Spring signals new growth – flowers or speeches!
Despite a windy, rainy, cold February, the vibe at Ascot & Bracknell Speakers was distinctly cheery. Mike, our Toastmaster, introduced Spring as the theme for the evening and with three speeches covering hobbies, making a difference and travels across a continent, by the end of the meeting we all had a spring in our step!
What brings you joy, fulfilment and purpose?
These were the themes from our three speakers.
Collette asked us to recall the fun we had as children pursuing hobbies. Most of us give up our early hobbies as pressures of life take over, and Colette inspired us to revisit these early passions as she shared her story of how she ‘stumbled across the opportunity to play ladies softball cricket’. Sharing great experiences with the team, Collette isn’t likely to give this hobby up any time soon! What a motivation for us to heed her encouragement to embrace the joy of a hobby and (re-)find our passion.
Our second speaker, Simon C., took the ‘stage’ next, brimming with excitement and passion about his speech on fostering. He immediately got our attention with his introductory statistic that 70,000 children live in 55,000 foster homes in the UK – and more fosterers are needed. Simon and his family are fosterers; it took years of thinking about it before they committed, and he said the rewards are great. He wishes he had done it sooner as he’s become a better parent with the support that he has had from the Fostering Network.
Our third speaker, Dev, delivered his Icebreaker, introducing us to the key people who have influenced his life. His father taught Dev about hard work and perseverance through adversity. A true guiding force for Dev as he carved his own future. We then met an inspirational leader, who encouraged and guided Dev in his early career. Dev was able to use these strong foundations to make the difficult decision to search for new opportunities when he no longer felt he was being challenged, and so began his journey across the continents to the UK.
Top tips for public speaking
Our three evaluators, Adetoun, Amanda and Karl, provided useful feedback – some top tips:
- Good use of props and body language helps connect the audience with the speaker and the topic
- Find ways to cut back on notes, it will set you free to add in gestures and body language
- Maintain a sweeping gaze across the audience, making occasional, brief eye contact
Thinking on your feet, with Spring in your step
Six people stepped up to talk for 1-2 minutes about a topic related to Spring, set by our energetic Table Topics Master, Amanda. Tales abounded of daffodils, exercising outdoors, creativity and the general joy of the clocks changing. We all seemed to agree, we were ready for Spring!
It was noted by our General Evaluator, Graham, that we were a bit too eager to run from the stage after the minimum time! He encouraged us to brave it out for a while longer, to really practice the skill of structuring a micro speech in the moment.
With rousing applause, we celebrated our winners for the evening, before wrapping up and heading home.
Huge congrats to:
- Dev – Recognition Award for Icebreaker
- Karl – Recognition Award for first time Evaluator
- Kerry – Best Table Topic
- Amanda – Best Evaluator
- Collette, Simon, Dev – great speeches all round; no voting took place as all speeches need to be within the time allocation to be included.
Are you ready to spring into action and develop your presentation and leadership skills? Join us for our next meeting on Wednesday, 13th March. Contact us for more information.
Ascot & Bracknell Speakers 