Meeting Report for Wednesday 12th February, 2020

The evening began with Robin calling us to order, before handing over to our president, Nick. He then introduced our Toastmaster for the evening, David.
Lynne wore two hats tonight - she performed both the Meet & Greet role and stepped in at the last moment to be Timekeeper, as our scheduled Timekeeper suffered a calendar mix up.

After our guests had been invited on stage, Debbie, our Table Topics Master challenged us with a number of well-chosen questions. Each TT contestant was evaluated for 15-45 seconds by a member of the audience immediately after they have completed their talk.

We then moved on to our prepared speeches. Monika's speech was "Pathways is Coming to Town" - Speeches by Management #5 - Delivering Bad News. This was followed by Freddie, with "An Award for David" - Specialist Occasion Speeches #4 - Presenting an Award. Thirdly, Ian delivered "Selective Moral Disengagement in the Exercise of Moral Agency" - Speaking to Inform #5 - The Abstract Concept. 

The speeches were expertly evaluated fir 2-3 mins each by Ken, Brian and Sarah.

We then enjoyed an excellent additional item: our data scientist guest Eduardo, after analysing thousands of TED talks, spoke for 10 minutes to reveal the secrets of effective public speaking. As they were "secrets", I'm not sharing them here...

Chinkata ran the open feedback session - in which members and guests are invited to contribute additional commendations (2 mins) and recommendations (1 minute) to each of those who had delivered speeches. 

Julie then delivered an insightful 10 minute Open Feedback on everyone who hadn't been previously evaluated. 

President Nick then awarded the prizes: Sarah was red hot tonight, scooping best Table Topic and best Evaluator, and congratulations to Ian, who won Best Speaker. 

Our next meeting is at 19:00 on Wednesday 26th February, at The Fitzrovia Community Centre, 2 Foley Street, W1W 6DN. Guests are very welcome!