Toastmasters provides many opportunities to improve your public speaking, but one of the best is the District Contest. There are two held each year and the most recent one was attended by me and Ga Lok in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland, a beautiful seaside spot just outside of Dublin.
Photo courtesy Chee-Hoong Wong
Each conference features contests, workshops, dinner, dancing and good times. The contests in the spring conference are for inspirational speech and evaluations. This year the caliber of all the speakers was especially impressive. Any one of the contestants in the speech contest could have won – I certainly was glad not to have been a judge; they must have had a touch time selecting the winner.
Photo courtesy Chee-Hoong Wong
The evaluation contest was one of the best I’ve ever seen. I started to evaluate the speaker – it’s always good to practice! – but I was quickly taken in by the speech. It was a very emotional, creative and powerful speech and it was interesting to see how the contestants delivered their evaluations and managed to provide helpful feedback for the speaker.
Chris Boden with District Governor Luanne Kent and Contest Chair Eric Fitzpatrick
Photo courtesy of the King Laoire Conference team
The next contest is in Brighton from 31 October – 2 November and will feature the table topics and humorous speech contests. There will be a few of us attending to represent City of London Toastmasters – maybe even as contestants – and why not join in on the fun? For more information or to book your place go to: www.autumn-conference.org/brighton2014
Christine Harris
Club President
