Barcelona TM and Prestigious Speakers welcome advanced speakers from Spain & Portugal

Barcelona, SPAIN - 27/10/2009 –

« The contestants have been briefed.

The judges have been briefed.

The timers and ballot counters have been briefed.

Let the contest begin! »

Sound familiar? If so, you’ve probably attended or competed in one of the Table Topics or Humorous speech contests that have been taking place all over Division H at the Clubs or Areas levels.

If not, … Come over and join us at our Division H Fall Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contests!!!

Speakers from all over Spain & Portugal have the opportunity to showcase their humorous and extemporaneous speaking skills, and we all get to learn from the best.

For these professional speakers, a lot of time goes into preparation, practicing and perfecting. Our members are not just telling jokes; they are creating with the art of humour.

Division H as of Oct. 21, 2009, comprises 14 Toastmasters clubs, organized in 4 areas and spread throughout the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands. There are club building activities in the Canary Islands and Madeira, too.

Toastmasters Speech Contests are events that showcase the talents of both members who compete and members who organize and support the events. Many wonderful benefits accrue to those that participate:

• Contestants are afforded a wonderful opportunity to improve their skills in preparing and delivering a speech in a competitive environment
• Organizers are given an educational opportunity in event planning, project management and project teams
• Members not competing are provided the opportunity to learn by observing speakers who have benefited from their Toastmasters training
• Clubs and club members have the opportunity to showcase their talented speakers to family members and guests
• The audience is provided an interesting educational program, entertainment, and FUN!

Contests are held twice a year, once in the Fall and once in the Spring. Normally, two contests are held at one time, yielding four contests per year:

• Each of these contests begins with the CLUB CONTEST
• Club winners compete at the AREA CONTEST (approximately five competitors)
• Area winners go on to the DIVISION CONTEST (approximately five competitors)
• Division winners compete at the DISTRICT CONTEST held in conjunction with the District Conference (six competitors per contest in District 59 representing clubs from 18 continental Europe’s countries)
• The winner of the District 59 Speech Contest held in the Spring will go on to the INTERNATIONAL CONTEST.

Have you completed an educational award (CC, ACB, ALB, etc.) recently? Now is the time to schedule your next speech so that you can complete your next educational goal. Take every opportunity to give a speech from a basic or advanced manual as well as completing projects in the Competent Leadership Manual.

Contest season concludes at the District 59 Fall Conference on November 20^th where District Table Topics and Humorous Speech Champions will be selected.

This will be your chance to see the contest winners from every Division, enjoy a variety of Educational Workshops, and so much more.

« Support your contestants at the upcoming Division Contests! »

The contest is open to the public:

What: Division H Fall Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contests
When: Saturday October 31^st 2009 - 11h00 till 15h30
Where: Casa Orlandai (2nd floor) C/Jaume Piquet, 23 - 08017 Barcelona. FGC: Sarria
Cost: 20 € (including coffee and pastries)
Information: www.prestigiousspeakers.com

Thanks, Aristotle!

New Orleans, the city of Jazz and Mardi Gras - it has always been famous for its unrivalled French Quarter with its vibrant nightlife! I dove into it once when I stopped over on a roadtrip in 1995. Cats Meow on Bourbon Street - a famous Karaoke joint. I was standing in the crowd, admiring those people who dared to step onto that semi-professional stage. I wanted to sing, too - so much! But… I couldn’t. I was just terrified of the multitude of critical eyes in the audience. I suffered from what we all suffer from… stage-fright!

14 years later. I speak at weddings, I speak at parties. I write and perform songs, I have created my own entertaining public speaking seminar, and I am the initiator of The Festival, a pan-European movement where I am constantly confronted with giving motivational and inspiring speeches to a wide European variety of people and audiences.

What has happened?

The answer goes back to the year 1924 when Ralph C. Smedley founded the first Toastmasters club in Santa Ana, California. Toastmasters, which today is present with local clubs nearly everywhere around the globe, has changed my life. It has transformed me into an outgoing, extroverted and passionate public speaking fanatic.

When I first attended a meeting of Prestigious Speakers Barcelona, a local chapter of Toastmasters International, in 2005, I signed up right away. Wow, I thought, these guys are turning into Aristotle - meeting voluntarily twice a month to learn how to speak in public. What I personally liked best were the oral evaluations which were given to the speakers by fellow members of the club after those had performed their five to seven minute speeches. In normal life nobody tells you what you do well and what you still could improve. This is the key differentiator of the Toastmasters approach.

At Toastmasters you learn by doing with people you like! You learn how to speak, how to move your body, how to vary your voice, so that the last row won’t fall asleep. You learn how to use supporting visual aids, how to include catchy anecdotes, quotes, humour. You learn how to keep the eye contact with the entire audience, how to structure any speech, how to keep your time, speak less, get to the point. You learn how to engage with enthusiasm. You turn into a passionate speaker - always showing your greatest asset: your smile!

Maxwell Maltz once said, “Low self-esteem is like driving through life with your hand-break on.” Toastmasters does not only help you to release the hand-break - Toastmasters makes you accelerate with infinite speed…

I will definitely return to New Orleans. I will walk straight into Cats Meow. I will get on stage right away. I will take a deep breath, calm down, look everyone around deeply into their eyes. And then - with passion - I will start to sing: “And now the end is near…”

By Florian Mueck

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Florian Mueck is co-founder of thefestival.eu - bringing the European idea to life. Before coming up with the idea to create this pan-European movement, the entrepreneur based in Barcelona and Berlin had been working for KPMG, the global advisory firm, for more than eight years as a consultant and business development manager.In both activities, public speaking has always been an important tool to make things happen.

Since Florian joined Prestigious Speakers, a Barcelona chapter of Toastmasters International in 2005, public speaking has become his greatest passion. Florian has an entertaining speaking style which is fuelled by humour, acting and impromptu talk. // https://www.xing.com/profile/FlorianB_Mueck

6th October 2009

From the word go, this meeting was always going to be a bit different - well with a packed agenda and the non-stop chattering German as the host, what else were you expecting ? Further, our venue was packed with: members, regular members, guests, more guests and lot more guests. The guest crowd was so diverse that a member could have been forgiven on entering our meeting, and thinking that our meeting place magically has shifted to planet Mars.

So Dimitri opened the show, you could clearly feel a sense of urgency in the agenda. On the drop of a hat Dima gave way to Angela, who in-turn gave way to Florian, and on and on it went till everyone got tired and gave the lectern to the chattering German. The German was just relishing his time there, and boy he is a damn good host. His word of the day was "Wall".

It might initially sound a bit unusual but given the historical significance of the past week (20 years since the breaking of the Berlin wall), it was indeed a timely one. He proceeded to talk about times in Germany circa Berlin wall demolition. Slowly Florian started sounding like the grumpy cursed history teacher that you surely have encountered in school. Thankfully, he didn't continue long and moved along with the agenda.

Govind (who also happens to be yours truly) was the Table Topic master. My theme was unusual phrases encountered in usual and unusual places. Arthur dealt with an exotic cuisine named "tap water and lawn trimmings." I am sure everyone would be licking their chops to taste this exotic and exquisite dish. Due to stringent copyright laws Arthur has requested me not to reveal the preparation of this exotic cuisine and so I have to oblige (Exceptions are granted if accompanied with an exceptional amount).

Next came Alex and he spoke about making a rope with dope. He calmly went through the motions and it has be said that he did a good job. The actual phrase "rope-a-dope" is a boxing terminology. Given the obvious lack of time, we had to cut short on Table Topic and rush into our prepared speeches.


Luca was the first of the speakers and gave first of his many speeches. He gave a quick fire auto-biography and well it did sound interesting. Except there was a small glitch when the guitar was taken out and..., well never mind.



The next speech was by Dimitri aka Dima aka the multi-faceted Russian of TM Barcelona.

He talked about misconceptions associated with using GDP as the primary progress indicator. He used some nice examples to show the fallacy of using GDP as the sole progress metric. The talk was informative except that there were these economic terminologies dished out regularly, which at times made you wonder if he was speaking English or a mixture of Russian, Catalan, Spanish.



Then along came Ernest. One could clearly make out from the time the meeting started that he was bubbling to burst out his second speech. Eventually, even the German aka the host had to relent and give way. Ernest spoke about the need to show a bit more environmental responsibility by avoiding regular use of plastic bags. He spoke with clear conviction on this issue. To justify the case, he used a pile of statistics that would have scared the living daylight out of anyone.


The final talk was an educational session by Edith. While pouring loads of praise on the club, she pointed out some weaknesses. One of her major concern was a need for improved time management in conducting the meeting. This was unanimously felt by everyone in the meeting.

She opened the floor for opinions in improving our meeting schedule. A whole bunch of ideas started pouring along, and some very nice ideas also.

Another suggestion she gave was to have theme meetings. A theme that would run through the entire meeting. Ironically, the theme of this meeting was almost crystal clear and it was "Bordering Sublime and Ridiculous". The ridiculous part being the host of the show and the table-topics master.


The clock started ticking - tick..tick - and continued ticking, well it still does but the point is that we were starved of time. Even the German felt the need to hurry up. Evaluations went almost on a tick and unsurprisingly all the prepared speeches were well received. On the very next tick Angela took over to close the meeting. Thus, an eventful meeting came to an end.

Thats all from me.

Prestigious Speakers champions to run at the Area level

Barcelona, SPAIN - 30/09/2009 - Short and entertaining, a number of speakers test their excellence in a contest to give the funniest five- to seven-minute speech. The winners move on to the next level of competition.

You are warmly invited to join the Toastmasters Area Contest at the beautiful AMIC HORIZONTE HOTEL in Mallorca, Spain! The contest will be between all the best speakers in the Area- the top 2 winners from each club are invited to compete, so a very high level of speakers will be there.

Prestigious Speakers held its Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contests on Sept 29th 2009 to select its champions:
Rose C., Prestigious Speakers Humorous Speech winner.
Jason T., Prestigious Speakers Table Topics winner.

“I encourage you all to join and support our contest winners Rose and Jason!!!” says Angela Dunbar, Prestigious Speakers club’s president.

To sign up and enjoy such a captivating public speaking contest contact Sheila MacMillan from “Mallorca Wordsmiths Toastmasters”.

The contest is open to the public:

What: Area H1 Fall Conference Humorous Speech And Table Topics Contests

When: Saturday October 17th 2009 - 11h00

Where: “Mallorca Wordsmiths Toastmasters” at AMIC HORIZONTE HOTEL, Mallorca, SPAIN

Hotel info: www.amic-hotels-mallorca.com - If you wish to stay in this hotel, ask to speak to Paula, and say you are with Toastmasters.

Cost: 20 € per person, including tapas (drinks at own cost)
Payment: In cash at the Registration desk on the conference day

Contact: Sheila MacMillan, by e-mail: sheilamacmillan@hotmail.com or by tel. +34 639.603.509
Information: www.mallorca-toastmasters.com

Agenda:
11.00 Registration and Welcome desk
11.30 Opening of the Conference
11.35 Welcome Speech by Area Governor/Stand in
11.40 Talk
12.00 Briefing for judges and contestants / mini break for audience
12.20 Table Topics Contest
12.40 Talk
13.00 – 14.30 Tapas
14.30 Humorous Speech Contest
15.10 Talk
15.30 Contest prizes presented by Area Governor/Stand in

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Prestigious Speakers Barcelona, an all-English speaking club and BCN Toastmasters, its brother bi-lingual Spanish/English club are local chapter of Toastmasters International.

"Toastmasters International" is a non-profit organization which gives its members the opportunity to develop and improve their communication and leadership abilities through local club meetings, training seminars and speech contests.

Toastmasters International includes more than 220,000 men and women in more than 11,300 clubs spread across 90+ countries.

Experienced professionals and beginning speakers alike can benefit from our practical, face-to-face learning program. Whether you're speaking to the board of directors, your customers, your co-workers or your kids, Toastmasters can help you do it better.

At Toastmasters, members learn by speaking to groups and working with others in a supportive environment.
Each meeting gives everyone an opportunity to practice.

For general information, visit our website: www.prestigiousspeakers.com