Meeting on Wednesday 10th October 2018

The club met on 10th October for another high quality and entertaining evening. After (acting) President Freddie had started the evening off, he handed over to Toastmaster Errol, who steered the good ship Excalibur with his usual usual finesse. Table Topics Master was Ben and Timekeeper David kept everything on (err...) time.

Our four guests (including our GE Adolfo, who later performed this role with great energy and insight) were introduced by Harsha. Each told us a little about themselves.

Table Topics Master Ben then fired a range of randomly selected questions at a number of eager participants. Whether explaining, "Why I love sharks", "Why French food is superior to Italian" or "Why horse riding should be taught in schools", none of the questions managed to throw a participant. Not that they were intended to.

Our prepared speeches were given firstly by Robin, "An Irish Reading" (Speciality Speaking - 4 - Read Out Loud). The quality, excitement, erudition, pace, grammar, characterisation and interwoven subtleties of the first chapter of whatever book she chose to read from generated gasps from the on-the-edge-of-their-seats audience. The Table Topic Master was recorded as having made a comment to the effect that the content sounded vaguely familiar and your blog chronicler echoes that sentiment.

David then spoke for seven minutes as he took us on a fascinating trip that reached back to his schooldays, with, "What to Find and Where" (Innovative Planning - 2 - Evaluation and Feedback.

Our third speech was delivered by Chinkata, which was a practice of his competition-winning humorous speech, "In the name of the Father, the Son and the Grandfather". It produced laughs all around.

The speeches were evaluated by Paul, Ian and Simon before Lukasz ran the open feedback session, where members and guests made further commendations and recommendation on the speeches. This element of the evening is unusual - perhaps unique to Excalibur (which is an advanced Toastmasters club) -  and provides both more insights for the speakers' (and audience's) benefit, as well as an opportunity for more people to contribute to the evening.

Simon was on top form this evening, scooping the best Table Topics and evaluator awards. Chinkata was the winner of the best speaker award.

The evening was a great success. Many thanks to all who attended, including those who participated, whether with roles, spontaneous or prepared material.

Our next meeting is on Wednesday 24th October at the Fitzrovia Centre, 2 Foley Street, W1W 6DN. All are very welcome!   

 
 

Improve Your Slides!

Planning on using slides in a presentation? Well, there's more to it that just cramming every last bullet -pointed fact or photo into PowerPoint!

My thanks to Ian, who brought these useful articles to my attention.

Aspect Ratios: 

https://photography.tutsplus.com/articles/the-art-of-using-aspect-ratios-in-digital-photography--photo-7947

https://www.woodst.com/web-design-development/what-is-image-aspect-ratio-and-why-it-matters-a-lot/

The Golden Ratio:
http://emptyeasel.com/2009/01/20/a-guide-to-the-golden-ratio-aka-golden-section-or-golden-mean-for-artists/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio

2018 Excalibur Speakers Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contests

We held our annual Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contests on Wednesday 12th September in our Fitzrovia venue and unsurprisingly, the room was packed!

Sergeant at Arms, Marcin brought some order to the excited audience when he opened the meeting before handing over to the evening's President, Freddie, who then injected even more excitement and energy into the buzzing room! The Competition Chairperson, Sonia then took to the stage to explain how the contest works, the rules and the speaker order for the Humorous Speech Contest.

First on stage was Ian, with a speech titled "Kakistocracy"- which was a beautifully constructed discourse on the absurdity by which government and businesses are run by the very worst qualified people. Brain - looking dapper in his security guard outfit - was second on stage with his spooky-funny tale "A Night at the Museum". Third up was Monika, with "Professional Interviewee" in which she recounted the many lows and highs of job seeking before finally Chinkata, with "Father, Son and Grandfather", shared some of the experiences and lessons he'd learned via three generations of his family back in Nigeria. There were laughs aplenty but because Toastmasters doesn't allow filming of competitions, you'll have to take my word for it!

Next we had the Table Topics Contest, with contestants David, Simon, Brian, Ian and Chinkata ready to do (friendly) battle. The Table Topic question was, "Aliens have invaded Earth. Your boss wants to hire them. What do you tell your team to convince them this is a good idea?" Each provided a unique and clever answer within the allocated time and no contestants were disqualified in either this or the Humorous Speech Contest for time infringements.

When the votes were finally counted and recounted and rerecounted, it was time for the prize-giving. David won the Table Topics, with Chinkata second and Simon third. 

Prize certificates were awarded by the Chief Judge, Andy, who kept everything running smoothly throughout the entertaining evening. 

Chinkata won the Humorous Speech Contest with Monika in second place. David and Chinkata will now progress to the Area competition.

The evening was a great success and our next meeting starts at 7pm on Wednesday 26th September at the Fitzrovia Centre, 2 Foley Street, W1W 6DN - guests are very welcome!

  

Another fun-filled meeting!

Excalibur Meeting Report for 22nd August, 2018

The fourth Wednesday of the month brought us another excellent Excalibur meeting at the Fitzrovia Community Centre (2 Foley street, London W1W 6DN). A location selected for numerous reasons including the adjacent King and Queen public house, where (factoid alert) music legend Bob Dylan made his first European appearance.

Lukasz met and greeted our three guests: Tomasz, Paul and Aydin (who was GE for the evening) before Cat (recently awarded her DTM - so many congratulations to her!) called us to order.

With our club president Monika delivering a speech later that evening, the President's role was temporarily assigned to Robin, who inspired us with a (literally) delicious take on toast-making and how this skill is the (short)bread and butter of the accomplished speaker. Maybe you had to be there...

It was then time for Robin to hand over to Paul, our experienced Toastmaster for the evening, who brought experience and enthusiasm to the role.

Marcin then explained the Timekeeper role before the Toastmaster handed over to Ian, our Table Topics Master, who chose a thought-provoking back-to-school theme for the session. 

Participants included Cat, Lukasz, Tomasz, Robin, Chinkata and David who were evaluated by Lynne, Ben, Paul, Freddy, Marcin and Monika. 

It was then time for the prepared speeches. Monika began with a compelling speech titled "Project Atlas" (High Performance Leadership - 1 - Sharing Your Vision) which proposed a better way in which Toastmasters might display club distribution information. 

Eva then amused us with "Unexpected London" - a cultural examination of some of the major differences (of a largely liquid nature) between the UK and Taiwan (Humorously Speaking - 2 - Leave them with a Smile). Indeed Eva did leave us with a smile...as we bid her farewell as she returns to her native Taiwan. Investigations are underway to establish whether she will be travelling via her country's eponymous airline. 

Freddie then presented "How to Build Long Term Relationships through Sales" (The Professional Speaker - 3 - The Sales Training Speech). This twenty minute masterclass included an original insight that compared the sales methodology with the storyteller's hero's journey. 

The speeches were evaluated by Alfredo, Ben and Lynne which was followed by the Open Feedback session, facilitated by Chinkata. As an advanced Toastmasters club, Excalibur puts special emphasis on feedback, and this nine minute session allows members of the audience to add to what the previous speech evaluators have proposed, in the traditional commend-recommend-commend format. 

It was then time for the General Evaluator, Aydin to present his report on the club before we moved to the prize giving. Results were as follows:

Table Topics Winner: Robin

Best Evaluator(s): Lynne and Alfredo (Ben, who came dead last, will be attempting to employ the Freddy Daniells' evaluation technique next time. Details on request.)

Best Speech: Freddy

The next meeting will start at 7pm on Wednesday 12th September at the Fitzrovia Community Centre, W1W 6DN. 

     

Another Wonderful Excalibur Meeting...

EXCALIBUR SPEAKERS MEETING REPORT FOR 8^TH AUGUST, 2018

We enjoyed another fantastic meeting in the Fitzrovia Community Centre, with Ben calling the meeting to order before he handed over to club president Monika, who opened the meeting. She then introduced our Toastmaster for the evening, Alfredo, who took command.

Robin—who was performing the role of Meet and Greet—then invited our three guests on stage: Marti, Thomas and Edmund, who all told us a little about themselves and explained why they were visiting Excalibur, which is an advanced Toastmasters club.

Our Timekeeper was Nick, who explained his role before effortlessly keeping things on track throughout the evening.

Table Topics Master was Ian, whose topic was stupidity (!) though his questions were anything but. Ben, Thomas, David, Robin, Monika and Edmund all found something interesting to say, though members of the audience in general and Marcin in particular voiced doubts about the veracity of Ben’s claims to have punched (later to become) Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on the nose, back in the day. Evaluators were Marcin, Eva, Freddie, Cat, Simon and Errol.

 

The first prepared speech was delivered by Chinkata (Interpretive Reading 5 – The Oratorical Speech). He chose President Kennedy’s 1961 powerful inauguration address, written by Ted Sorensen. This is often considered one of the very greatest speeches and Chinkata did it justice with his flawless delivery.

Our second speaker, Lukasz (The Entertaining Speaker – 1 – The Entertaining Speech) was titled “How to Meet the Queen”. Not, as it turned out, QE2, but a damsel in his coffee shop! The audience shared his pain when it was revealed his carefully crafted advance was not entirely successful.

In our third speech, Cat (Storytelling – 5 – Bringing History to Life) recounted the mystery of the ten day disappearance of Agatha Christie in 1926. From a car abandoned at a quarry to denials of her identity, Cat kept us enthralled not just by the narrative, but also by her expert use of pauses.

Three insightful speech evaluations were delivered by Errol, Marcin and Sue.

Freddie then conducted the Open Feedback session—where audience members are invited to make commends and recommends on the evening’s speeches.

Our General Evaluator was Marti. When Marti commented that Nick, the Timekeeper, had performed so faultlessly that he couldn’t think of a single recommend, Nick helpfully volunteered him an extra two minutes to develop the point.

  

Alfredo then handed back to Monika, who announced the evening’s prize winners:

Table Topic Winner: Robin 

Best Evaluator: Errol

Best Speech: Cat

Our next meeting is at 19:00 on 22^nd August, 2018 at the Fitzrovia Community Centre, W1W 6DN. Guests are very welcome!

    

EXCALIBUR NEWS!

EXCALIBUR NEWS!