The theme of our October 27 meeting was “People”. Toastmaster Jay introduced the meeting by reminding us that no man is an island − we need people and it’s essential to interact with others. A strong mechanism that Jay uses to deal with people is his humour. We witnessed this first hand when he provided some really funny comic relief between sessions to break things up.

The format of our meeting was different from the way we typically follow meetings. The first part was dedicated to the prepared speech and the second part was a workshop.

Our first and only speaker, Priya gave us a great interpretation of “The Dream Lives On”. Many may be familiar with Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. “The Dream Lives On” is actually the original speech, which is much longer. Priya scaled the speech down a bit to 10 to 12 minutes. It was entirely memorized and her deep appreciation of the speech was immediately recognized by all.

After a short break, we had our own version of TED Talks. Advanced speaker and Liberty Village Toastmaster founder, Ted provided us with a great workshop on networking. It was engaging, interactive and very informative. People were genuinely intrigued by Ted’s expertise, humour and his ability to answer some really thought provoking questions on his feet with ease and back them up with logical facts. The workshop was free, but a lot of Ted‘s advice was quite valuable. Ted recommends that if you want to make a good impression when networking, it’s a good idea to control your alcohol intake. His suggestion what to do with a glass filled with non-alcoholic drink to get out of a tight spot is priceless.

Overall we had a great representation of guests at our meeting and we even had a new member inducted – congratulations Natalia! Overall everyone agreed that the meeting contained a lot of interactivity and there was a positive vibe and high energy level.

Hope to see everyone at our Open House on November 3. Don’t forget to pass on the invitation to your friends!

Michelle