Last Thursday night in The Hibernian Hotel in Mallow saw the club heat of both the International Speech Contest and the Evaluation Contest.
In Toastmasters International there are five contests each year, The Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contests which are held in the Autumn and the International Speech and Evaluation Contests which are held in the spring.There is also a Tall Tales contest held in April.
The International Speech Contest is a contest in which there is a world champion, the final will be held at the International Convention in Connecticut USA on August 12-15th.
Each toastmasters club in the world are holding their contests about now and from one of them will come a world champion.
Before a large audience on Thursday night saw four of our club members delivering their speeches in the contest, and as the contest aims are to show how members benefit from their toastmasters training then no one could disagree on the benefits of toastmasters.
First to the lectern was Ray Ryan with his speech “Sword and Spear” followed by Michael Cronin with, “Making It”
Then it was Pat Sexton with, “Meeting with Martha” and Anne Buckley with, “The Red Crane”.
For the Evaluation Contest, Speak Easy Toastmasters were delighted to welcome the test speaker,
Paula Kelleher with her speech, “The Rules”. Paula is a member of Glanmire Toastmasters, and five of our members were in this contest to evaluate Paula’s speech and they were, Ray Ryan, Tony O’Regan ,Pat Sexton, Michael Cronin, and Margaret O’Regan.
The highest of standards once again prevailed in both contests and at the end of the meeting, when the judges votes were counted, Contest Chair, Pat Duggan announced the winners which were, 1st in the International Speech Contest was, Pat Sexton with Michael Cronin in 2nd place.
In the Evaluation Contest, the winner was Tony O’Regan with Pat Sexton as runner up.
Both Pat and Tony now go on to compete in the Area Final which will be held in The Grand Hotel, Fermoy on April 7th.The Division Final will be held in The Oriel House Hotel, Ballincollig on April 19th .
All toastmasters meetings require a team each night to make the meetings run smoothly and efficiently and this contest meeting was no different. With President Ray Ryan was Contest Chair, Pat Duggan, Topicsmaster, Bridie O’Connell.
Timekeepers were Mary Moynahan and Joe Hassett, and Demonstreation Speaker, Paula Kelleher.
Counters, Loretto Barry and Grant March with Sgt at Arms, Cáit Murray, Jean Sayers and Liam Flynn. Chief Judge was Sean Corcoran.
The Club would like to thank the judges on the night, both members and, especially judges who came from the other clubs.
Also last Thursday night the TV Programme, Capital D ran a segment on Dublin Toastmasters which can be seen on the RTE website, http://www.rte.ie/news/capitald/
Michael Cronins winning speech is now on Youtube and can be seen by searching for “Speak Easy Toastmasters Mallow”
Speak Easy Toastmasters meet again on Thursday, March 19th and also our theme meeting, “Rakes and Rebels” on April 2nd.
Further information on Speak Easy Toastmasters can be had on our website, www.speakeasytoastmasters.com or contact our Club PRO, Seán on 0866054784
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Humour is the thing
Whether you are an aspiring TV star, or a member of a local organization or just like to have a craic in a group you will at some stage need to use humour when you speak.
Humour is a great “ice breaker”. It shows especially, if you are in a position of authority over your audience that you are indeed human and you don’t take yourself or the occasion too seriously. Humour is also a great tool to win over audience, people pay more attention to a speaker who uses humour and of course humour keeps a presentation from becoming boring not to mention that an audience will be more likely to remember your message if you use humour to illustrate it.
But, caution is needed when using or attempting to use humour, as used incorrectly it can backfire. Let’s have a look at a few simple rules for using humour in a presentation.
Firstly, humour has to fit the content and tone of your speech. If humour doesn’t fit your speech then don’t use it.
Don’t tell an unrelated joke at the start of our speech, what is a lot more effective is a humorous story that introduces the theme of the talk.
You must also consider not only the age of your audience but also their cultural background and their mood when choosing humour for your speech as not all audiences respond the same type of humour. I.e. references local characters or events would not be understood outside your area.
Needless to mention, off colour humour is not appropriate around children and audiences who would be offended by it. Be careful here.
The best way to use humour is to illustrate a point and the best humour comes from your own experience. Talk about a humorous situation you had and what you learned from it. Your audience will be drawn to your story because it is personal and real. They can also relate to similar experiences they had. Using your own experiences will make you speeches fresher than if you culled jokes out of joke books.
Humour is an integral part of Toastmasters. It is a skill that all Toastmasters aspire to use confidently in all our presentations. It is what makes a Toastmaster stand out from the crowd when delivering a speech or presentation.
In April on BBC2 an entertainment series called “The Speaker” begins an 8 program run.
The program is searching for Britain’s best young speaker and features 14 to 18 year olds from around the country.
But guess what? Speak Easy Toastmasters, in Mallow have been training speakers and leaders since 1993 at our meetings every second Thursday night so why not come along and see it “live” so to speak?
Tonight, Thursday, Speak Easy Toastmasters will be holding their annual heat of the International Speech Contest so why not come and join us.
You will be most welcome and if unfortunately you cannot make tonight we will be meeting on March 19th and of course our theme meeting on April 2nd called “Rakes and Rebels”
Further information on Speak Easy Toastmasters can be had from our website, www.speakeasytoastmasters.com or from our Club PRO, Sean on 086 6054784.
Humour is a great “ice breaker”. It shows especially, if you are in a position of authority over your audience that you are indeed human and you don’t take yourself or the occasion too seriously. Humour is also a great tool to win over audience, people pay more attention to a speaker who uses humour and of course humour keeps a presentation from becoming boring not to mention that an audience will be more likely to remember your message if you use humour to illustrate it.
But, caution is needed when using or attempting to use humour, as used incorrectly it can backfire. Let’s have a look at a few simple rules for using humour in a presentation.
Firstly, humour has to fit the content and tone of your speech. If humour doesn’t fit your speech then don’t use it.
Don’t tell an unrelated joke at the start of our speech, what is a lot more effective is a humorous story that introduces the theme of the talk.
You must also consider not only the age of your audience but also their cultural background and their mood when choosing humour for your speech as not all audiences respond the same type of humour. I.e. references local characters or events would not be understood outside your area.
Needless to mention, off colour humour is not appropriate around children and audiences who would be offended by it. Be careful here.
The best way to use humour is to illustrate a point and the best humour comes from your own experience. Talk about a humorous situation you had and what you learned from it. Your audience will be drawn to your story because it is personal and real. They can also relate to similar experiences they had. Using your own experiences will make you speeches fresher than if you culled jokes out of joke books.
Humour is an integral part of Toastmasters. It is a skill that all Toastmasters aspire to use confidently in all our presentations. It is what makes a Toastmaster stand out from the crowd when delivering a speech or presentation.
In April on BBC2 an entertainment series called “The Speaker” begins an 8 program run.
The program is searching for Britain’s best young speaker and features 14 to 18 year olds from around the country.
But guess what? Speak Easy Toastmasters, in Mallow have been training speakers and leaders since 1993 at our meetings every second Thursday night so why not come along and see it “live” so to speak?
Tonight, Thursday, Speak Easy Toastmasters will be holding their annual heat of the International Speech Contest so why not come and join us.
You will be most welcome and if unfortunately you cannot make tonight we will be meeting on March 19th and of course our theme meeting on April 2nd called “Rakes and Rebels”
Further information on Speak Easy Toastmasters can be had from our website, www.speakeasytoastmasters.com or from our Club PRO, Sean on 086 6054784.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)