Love Local Porirua Expo – Expo Day

By VP Public Relations 2022-23 Dale

Blog Post #7

How popular was the Spinnaker Toastmasters booth at the Love Local Porirua Expo?  Did we generate any invitations to our Open Meeting on 16 August?

Wow!  What a day! The Spinnaker Toastmasters booth was very popular and the public were very receptive to our approaches and conversations about Toastmasters.

Here’s a view of our booth, all set up and ready to go:

Some of the comments people said were:

“I’ve been thinking about joining for a while.”

“No, I’ve never heard of Toastmasters, tell me more.”

“I really need to join to build my confidence in public speaking.”

“I’ve always wondered what you guys do at Toastmasters.”

“I thought Toastmasters was all about toasting.”

Our Expo crew heard it all, and handed out hundreds of informational fliers and invitations, fridge magnets and lollies to a very interested crowd.  We even had some people take a “selfie at the lectern”.

We generated over 15 names of people who are interested in coming to our Open Meeting on 16 August, with lots more people who took our fliers and promised to look us up.

Comments from the Expo crew were:

“That was the most fun I’ve had all day!”

“It was amazing, I really enjoyed myself.”

“Speaking directly to the public about Toastmasters is a real-time experience.” Dale

“People were very nice and engaging with us.”

“It was great how the team worked together, supporting each other as questions came from the public.” Ron

“No-one knew we existed in the community. People know of Toastmasters but not of local clubs or how to find us.” Katina

“Well done for the stall yesterday. It looked welcoming and hopefully you have a full open house at your next meeting.  Good to see plenty of helpers there to support.” Glen

The Expo crew consisted of Dale, Katina, Dave, Angela, Jacqui, Ron and Darrell, and Toastmasters directors Murray, Glen and Pauline who also came along in support.

We’ll now follow up our lists and contact those who expressed an interest to personally invite them to our Open Meeting on 16 August.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Expo on the day, and the setup crew on the evening prior – Katina, Albertus and Darrell.

Special thanks to our sponsor Gary for the printing.

And thank you to Porirua City Council for giving us this wonderful free opportunity to promote our club.

Thanks, we couldn’t have done it without you all.

See previous blog posts:

Blog post #1 – The Proposal

Blog post #2 – Approval and Funding

Blog post #3 – Research and Planning

Blog post #4 – Warm-up Activity

Blog post #5 – Resources roundup

Blog post #6 – Setup and testing

About Toastmasters

Toastmasters International is a non-profit educational organisation that teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network of clubs. Headquartered in Englewood, Colorado, the organisation’s membership exceeds 300,000 in more than 15,800 clubs in 149 countries. Since 1924, Toastmasters International has helped people from diverse backgrounds become more confident speakers, communicators, and leaders.

About Spinnaker Toastmasters Club

Spinnaker Toastmasters Club chartered on 18 September 1990, and originally met in Whitby.  Now the club meets in Plimmerton on the first and third Tuesdays of the month.  The club has 12 active members and is looking to increase that to at least 20, the desired size for an active and dynamic Toastmasters club.

About the author

Dale is a Distinguished Toastmaster and a member of Spinnaker Toastmasters Club since 1998.   She has received a Presidential Citation for her work as District 72 New Zealand Webmaster, and helped charter three other clubs.  She has completed the Presentation Mastery educational Pathway and is currently working on the Motivational Strategies Pathway.  Dale is the VP Public Relations for 2022-23.

About this blog series

The purpose of this blog series is to fulfil the requirements of the Level 4 Elective “Write a Compelling Blog” in the Motivational Strategies Pathway.  She has chosen to document the process of organising and presenting a booth at the Love Local Porirua 2022 Expo being held in Porirua on 30 July.  The target audience is her fellow Toastmasters who may have an opportunity to run a similar activity at a future event.  To do this, a minimum of 8 blog posts must be created and published.  Club members will be asked for feedback, and when done, Dale will deliver a short speech on her blogging experiences.