The road to nashville

written by aseem kapoor

VPPR Croydon Communicators

I had the pleasure of being the Toastmaster and leading a really special meeting tonight, with everyone in attendance enjoying a masterclass in public speaking, with not one, but two speeches from our very own Dan Magill!

Dan is currently preparing for the annual Toastmasters International Convention taking place in Nashville, Tennessee next week where he will be competing in the World Championship of Public Speaking!

The road to Nashville started right here in his home club, with Dan representing Croydon Communicators at club level, going onto become speech champion at Area H15, Division H, and District 91 levels.

In previous years, Dan had reached District level (and even collected a couple of District Champion trophies!).
Now, in the International Speech Contest he has gone beyond the Regionals and the world stage awaits.

In the first half of the meeting Dan delivered his speech 'The definition of Insanity' with an open evaluation co-ordinated by Aminat inviting the audience was to provide feedback.

My favourite comment of the night came from Pankaj, who said about Dan's speech "it has inspired me to fail!"

Dan's second speech of the night was 'Cameras Off' and came following the network break, again with audience feedback rather than an assigned evaluator.

​Between the speeches, Table Topic Master Pearl Cadogan (from Liberty Speakers) invited members, visitors and guests to the stage to participate in a fun impromptu speaking  exercise.

Adrian (Speakers of Croydon) told us about his Toastmasters journey so far.
Amanda, one of our guests, spoke about Gordon's Bay in Australia
Gina (who we were all delighted to see at an in-person meeting after so long) gave us the recipe for a summery fruity cocktail.
Kate, another of tonight's guests shared a very personal story from her time as a student studying law.
Andrew, first time visiting in-person after joining us online at the previous meeting spoke about his desire to visit Ghana.
Elicia, was another guest that bravely stepped up to the stage and gave us her top three tips for travelling light.
Pankaj our final table topics speaker was asked to talk about his worst travel experience.

Table Topic Evaluator Marcia did wonderfully in providing immediate feedback on all table topics speakers.

Troy as our meeting Timekeeper reported back on all speakers.

Finally, Ian our VP Education (and standing in for Club President China) who had opened the meeting, took the opportunity to get some final words from our guests, and presented a very well deserved Best Table Topic Speaker award to first timer Kate!
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The next meeting is again in-person on Thursday 25 August ... until then we wish Dan the very best of luck in Nashville!