What an entertaining Excalibur experience we had at our latest meeting on Wednesday, 12 October 2016
Freddie Daniells put on his first hat of the meeting and called us to order, before transitioning into the President role on behalf of Lynne Cantor. As ever he ignited the meeting with his everlasting exuberant energy, whilst sharing the importance of knowing your audience. The much more stable, poised and composed Tony Winyard then took command and equilibrium was restored as he took on the role of Toastmaster for the evening.
Paul Andreas kept us to time as Cat Kipling kicked off the Table Topics with a theme of persuasion reminding us that “no-one is safe” from being called up to deliver a Table Topic or an immediate evaluation! Topics included Cats vs Dogs, North vs South, Fact vs Fiction, Books vs Film, Arts vs Science and British vs Citizens of the World.
Chinkata Okpara led the first of three prepared speeches sharing tales of his brother during his best man’s speech from the Entertaining Speaker manual project 5 ‘Speaking After Dinner’.
Freddie Daniells put on his third hat of the evening with his Speciality Speech 3 ‘Sell a Product’ persuading Tony Winyard to accept his coaching services. (FD - Tony didn't stand a chance! lol!)
Sergey Karassov then stood into the breech at the last minute and pulled out a mini workshop from his back pocket on body language. He showed us just how much can be communicated by the use of body language alone and by demonstrating the art of silence!
Giovanna Vasaturo evaluated Chinkata, Katja van Koten evaluated Freddie, and guest Tissa Dissanayaka fed back on Sergay.
Suzi Fish facilitated the open feedback session, and then the whole meeting was humorously evaluated by Glen “Mr Tickle” Savage, a guest General Evaluator from Riverside Communicators. He started by mocking our agenda where it suggests that the GE "evaluates feedback on everyone who has not spoken…” Hmmm… perhaps we need to amend the agenda on that one!! His evaluation used the GIT formula - no, not Gross, Irritating and Tragic, but Grabbed Me, an Invitation, Tickled Me including the observation that “learning is fun” at Excalibur!
Freddie and Glen both shared the prize for Best Table Topic...
...Chinkata won the Best Speech...
...and Tissa was the Best Evaluator on the night.
(Don't ask what was going on here!)
We had 6 guests join us from places as far flung as Aberdeen, India, Sri Lanka and Ukraine and we look forward to seeing them again. Three suggested that they may join!
Our next meeting will be our Open Evening Showcase on Wednesday 26th October at Fitzrovia Community Centre from 6:45 for a 7pm prompt start. Please contact Freddie Daniells if you would like to attend as a guest as space is limited.
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