Dear Fellow Toastmasters
I am writing to share some learning with you following my recent participation in the International Speech and Evaluation contests at Club, Area and Division level.
The Division contests took place on Saturday 30th March. The winner of the International Speech contest was Gordon Adams (third from right in photo #1) and the winner of the Evaluation Speech contest was Vinette Hoffman-Jackson (second from right in photo #2).
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| #1 Contestants, including Elizabeth Jordan and Surosh Pillay receiving Certificates of Participation |
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| #2 Vinette, Hoffman-Jackson, winner of the Evaluation Speech contest with Elizabeth Jordan |
2. Seek Help. Find an experienced Toastmaster who is willing to listen to a recording or watch a video and give detailed constructive feedback. Feedback from non-Toastmaster friends and family is also be helpful. Thanks especially to Bob Ferguson, DTM, Surosh Pillay (fellow Competitor), Olivia Hylton-Pennant, Phyliss Clark, Mundia Chitambala and Julie Kertesz.
3. Learn from others. There are scores of you tube videos of speeches by winners of the World Champion of Public Speaking. It's worth visiting clubs and hearing their contest speeches and it's worth offering to be a Test Speaker at contests and having your speech evaluated.
3. Video your speech. It's a great way to observe your body language and see if it matches your message. Listen to your message - is it memorable? Is there enough vocal variety? What's in it for the audience? Is it a gift to be treasured?
4. Invest Time in preparing for the contest. It's important to put time aside to practice, review, rewrite, consult and practice some more.
5. Start early! The Humorous Speech and Table Topics contests are coming up in the Autumn. Now is the time to start preparing!
6. If possible, practice speaking on a larger stage to a larger audience before a Division or District contest as these tend to be held at larger venues the ones we are used to our clubs and can be daunting.
7. Have your own ritual for keeping calm on the day e.g. breathing exercises or listening to music.
8. It's great to have support on the day. My husband supports me always. It was fantastic to have a couple of members - Claire Baker and Phil Carey - at the Division contest. Looking out in the audience and seeing their faces meant a lot to me. Good Luck messages from club President, Jillian Haslam, and from family and friends meant a lot.
9. Respect your competitors and wish them 'Good Luck' as you focus on your personal goal.
10. Whatever the outcome, celebrate your getting to where to got to, and know that tomorrow is another day.
4 comments:
Hi Elizabeth. Yes it was a good contest. Good advice. I do wonder what distracted you & Voytek in the photo.
Comment on video - has to be done outside of the contest and some time before to be of value, so you can refine your speech. Vinette's lights off would not work at District which this year has to be videoed (sic) for the region contests.
I'd definitely recommend doing the target speech at another club's contest. In my opinion it is the best single way of improving as a speaker. You get the challenge of speaking in a different environment to different people from what you are used to which extends you as a speaker because we can all get a bit too comfortable in our home club environment. Then you have different people evaluating you who have never met you before and pick up things which you don't expect as I think people at your home club get used to your style. You also get multiple evaluations so you have a variety of opinions. I went to Chiltern Speakers and had three very good but very different evaluations which really improved my speech and speaking skills. And you get to meet the members of another club and experience a toastmasters meeting in a different setting to your home club. Target speakers for evaluation contests are always in high demand. So why not give it a go next year?
I am so glad that I attended to support you and Surosh. I learnt so much just by watching really accomplished speakers on the stage. The body language and the way they used the stage was phenomenal and on another level from what we tend to do at my club. Also, the wordplay, word images and vocal variety were fantastic. I loved the metaphors a couple of the contestants used to describe overcoming hard times. I came away with some great ideas for my next speech!
A good list of advice Elizabeth.
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