Thanks to all Toastmasters and to the many guests – especially also to Helene Kriström, the Area Governor – for making this meeting a special, joyful and entertaining evening! Kevin, the Toastmaster of the Evening, guided us smoothly and professionally through the meeting so that we finished with Swiss precision at exactly 21:27 – as the agenda calculator had predicted.
Once again, the speeches were very varied reflecting the different cultural, professional and personal backgrounds of their presenters. While Michelle warned to us with Latin temperament about the many pitfalls of “big data”, Noah – who in “real life” is a professional voice trainer – vividly illustrated the different ways we can use our voice. Furthermore, he explained to us that the sounds we produce on a daily level (called language) are not unique to the human race. Instead, they have been there long before Homo sapiens appeared on stage. And Mai, the third speaker, convinced us that age is not per se an energy-draining problem but rather the fact that while moving into adulthood, we loose our ability to play and to get a good night’s sleep. So good luck with trying to convince your boss to install a playground and a relaxing zone in your office! 😀
The evaluators – Hui Mei, Vaclav and Ben – were well prepared and gave valuable feedback. They not only commended the speakers on their achievements but also included suggestions of how to do even better next time. As Gabor, the General Evaluator of the Evening, pointed out, it is always a challenge to address the critical aspects of a presentation. The art lies in phrasing the feedback in a way that the speaker doesn’t feel discouraged but rather motivated.
A warm welcome to our new members, Zhe and Tim, who were inducted last night! They now can start to participate in all communicator and leadership roles.
We’ll meet again in two weeks time, on September 3rd. Up to now, 4 speakers have signed up – so we’ll have a full program. However, you can still sign up for other roles.
Don’t forget: On September 17th Noah will give a workshop on vocal variety. The workshop is open to all our members. Please sign up ASAP since we cannot accommodate more than 20-25 participants.
Also: On October 1st we’ll have our humorous speech and Table Topic Contest. All members who have completed 6 speeches in their CC Manual can participate in the Speech Contest. No such requirements exit in the Table Topic Contest. Here, all of you are welcome to participate. So don’t hesitate – embrace the challenge, it’s definitely worth it.
Take care and see you all soon – Nicola
