Updates & Posts Archives - Page 61 of 62 - Toastmasters UK South

Champion tips for winning a speech contest

19 August 20152 March 2015 by Susan Rayner

Have you ever imagined that you could the person winning a speech contest?

Bob Ferguson has won the district Evaluation Contest, the Humorous Speech Contest and the International Speech Contest. He is well qualified to give us some top tips!

He has said on many occasions that entering contests is one of the best ways to help you improve your public speaking skills. The added focus means that you learn an improve quickly. To put it another way winning a speech contest is a great learning experience.

1. Record your speech ideas in a book as they come along. This way you’ll have plenty of good ideas when it comes to writing a speech.
2. Use a personal story in your speech to hook the audience in emotional. You want them to feel involved in what they’re hearing.
3. Remember to think about “What’s in it for me” (WIIFM) from the audience’s viewpoint. Speeches are always more compelling when they address our needs.
4. Listen to other speakers. See what they do that builds rapport with the audience. Can you customise that technique to your style?
5. The key to a good humorous speech is to think how many people will recognise the humorous situations you describe. Good observational humour, where everyone recognises the humour, will make it easy for them to laugh. Personal jokes that only you appreciate can be hard to deliver. They can also get a blank response! This is true for the humorous speech contest. It also applies if you are bringing humour into your speech for the International contest.
6. Practice doing your manual speeches outside your club to build your confidence in front of different audiences.
7. Prepare for your club speech like it’s the District final. Every District champion starts by winning a club contest and it could be your club – imagine if you beat them!
8. Record yourself practicing and put it on a CD or MP3. Play it in your car while you drive around. That way you learn the speech by a natural learning method and you can think while you learn.
9. Don’t rehearse in front of a mirror it can be distracting. Instead, video yourself and watch it back. This may take a little getting used to but it will be very worthwhile.
10. Get as much stage time as possible. Look for every opportunity – family groups, business meetings. Grab the opportunity to practice your competition speech in front of anyone you can.

Bob’s top tip for the International Speech Contest

Look ahead to the finals of the World Championship of Public Speaking

**For International Speech competitors start writing three speeches as soon as possible. Most winners of the International speech are not focussed on competing in the World Semi-Finals held at the International Convention. They forget their winning District speech took a lot of effort to polish. Enter the contest with three speeches so that you’re ready if you win.**

Churchill: great rhetorical devices

7 September 202031 January 2015 by Susan Rayner

From Paul Carroll, President 104 London Debaters

Rhetorical devices: the master Churchill — Winston Churchill: Master of rhetorical devices

This week marked the 50th anniversary of the death of Sir Winston Churchill and many commemorations have been published.

As a public speaking club, we specially remember the power of his leadership through communication. Indeed, when Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature the citation read: For his mastery of historical and biographical description, as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values. [Click here to see the citation]

In his biography of Churchill Roy Jenkins explained that on a visit to New York in his early days in politics he met a Tammany Hall politician whose oratory had a great effect on him. “I must record the strong impression this remarkable man made upon my untutored mind. I have never seen his like, or in some respects, his equal.” This was an Irish immigrant named Bourke Cockran, who became a US Congressman. “He was my model, “Churchill said, “I learned from him how to hold thousands in thrall”. [Read article here]

In his school days at Harrow, young Winston, being poor at Latin, did treble English and clearly put his heart into it. He has left us with many examples of skillful use of language and rhetorical devices.

Here is a small sampling of some of those rhetorical devices:

Spring 2015 Tower Conference

7 October 202020 January 2015 by Susan Rayner

Spring is in air! Well, not quite – but it is here at Toastmasters UK South District 91!

The conference team are excited to announce the launch of District 91’s very first Spring Conference – Spring 2015 Tower Conference – with its own dedicated website! The conference will be held over Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 May 2015 at the Grange City Hotel in the heart of London and the team are busy putting together a jam packed programme that will whet any Toastmaster’s appetite.

One meeting: two continents

7 September 20207 November 2014 by Susan Rayner

From Daniel Broadhead, President Berkeley Square Speakers

Why not have public speaking in two continents at once? Creating video-linked Toastmasters’ meetings with other clubs in other countries and even on different continents to your own is a stunning experience and eminently possible for you to achieve. We invite you to be inspired to make such a meeting and, in the words below, be enabled to make it happen!

Our vision for this year at Berkeley Square Speakers is to create breakthroughs for our members in our personal and professional lives. A key way we inspire these personal breakthroughs is by achieving breakthroughs as a club. To this objective, and inspired by a letter in May 2014 Toastmasters Magazine by Bruce Yang DTM, Bruce talks of a more connected global toastmasters community, and using teleconferencing to achieve this. On 3 November 2014 in the spirit of “Nation shall speak peace unto Nation” Berkeley Square Speakers, in Mayfair, London, held our inaugural intercontinental toastmasters meeting with Swakupmund Toastmasters in Namibia, by live video link.

2014 11 03 BSS and Swakupmund Toastmaste

At the meeting we enjoyed a powerful icebreaker from from Mari-Claire Rencs from Swakupmund Toastmasters on the obstacles she has overcome to become a chartered accountant and we received an eye opening CC9 speech of discovery from Saskia Kort of Berkeley Square Speakers on the Gorilla that exist across Africa that Saskia is going to visit on a forthcoming trip to the continent. Our Table Topics Master Kate Rowland, in London, ran an inspired topics session across the two clubs, picking out toastmasters in London and via the screen in Swakumpmund.

I declare this website formally launched!

7 October 202016 October 2014 by Susan Rayner

From Hilary Briggs, District Governor D91 UK South

I’m delighted to formally launch the new website we have developed for all Toastmasters within District 91 – UK South: http://d91toastmasters.org.uk/.

The purpose of the site is to:

Highlight news items and external media coverage across the District
Enable members to share knowledge and best practice – for instance briefings for contests, key dates for the District, where to find key information
Publicise events such as workshops, contests and socials

It is designed to complement the other three websites that are fundamental to our success:

The easy-Speak Club Management system (www.toastmasterclub.org) which is the District’s preferred tool for members to book their meeting roles and keep track of their progress
Our public-facing website (www.toastmasters.org.uk/), covering Britain and Ireland, which is focused on providing information and raising awareness about Toastmasters to non-members
The Toastmasters International website (www.toastmasters.org) which is used for updating your member profiles, to order supplies, to track performance across the District, to act as a font of knowledge and for Club Treasurers to pay dues

The site is the start of something new which we hope will improve communications between our members.

I’m most grateful to all the hard work behind the scenes by Tazud Miah, Dorothea Stuart and Jean Gamester in particular for enabling us to launch this site.

Please give us your feedback on the site and ideas for how you’d like to see it progress.