Do you want to be the Toastmaster of the day?



I wanted, and I accepted the suggestion to be the Toastmaster of the day (TMOD) at the Prestigious Speakers meeting the Tuesday 29/3/2011.

This post tries to explain my personal experience. It was my first time in this role, and I tried to strictly following the recommendations of the check list. The most important: to be aware that the TMOD is the central role of the meeting, and preparation is very important. The TMOD is the meeting chair, and all what happens there goes through his/her role.

The TMOD opens his role with a short introduction, called “The word of the day”, with the purpose of sharing experiences or personal thoughts.

I explained to the audience my view about the 3 barriers, and the corresponding bridges, that any can suffer when facing the public:

FIRST, the nerves: I feel just nervous, frozen, collapsed. It’s very easy to identify.

It´s a physical experience; no need to any reason. It can happen in other situations and scenarios, as delivering a test, at a police control, with a new girl friend …

The bridge: You can work it with physical exercises, breathing, relaxing …, as it’s a very physical feeling, everybody can find their own way

SECOND, the audience: I am afraid, what this entire people in front of me will think of me?

It´s a physiological experience; the fear to what the others can think of us.

The brigde: figure out that the audience doesn’t exist. Of course exist, but not as something in front of me. The audience is myself; the audience is part of my own internal dialog. Therefore when talking to me, I am talking to the audience.

THIRD, the content of the speech: what I am going to tell? Is it enough prepared?

It´s a physical experience.

The bridge: It’s a matter of preparation. Writing it all what you want to say before, practicing and rehearsing with a recorder, a web cam, may be with friends and family, and after practicing it, you practice and rehearse it again …

Meeting the barriers and finding the bridges is something that we can manage, I can, you can …

The word of the day was YOU CAN.

The Toastmaster of the day introduces afterwards the General evaluator (Rose), the Table Topic  master (Anne) and the speakers.

The first speaker was Mattew, with his Competent Communication Manual #1 (Ice Breaker) speech `'Obsession is the route to Success'.

The second speaker was Bettina, with her Competent Communication Manual #1 (Ice Breaker) speech `DISCOBALL.

The third speaker was Nizami with his Competent Communication Manual #2 (“Organise Your Speech) “Heroes Every Day”

And the fourth speaker of the session was Ricardo with his speech from the Competent Communication Manual #5  (Your Body Speaks),`“Be young forever”

After the speakers comes the evaluators:  Florian evaluated Mathew’s speech,  Ignasi evaluated Bettina’s speech, Marie evaluated evaluate Nizami’s speech and Josefin evaluated Ricardo’s speech

After the evaluators, the General Evaluator took the stage, presented her report and her team as well: the Ah counter Arthur), the Timer (Antonio) and the Grammarian (Carol).

It was the end of the role, and it had been a positive and challenging experience. I´ll try again.

Till the next,

Alvarohttp://blog.prestigiousspeakers.com