 April 2010. The winners from the All London Finals will compete at the UK & Ireland (District 71) Finals at The Land of Heart's Desire Conference, Sligo, May 14-16 2010. (Keynote speaker World Champion of Public Speaking, Darren LaCroix - watch him on video below)

The photo shows from left to right Rosalind Oakley, Grant Hammond, Iain Duthie,John Bennett, Ade Adewunmi, Christopher Hall (Contest Chairman), Ken Adjei, Hilary Briggs (Chief Judge), Ola Aralepo, Dominique Fourniol.

It's impressive to see two winners from one club. Perhaps Tube Talk's focus on member retention, with an exceptionally high membership re-newal rate compared to all other clubs in London, shows the value of continuing membership of Toastmasters. How do they do it? We could all learn from them.

The Second Public Speaking Olympiad

From Paul Carroll, London Athenians

In 2006, London's first Public Speaking Olympiad was held by the Society of Cogers to mark their 250th anniversary as the oldest-free-speech society in the English speaking world.  Four teams from different speaking organisations competed.

The Toastmasters team of Matthew Syed, Riverside Communicators, Nicholas Brainsby and Paul Carroll of London Athenians took first prize. 

London Toastmasters will be competing again in Coger's Second Public Speaking Olympiad (sponsored by The College of Public Speaking) on Saturday 29 May 2010, against teams from three other speaking organisations. Each team will participate in four events: a speech (with introduction and vote of thanks), table topics and two forms of debate.

If you'd like to attend or put your name forward to be one of our team of three,email me for further details.

Covent Garden Speakers Launch 27 April 2010

From Harry Latif, VPE Covent Garden Speakers

Covent Garden Speakers is a brand new morning club, sponsored by Early Bird Speakers.

Our first meeting will be Tuesday 27th April at 7:10am, and we will meet every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month.  Venue: Freemasons' Hall, Lodge room 17, 60 Great Queen Street,WC2B 5AZ - a fantastic venue for public speaking.

There will be breakfast afterwards, so a great opportunity to Network; We appeal to novices and experienced speakers alike to come along and share in our success!!!

For further details, please do visit our profile on d71, and join our group on meetup.com. Please also get in touch with VPE, Harry Latif, Email if you have any queries.

Club President Aaron Wood says: We've set up Covent Garden Speakers because there are such a wide variety of people in the area, and I think this will provide a really rich environment to create a new club - one in which people can develop their speaking, listening and leadership skills. I'm a big fan of clubs in the morning as they start the day off in the best way. The addition of the opportunity to network over breakfast helps all the members to get to know one another. I'm hoping that the enthusiasm already shown by those in other clubs will continue and spread, and that new members and fellow toastmasters will be able to Grow in Confidence with the Covent Garden Speakers!