At the January 26 meeting, Toastmaster John talked about a recent advertising study that indicated it takes 6.5 seconds for today’s selective audience to accept the messaging presented to them. That’s why it’s crucial for speakers to get to the point quickly and not lose the attention of their audience. John concluded his speech by challenging all the night’s presenters – with the exception of our prepared speakers – to cut their allotted speaking time by half.

Our first speaker, Julian kicked off speech number 2 – “Organize your speech” with a roaring start. A lot of eyebrows perked up with extreme interest when he asked us if we wanted to know how to make a million dollars. His explanation was really insightful Well done, Julian! You really intrigued us!

While Julian raised eyebrows, our second speaker, Hazel gave us an eye-opening account of birthing choices. Hazel’s speech was also from the Competent Communicator’s “Organize your speech”. From doctors, midwives to doulas, the birthing choices are quite diverse. It was certainly a great learning opportunity for all of us. Great job organizing this speech, Hazel!

Navita, the final speaker immediately grabbed our attention when it was announced she once had the opportunity to travel to Switzerland. She threw a curve ball at us by talking about the finer points of etiquette instead. Navita stepped away from the podium to ensure she delivered speech number 5 – “Your Body Speaks” with the right amount of poise and confidence.

We also managed to squeeze in some time for members and mentorees to meet and discuss goals for presenting speeches. This was followed by Table Topics, which was led by Bing. We had a lot of speakers during the Table Topics segment. Bing posed a variety of questions that ranged from “what is your favourite ad campaigns” to “describe a moment when you made a split second decision”. We had around five guests and it was great to see almost all of them volunteer to participate in Table Topics. Our guests did quite well with their speeches. In fact, our Table Topics winner was a guest too —congratulations Chris for giving a very poignant speech on what matters to you.

Overall it was an enjoyable evening and our presenters stepped up to the challenge of cutting down their speaking time. It’s a skill we’re all striving towards making us better Toastmasters!

Looking forward to the next meeting!