Welcome all to the chronicle of the meeting of the 19th October 2010 This is an almost non nato report. Our SAA Phil is so effective, that while some people were still ordering chairs and pushing the others out of the room, he tore all papers that seemed to be forgotten around the room. My notes were one of those shredded of papers, and became into small pieces. Later on, after some discovery and long resetting, pieces came into the puzzle, and I could reshape the meeting into my mind. The message: when the SAA says run, it means run, not walk!! Around 27 people included 6 guests, 3 of them from BCN TM club, and two new guests. One very welcomed guest was Kai, old Prestigious Speaker TM member and officer, now BCN TM member and TM Area Governor. Kai honored the meeting by taking the role of General Evaluator. Tulia, our President, welcomed all and gave a detailed and formal explanation about the TM contests season (Humourous Speech and Table Topics) The Club Contest: Tuesday October 5th @ Casa Orlandai The Area Contest: Saturday October 16th 2010, starting 11:00 am @ Mallorca. The Division Contest: Saturday November 6th 2010, starting 11:00 am @ Lisbon An finally, the District contest, Saturday November 20th 2010, starting 11:00 am @ BCN !! Nizami, Toastmaster of the day, offered a nice and comfortable image of the non-native English speakers, confronted to the native speakers. We concluded that the ones who have to update their language abilities were the native speakers, not the non-native! Because the non-native adapted better to the changeable cultural and linguistic environment than the native! Besides that, the incorporation of thousands of millions of people to the English language opened the door to neologism, and one very powerful neologism, "googling", was the word of the day. Girish punt on the table a hot issue as Table Topic master: The mine accident in Chile. Peter, Jeff and Dima were called to improvise the positions of the President of the country, of the President of the mining association, and of the one of the leading miners. It was clear that it was always "others" fault and responsibility! Jose Cruset broke the ice with his Competent Communication Manual - 1 - The Ice Breaker ("Lessons I´ve learned so far") The history about his professional origins in Germany till finding (after a number of anecdotes) the perfect job in Barcelona was very interesting. A clear conclusion for all: do what you have to do, and follow your dream!
Ignasi took the advantage at his speech Competent Communication Manual - 3 - Get to the Point to introducing the new Prestigious Speakers website ("Habemus website"). He convinced all, even the ones that have not idea about it, that always the "new" (whatever it is) is much better than the "old", and that what was fine yesterday, today is out of place! Long life to the new website! Carol was interviewed at her speech (Communicating on Television - 2 - The Talk Show, Appear as a guest on a simulated television) by Brenda to present a magic product ("First 20 Million?"), a revolution that will not permit to know how old are people, because all (only the ones buying the product!) will appear to be always in permanent youth. And finally Genia (Competent Communication Manual - 2 - Organise Your Speech) showed us how employment recruitment ("Recruitment 2.0") is working now. All the information is always on the air, on the web, and all the info can be filtered and can to be scanned. Are we important enough as to think that someone will waste one second with our CV if we are not actively searching a job?
"Evaluators" Edith, Phil, Peter and Christian gave and accurate and positive reports "Timekeeper" Daniel gave a very precise report, and Arthur ("Ah counter") had some strong words for some people (English native speakers!) using too much Ah!!. He was so enthusiastic that the red light was switched on. It was the first time than an "Ah counter" had seen the red light. Kai took the stage, and he summarized very well what he founds fantastic at TM meetings: people speak; people learn from others; people entertain. What else can be asked for? Phil and Peter, the winners of the Club Contest, shared their experiences at the Area contest: small audiences, the different setting, not knowing people … all was a challenge. Peter will follow the track, because he won the Table Topic Area Contest and was second at the Humorous Speech Area Contest. Tulia closed the meeting, aiming members to attend the Division contest in Lisbon. Before it, she invited the guest (the "new") to say in one word, "one word", what they thought about the meeting: "interesting" and, "exciting" were the words. Alvaro http://blog.prestigiousspeakers.com
