Tuesday, August 18, 2015
My award-winning speech evaluation Aug 18 2015 of Thulassi's speech on diabetes
Thulassi has such a soothing voice I could listen to her all evening, even if I couldn't understand a word she said - I just love listening to her! I can see you and everybody smiling and nodding because you agree with me. Don't you? Yes!
Her subject, diabetes, is both technical and scientific and personal. I was interested because my late father had diabetes, so I might develop it. I wondered how many other people in the room were as interested as I was.
I thought she could have started by finding out, asking, 'how many people have a family member who has diabetes, or a friend or neighbour or colleague?'
Even if only one hand goes up, that proves, and she could say, everybody in the room knows somebody who is affected - the person who put up their hand.
I'd like to know and hear from her a statistic or generalisation. I received through the post this morning a leaflet from he Diabetes UK Society, saying that the numbers of people affected in the UK have doubled.
Doubled compared with what? I can't remember. You have to be careful with half-remembered dramatic statistics. Doubled since when? The statistician in my family asks me, compared to what? This month versus last month, this month compared to the same month last year, this year versus last year, this year compared with ten years ago.
Her project was practising using slides. Her slides well researched. Very technical.
I suggest she needs to add a slide with the glossary of technical terms used. I didn't understand ........... (several technical terms and acronyms).
I'd always worried what went into drugs. She answered my worst fears. Insulin drugs used to be made with bits of pigs. However, now production is safer. You could also see the production workers' safety masks.
The slide I liked most was the men in masks making insulin. She used the positive word safety. Reassuring.
To sum up, great delivery, of a subject which affects many of us - show us how many of us. Several great slides, just add one with a glossary.
Then you'll have perfected a well-delivered, well-researched, reassuring speech about how we can trust scientific advances to improve the lives of those in our community.
Her summary was good. Announce you are summarising. I could see when she started summarising everyone was sitting with their hands raised. Make sure, as you near the end, everyone's ready, prepared to applaud you.
One final tip, for your last line, your punchline, slow down, pause, emphatically, pick out one word in your sentence which is vital and make that word loud and clear. Put the most important word at the end of your last sentence, as I am now, so that people know, this is - the - end! Thalami, great speech!
(I smiled and nodded towards her and applauded, pausing, as the audience continued clapping) to shake the hand of the Toastmaster of the evening (TME).
Meetings Dates
Evaluation given at Harrovians Speakers' Club, meeting Stanmore at Glebe Hall, Glebe Road, usually on the first, third and fifth Mondays, except when a bank holiday changes the schedule. See website for details. Websites exist for individual clubs and Toastmasters International Find a club. Speakers' clubs are in more than a hundred countries worldwide, in many cities of the USA where the organisation started nearly a hundred years ago in 1924, as well as Europe and Asia and many parts of the world. If you don't have a club in your country, social group, community centre or workplace, you can ask Toastmasters International for help. If there's an experienced toastmaster in your country, they can get free starter kits for about 20 members to help you launch a new club.
Next month, September, is the time of the Toastmasters' International autumn contests, Humorous Speech Contest and Table Topics Contests. These contests are open to the public, occasionally free to contestants, often free to guests if held in a local community centre, sometimes a charge to members and guests because of the cost of hiring a large venue and catering.
Angela Lansbury B A Honours, past president of Harrovians' Speakers' Club,
author of:
Quick Quotations for speakers and writers;
Who Said What When (quotations for speeches every day of the year, featuring birthdays, famous last words, presidential speeches, anniversaries and events).
Her subject, diabetes, is both technical and scientific and personal. I was interested because my late father had diabetes, so I might develop it. I wondered how many other people in the room were as interested as I was.
I thought she could have started by finding out, asking, 'how many people have a family member who has diabetes, or a friend or neighbour or colleague?'
Even if only one hand goes up, that proves, and she could say, everybody in the room knows somebody who is affected - the person who put up their hand.
I'd like to know and hear from her a statistic or generalisation. I received through the post this morning a leaflet from he Diabetes UK Society, saying that the numbers of people affected in the UK have doubled.
Doubled compared with what? I can't remember. You have to be careful with half-remembered dramatic statistics. Doubled since when? The statistician in my family asks me, compared to what? This month versus last month, this month compared to the same month last year, this year versus last year, this year compared with ten years ago.
Her project was practising using slides. Her slides well researched. Very technical.
I suggest she needs to add a slide with the glossary of technical terms used. I didn't understand ........... (several technical terms and acronyms).
I'd always worried what went into drugs. She answered my worst fears. Insulin drugs used to be made with bits of pigs. However, now production is safer. You could also see the production workers' safety masks.
The slide I liked most was the men in masks making insulin. She used the positive word safety. Reassuring.
To sum up, great delivery, of a subject which affects many of us - show us how many of us. Several great slides, just add one with a glossary.
Then you'll have perfected a well-delivered, well-researched, reassuring speech about how we can trust scientific advances to improve the lives of those in our community.
Her summary was good. Announce you are summarising. I could see when she started summarising everyone was sitting with their hands raised. Make sure, as you near the end, everyone's ready, prepared to applaud you.
One final tip, for your last line, your punchline, slow down, pause, emphatically, pick out one word in your sentence which is vital and make that word loud and clear. Put the most important word at the end of your last sentence, as I am now, so that people know, this is - the - end! Thalami, great speech!
(I smiled and nodded towards her and applauded, pausing, as the audience continued clapping) to shake the hand of the Toastmaster of the evening (TME).
Meetings Dates
Evaluation given at Harrovians Speakers' Club, meeting Stanmore at Glebe Hall, Glebe Road, usually on the first, third and fifth Mondays, except when a bank holiday changes the schedule. See website for details. Websites exist for individual clubs and Toastmasters International Find a club. Speakers' clubs are in more than a hundred countries worldwide, in many cities of the USA where the organisation started nearly a hundred years ago in 1924, as well as Europe and Asia and many parts of the world. If you don't have a club in your country, social group, community centre or workplace, you can ask Toastmasters International for help. If there's an experienced toastmaster in your country, they can get free starter kits for about 20 members to help you launch a new club.
Next month, September, is the time of the Toastmasters' International autumn contests, Humorous Speech Contest and Table Topics Contests. These contests are open to the public, occasionally free to contestants, often free to guests if held in a local community centre, sometimes a charge to members and guests because of the cost of hiring a large venue and catering.
Angela Lansbury B A Honours, past president of Harrovians' Speakers' Club,
author of:
Quick Quotations for speakers and writers;
Who Said What When (quotations for speeches every day of the year, featuring birthdays, famous last words, presidential speeches, anniversaries and events).
Labels: contest, evaluation, Harrovians Speakers Club, Humorous Speech Contest, insulin, Quick Quotations, ribbon, safety, slides, start a club, Table Topics Contest, TME, Toastmasters International, Who Said What When
Monday, November 10, 2014
What I learned from Toastmasters Conference and Humorous Speech Contest at Brighton 2014
The autumn Toastmasters conference was held at Brighton and I stayed in the contest hotel, The Thistle.
From the bedroom window I could see the coloured lights in the atrium lounge below and right through the building to the sea beyond.
Friday night started with a fancy dress party on the theme of Halloween. (For pictures of that see later post.)
Workshops included Gaynor on Gestures.
Gaynor was brilliant, entertaining as well as informative. She reminded us about using the whole stage, sometimes to show a physical journey, or to progress through time, but not walking back and forth aimlessly and distractingly.
Improv with the Maydays
Table Topics Contest
I'm planning to use my experiences at the conference for a speech to clubs about what I learned from the contests and workshops.
The Impromptu Table Topics Contestants' Speeches
The impromptu speeches are great fun. The topic was, You have been chosen to star in a TV commercial ... what is your favourite TV event and why?
The first speaker reminisced about the Fall of The Berlin Wall, a major historical event which gave a feeling of hope. He had two topics. What did I learn from listening to a topic impromptu speech containing two stories?
The difficulty with two anecdotes is that you must tie the two subjects together, transition from one to the next confidently and fluently. You must use only the barest pause. A long pause leaves the audience anxious that you have lost your way, or that they are missing the connection between the two subjects.
Finally you must clearly summarise mentioning both, without being repetitive and leaving your listeners again wondering - what's the connection between these two subjects? You must not merely summarise but find a dramatic, surprising, preferably witty punchline, reflecting both topics.
The Planned Humorous Speeches
David Jones, always humorous.
Humorous Speech Contest Winner
A speech confronting our fears of terrorism and making us feel comfortable. A man with a big black beard describing how somebody sees him and shouts, 'Terrorist!' So he throws himself on the ground. Then realises that the warning refers to him.
Here's the winner of the Humorous Speech competition holding his trophy.
Labels: Contest Winner, Humorous Speech Contest, Improv, Speakers Clubs, Toastmasters International
