5 speeches

Gary chaired Spinnaker’s 17 October meeting with a jam-packed programme of five speeches including two icebreakers.

Table topics run by Megan gave speakers a topic and they had to talk in the Past – Present – or Future tense. Topics included – proudest moment – best thing ever seen – worst thing ever seen – most embarrassing moment – and funniest moment.

Speaker 1 by Susie was her icebreaker called “From Everywhere and nowhere all at once”. Susie explained that she grew up in a “third culture” and her exciting life living in different cultures with different languages makes her comfortable around other third culture people. Evaluator Darrell said Susie’s speech was fascinating and now he finally understands the concept of “third culture”.

Paul was next with “Take it off”. He opened with a plea for everyone to take their clothes off! But it was much deeper than that. It would mean you could spend less money on clothes, no worrying about self-esteem, you’ll be happier, and be satisfied with who you are.

Evaluator Dieter thought Paul’s speech was quite complex woven together by deeper concepts, delivered with confidence and power.

Our next speaker was Janine with the second icebreaker of the evening called “1 to the power of 4” where Janine told us about her four superpowers – love of poetry, research, storytelling and feminism. Janine is obviously passionate about her superpowers, is easy to follow, and clearly a storyteller with lots of information and imagination. Evaluator Dale loved hearing from Janine and the glimpse of her life and travels.

Speaker 4 was Mike from the Strategic Relationships pathway “So what do you do”. Mike wanted to practise his elevator pitch about his company which specialises in radio frequencies and instruments to measure them. Evaluator Angela thought Mike delivered a precise and beautifully written speech on a topic of radio frequencies which seemed a bit mysterious to her.

Finally in Dirk’s speech on “Painting” he told us that over the years he has done a lot of painting, motorbikes, cars, houses, even a woolshed. When moving to Wellington and looking for a house with a view and when he bought one, it needed renovating and painting. Now he is wanting more space so needs to repaint the house to appeal to future buyers all in white.

Evaluator Katina thought Dirk has a very understated method of delivery that draws you in where you need to pay attention closely to follow along.

General Evaluator Jacqui thought the timing for the meeting was impeccable during the meeting.

• Best evaluator Angela.

• Best Speakers Janine and Susie for their icebreakers.

If you would like to visit Spinnaker Toastmasters and enjoy an evening of interesting speeches and evaluations, camaraderie and learning, then contact us by email to let us know. Our next meeting is our club Humorous and Table Topics contests, and you’d be most welcome to come along and see the club’s best speakers vie for top honours.