The London Speaker

Events week commencing 9 November 09

2009-11-09T09:30:04+00:00

Posted by Dorothea Stuart

Something for you to do every night in London and beyond...

Monday 9 November: 6.30pm Bloomsbury Speakers - please come and support the new club in Holborn. More info.

Tuesday 10 November: 7pm Speech Evaluation Workshop led by Keith Gautier, ACG and Mahin Driskill, Immediate Past President at London Athenians, Hop Poles,17-19 King Street, Hammersmith, W6 9HR (nr Hammersmith Underground). An interactive and fun workshop guaranteed.

Wednesday 11 November: 7pm Debate Night at Excalibur Speakers. The Cheshire Cheese, 5 Little Essex Street, WC2R 3LD (nr Temple Underground). Join us and have your say speaking from the floor!

Thursday 12 November: 7pm New Club Workshop with Teresa Dukes, Lt Gov Education & Training, District 71 (Uk & Ireland) and Hilary Briggs, London Division Governor.Read more and confirm attendance.

Don't forget...if you have friends in Herts who might be interested in joining a new club Ware Speakers are holding a demonstration meeting on Tuesday 10th November. Read more at www.warespeakers.org

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs

2009-11-08T18:28:59+00:00

Posted by Dorothea Stuart

Carmine Gallo interviewed about his new book The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs.

How to make your story compelling. What would Steve Jobs do? 1. Brainstorm, draw, sketch. Think before you start putting your presentation together. 2. Stick to one theme - what's the one thing you want people to remember from your presentation? 3. Avoid bullet points. Text with images works better...

Read some great quotes from the book on the Duarte blog.

For example, from P113:

In an interview for Fortune magazine, he was asked to describe the interface of Apple’s new OS X op0erating system. “We made the buttons on the screen look so good, you’ll want to lick them,” he said.

New Club Workshop with Teresa Dukes Thursday 12 November 2009

2009-11-07T12:40:48+00:00

From Hilary Briggs, London Toastmasters, Divison B Governor

We are currently in the positive position of having many of our clubs increasing membership - in some cases bursting at the seams. And all our clubs are having even more visitors than last year. The Toastmasters mission is all about increasing access - helping more people benefit and improve their communication, confidence and leadership skills. Which means...developing our own leadership skills and setting up more clubs to meet this demand.

I’m delighted that Teresa Dukes, UK & Ireland District 71 Lt Governor Education and Training, will be joining us at 7pm on Thursday 12 November to share her vast wealth of experience in starting new clubs. If you think you might be interested in starting a new club or supporting a club that has recently started please come along.

The key themes that we’ll be covering include:

First steps - where to start? Including help available to get you on your way
The challenge of setting up a new club versus re-launching a club
The roles of the club sponsor and mentor
How can building a new club improve my leadership skills and help me with Toastmasters Leadership Awards? (for example the High Performance Leadership Project)
Finance - how to plan and manage the financing of new clubs

Please bring club members/colleagues and friends who might be interested in helping to share the benefits of Toastmasters - by opening a new club, increasing membership and honing their leadership skills. From personal experience I can say you will learn a lot! I've found myself making use of the lessons I've learned very effectively in a business context.

Everyone is welcome – though I must have names by close on Wed 11th Nov to ensure you get through security! Please email me to confirm your attendance..

Venue: London Underground, Templar House, 81-87 High Holborn, London WC1V 6NU Tel: 0207 038 4454

Time: 7pm-9pm

Bloomsbury Speakers launches. Can you help at coming meetings?

2009-11-05T18:40:45+00:00

From Nazia Soon and Craig Reid, Bloomsbury Speakers

We would like to announcement in the the birth of the latest addition to the Toastmasters family, a relation to Holborn Speakers.....Bloomsbury Speakers!

It's all very exciting as starting a new Toastmasters public speaking club is an adventure and a challenge. We had a "Taster Event" as part of the October Festival for Learning on 26th October, supported by the Speakers Trust. It was aimed at attracting members of the community who do not have access to training in public speaking. It was a great success and well attended. We had the privilege of learning from DTMs Evelyn and Philip Khan Panni and members of other clubs attending as well as many Holborn members.

We are planning to meet on the second and fourth Mondays of the month from 6.30 to 8.30 pm.

Our next meeting will be on 9th November at the Rugby Tavern in Great James St, WC1N 3ES (same venue as Holborn Speakers). We'd appreciate support from other Toastmasters who would like to take roles or do speeches.

If you can come along and help us please email Craig. It would be wonderful to have you with us as we grow!

London Toastmasters Educational Awards October 2009

2009-11-03T00:28:22+00:00

Posted by Dorothea Stuart

Four educational awards were achieved by London Toastmasters in this special month - the Toastmasters International 85th Anniversary. Congratulations to everyone who gained an award this particular month. Look forward to seeing many more of you complete awards before the end of 2009!

Competent Communicator

Andrew P Bennett. Berkeley Square Speakers. Area 45

Elek Votin. NZICA Bank Speakers. Area 33

Competent Leader

Gray Standen. Riverside Communicators. Area 29

Advanced Leader Bronze

Chris Jolly. West London Speakers. Area 29

Educational Awards	Last Year 2008/09	October 2009	Division B year to date
Competent Communicator	65	2	10
Advanced Comm Bronze	12	-	-
Advanced Comm Silver	6	-	1
Advanced Comm Gold	3	-	-
Competent Leader	28	1	1
Adv Leader Bronze	8	1	3
Adv Leader Silver	2	-	-
Leadership Excellence Award	4	-	-
Distinguished Toastmaster(DTM)	1	-	-
Total	129	4	15

Still time to book your place at the Toastmasters Conference in York

2009-11-03T00:26:32+00:00

Posted by Dorothea Stuart

The Toastmasters UK & Ireland Conference takes place in York from 13-15 November 2009. There are still a few rooms at the hotel for Saturday night. Remember York is only 2 hours on the train from Kings Cross.

What will you get by coming to the conference?

UK & Ireland, District 71 finals of the Table Topics and Humorous Speech Contests
Great workshops including one by former hostage negotiator Richard Mullender
A chance to have your say at the District 71 Council Meeting
Networking with other Toastmasters...

You can read more about the conference at www.whiteroseconference.org where you can see the agenda and make your booking. You can come for the whole weekend starting on Friday evening or attend part of the conference. All the options are explained on the website, for example coming to the daytime events only on Saturday including lunch is only £40 . There are plenty of other hotel and B&Bs in York if you want to come from Friday evening.

Come and give our London Division B contestants in the Humorous Speech Contest (Bob Ferguson - Excalibur Speakers) and Table Topics Contest (Paul Carroll - London Athenians) your support. We'd love you to join us.

ACCA Central London Breakfast Club - Launch 11 November 2009

2009-11-01T17:05:06+00:00

From Monica Liljeroth

A new Toastmasters club is being launched in partnership with Deloitte. It will offer ACCA members in particular and also other finance professionals the opportunity to improve their communication and leadership skills - following a proven successful path.

ACCA Central London is one of the largest networks in the UK serving members both in and around London. The motto for 2010 is ENGAGE. Forming a toastmasters club is just one of several new initiatives we're taking. The aim of the club is to provide a forum for development with an emphasis on the financial world. Many finance professionals find that they lack both communication and leadership skills. These needs change as they progress through their career and we feel a toastmaster group will enhance this progression.

The first meeting will take place on Wednesday 11 November at 07.15am for a 07.30am start (finish 8.30-8.45). Two further meetings will follow on Thursday 26 November and Wednesday 9 December. Regular meeting dates/venues for 2010 will be confirmed soon.

We are looking for toastmasters from other clubs to come and help us out over the next few months. Most roles for the launch date have now been filled but we need to fill roles for the following two meetings urgently. Your assistance will be greatly appreciated.

Please email me or call 020-922-9111 - let me know which club you are from and the role/s you can help us with. If you're a finance professional who'd like to attend I'd love to hear from you too.

11 November – Deloitte, 2 New Street Square, London EC4

26 November and 9 December – Deloitte, Athene Place, 66 Shoe Lane EC4

I look forward to meeting you soon.

Toastmasters 85th Anniversary - Listen to the Podcast

2009-11-01T16:43:06+00:00

Posted by Dorothea Stuart

As we thank Dr Ralph Smedley for starting Toastmasters why not listen to the podcast? Including:

an interview with the longest serving member Mike Avedissian who joined in February 1955

members of the first Toastmasters club in Istanbul

Rebecca Hong from Toastmasters in Shanghai

Click here to listen to the podcast.

The previous podcast is from the tallest Toastmaster Mark Eaton (7ft 4ins) - motivational speaker and former NBA Allstar.

Pep up those Powerpoint Presentations

2009-10-31T14:39:54+00:00

Thanks to Chaunce Stanton, Toastmaster in Greater Minneapolis

Have to sit through boring Powerpoint presentations? Here are some ideas including the science behind them to make sure you make your presentations interesting. Listen, watch and learn!

You Killed It! Slidecast

View more presentations from Chaunce Stanton.

The Rewards of a London Toastmasters Contest Night

2009-10-26T23:00:00+00:00

From Camilla Allwood, Women in Banking & Finance Speakers - Canary Wharf

I thoroughly enjoyed the Division contests on Wednesday 21 October: The humorous speeches were terrific - funny, warm and really engaging - and the Table Topics on ‘Seeing red’ were just as fabulous. Bob Ferguson hooked us all with his exasperation and helplessness in the face of "chips with everything". Paul Carroll’s tongue in cheek dismissal of the re-rise of the red faction in Britain in the form of the current postal workers strike could easily have been a prepared speech. Both winning speeches were topical, amusing, self-effacing, carefully crafted and beautifully delivered.

Yet this master-class in speechcraft wasn't the main reason I enjoyed the evening so much. Seeing Toastmaster friends from other clubs that I haven’t seen for months or years was lovely too. It reminded me of the many fun, and challenging, times we've shared together. Even this wasn't the highlight for me. The part of the evening I enjoyed most, and I'll remember most, came later on.

I'd spent the interval catching up with dear friends. Returning to my seat, I realised two of the newest members of my club, Kes and Ruby, had spent most of the break chatting to each other. Now, these two young women are by no means shy or retiring wallflowers. At the start of the evening they'd found other Toastmasters to talk to. But, sitting down next to them, I suddenly felt very selfish. I'd not thought to include them in my merry whirl of socialising. I immediately resolved make amends.

At the end of the contest I introduced Kes and Ruby to a number of Toastmaster friends from other clubs. All were genuinely happy to meet these two novices, and were able to offer warm, wise and encouraging words of support. I don't doubt they enjoyed meeting several long-standing and distinguished Toastmasters but, in fact, I think I was the one most pleased. The generosity of spirit and the kindness of these Toastmaster members towards two beginners touched me deeply and made me feel very rich and very proud. I left the meeting feeling uplifted and inspired. The contest speeches had provided an outstanding source of learning but supporting Kes and Ruby gave me a much more personal boost.

I've been a member of my club for over 6 years and my Toastmasters journey is well under way. I still have many personal goals and challenges I want to achieve. But helping new members get off to a firm start by encouraging them to engage with the much wider Toastmasters world that exists beyond our own club is something that gives me huge pleasure.

By attending Area and Division contests and events and by making links with other Toastmasters and other clubs we give ourselves a yardstick to measure our own personal achievements and the value of our own home club. These are the things that keep me coming back for more. I'm delighted when other members are able to participate and share in my Toastmasters journey and there is something very rewarding about being able to help a fellow club member at the start of his or her own Toastmasters journey. For me it's both a pleasure and a privilege.

And, the next time you meet me, lest I forget again, do please remind me to introduce my club’s newest members. I’ll be delighted to do so.