Ascot & Bracknell Speakers recently hosted an open evening for those interested in finding out more about the Club, and the organizing party put on a great show! We had two engaging speakers, many brave people stepping up for table topics and a delicious feast in the middle. What more could we want?

Bravo for the Brave

After the usual warm and energetic welcome from our President, Helena, we got on with the speeches. First up was a brave new member who only joined the previous week, Ian, with his ice breaker, ‘My Comedy of Errors: The Travel & Public Speaking Edition’. He told us a familiar story, of freezing when being asked to speak on behalf of his boss, before telling us about a trip to the Grand Canyon and his real motivation for being here – to improve his skills to prepare for future career progression so that he can fund his travels. With one speech behind him, he’s already on his way!

Our second speaker, Chris, was at the other end of his speaking journey as a district winner. With his speech, ‘(Not so) Chatty Man’, we followed in Chris’ footsteps from when he started out feeling awkward speaking in meetings, as so many of us do, to finally deciding, ‘this is it, I’m joining Toastmasters NOW!’ and then….one year later finally joining Toastmasters. It may have taken a while but once in, he threw himself in with delivering speeches and found that he enjoyed the impromptu speaking the most as it is a chance to stand up and say or do whatever inspires you in the moment (within reason!). He has since delivered workshops on public speaking and is part of an improv club. An inspiring story for us all!

A Fantastic Feast

We then paused to partake of the delicious buffet of cake, cheese, crackers, tea, juice which provided much needed sustenance and strength for us for the next part of the agenda, which gets most people’s hearts racing – the Table Topics (impromptu speaking).

How Much Do You Love Cats?

Our Table Topics Toastmaster, Tracey, explained the purpose of the session, which is to speak on whatever surprise topic you are given for between one and two and a half minutes.  All our guests took part, which was impressive, and we heard about cats, capybaras, horses, helicopters, and dancing on point to name just a few topics.

Tracey then handed over to Helena for the two speech evaluations. Some great feedback was shared, here are the top three tips that we can all take away:

• Use a thesaurus to add colour to your vocabulary.
• Make use of the stage to move around, and make sure any pacing has a purpose.
• Pause to allow the audience time to laugh; if they don’t laugh move on and don’t take it personally (they may still love your speech!).

Our last few role-holders took their place on stage for the grammarian feedback and the general evaluator insights before Helena took to the stage for the last time to wrap up with a standing ovation for Ian’s first speech (celebration is a big part of Toastmasters) and loud applause for all our guests who participated.

Thank you everyone for a great evening!

Want to join us as a guest and see if Toastmasters is for you? Our next meeting is on Monday 23rd June at 7.30pm. We hope to see you there. We will have cake!