Pasadena Jaycees Toastmasters club meeting.
To prepare for the upcoming District F contest I arranged to be an evaluator for an advanced speech. It was the Storytelling Manual #4 project which is using story to elicit emotion. I was a bit distracted as I was running a Flip video cam taping the speech. The result was I wasn't able to take notes. I then tried to use a Table Topics approach to giving my evaluation. In other words, I thought I'd try a spontaneous method.
Suffice to say, I didn't win the Best Evaluator award for the night. The person who won did a GREAT job. My club then gave me a Roundtable evaluation on my presentation.
From the experience I was reminded of two things:
First: I had taken for granted my ability to reinforce my points with gestures and vocal techniques. Having stage experience I naturally employ these things when I get up in front of an audience. In fact this ability played an important role in both my Area and Division wins. However, taking this ability for granted runs the risk that I may forget to use it at the District contest.
Second: The importance of taking notes. The importance does not lie in having the notes available during the acutal presentation. Rather it is in the fact that it gives you the raw information to figure out what is the theme of your evaluation and what information to use to support that theme.
From my younger years competing in windsurfing contests, I learned the importance of practice. It's not so much to gain new insights. Its rather to be reminded of what made you successful in the first place.
Part 2 will be Nov. 12th
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Division B Contest - Part 2 of 3 - My process
Part Two: My Mental Process
Hoo boy! I thought the Area contest target speech was tough! During Nigel's speech I tried to take the short "trigger" notes that Jeffrey Washington had suggested. Didn't work for me very well for this speech so I went back to my own way of note taking.
My first goal was to determine what type of speech it was. That was challenging because of Nigel's opening tone of his speech. When he changed the tone from humorous and light-hearted to tragic that threw me off. It was not until the end when he talked about his reason for joining Toastmasters and giving speeches to help others avoid the emotions he experienced that's when I knew this was an Inspirational speech.
My next goal was asking myself, what is the goal of an inspirational speech? Why it's to inspire the audience to act. Now I had my baseline to prioritize my notes. This is important as you only have 3 minutes and 30 seconds at the most for your evaluation. Optimally, you want to start wrapping up at 2:30 so you don't exceed the time and disqualify yourself.
I had drawn 2nd of the 4 contestants which is good for an additional 4:30 minutes added to the 5 minutes all the contestants were given to organize their notes.
In the room we were isolated in I then looked at the notes I took during the target speech. Then I created an outline of the main points. When my time came I was ready. I felt prepared enough to hand my notes to the Sgt-at-Arms. This freed up both my hands. Also I didn't want to run the risk of breaking the rapport with the audience by always glancing at my notes.
I believed I had a good shot at winning for the reason I had come up with an insight that I didn't think any of the other contestants had come up with. That insight was the heart of my evaluation.
The insight was this: an Inspirational speech seeks to inspire people to act. You accomplish this by having the audience imagine themselves in the same situation and experiencing the same emotions. Since it was emotion that motivated Nigel to act, having the audience go through the same type of strong emotion should also get them to act.
Hoo boy! I thought the Area contest target speech was tough! During Nigel's speech I tried to take the short "trigger" notes that Jeffrey Washington had suggested. Didn't work for me very well for this speech so I went back to my own way of note taking.
My first goal was to determine what type of speech it was. That was challenging because of Nigel's opening tone of his speech. When he changed the tone from humorous and light-hearted to tragic that threw me off. It was not until the end when he talked about his reason for joining Toastmasters and giving speeches to help others avoid the emotions he experienced that's when I knew this was an Inspirational speech.
My next goal was asking myself, what is the goal of an inspirational speech? Why it's to inspire the audience to act. Now I had my baseline to prioritize my notes. This is important as you only have 3 minutes and 30 seconds at the most for your evaluation. Optimally, you want to start wrapping up at 2:30 so you don't exceed the time and disqualify yourself.
I had drawn 2nd of the 4 contestants which is good for an additional 4:30 minutes added to the 5 minutes all the contestants were given to organize their notes.
In the room we were isolated in I then looked at the notes I took during the target speech. Then I created an outline of the main points. When my time came I was ready. I felt prepared enough to hand my notes to the Sgt-at-Arms. This freed up both my hands. Also I didn't want to run the risk of breaking the rapport with the audience by always glancing at my notes.
I believed I had a good shot at winning for the reason I had come up with an insight that I didn't think any of the other contestants had come up with. That insight was the heart of my evaluation.
The insight was this: an Inspirational speech seeks to inspire people to act. You accomplish this by having the audience imagine themselves in the same situation and experiencing the same emotions. Since it was emotion that motivated Nigel to act, having the audience go through the same type of strong emotion should also get them to act.
Division B Contest - Part One of Three - The Target Speech
Division B Contest - Oct 17 at Wescorp in San Dimas
Well, I won! On to the District F contest in Fullerton on Nov. 14th. This first part will give information on the target speech. The second part on my mental process during the target speech and the 5 minutes all the evaluation contestants were given to organize their presentation. The third part is a video taping of my award-winning evaluation.
Part One: The Target Speech
Title: One for the Road
Presenter: Nigel
Props: 2 beer bottles, a silver colored goblet and a Power Point presentation given on an overhead above the speaking area.
Nigel opened his speech in a relaxed manner talking of going to the pub. There he talked about conversations which always involved drinking. His opening slide displayed his speech title. He then showed a picture of his pub, the King's Arms and then made a joke about Royal Body parts being the names of pubs, with the Queen's Chest and the Prince's Head pubs close by.
He then talked about a fateful night with 4 of his friends and at closing the call for a last round. Nigel spurring his mates on with a query of "One for the Road". He changed the tone of his presentation when he talked of his 4 friends ending up in a fatal car crash. To underscore his point he showed a picture of the car wreck. He then talked about his guilt about urging his friends on taking "One for the Road".
Nigel then transitioned into the story of Candy Lightner, who due to her daughter's tragic death from a drunk driver, established M.A.D.D. He then talked that in spite of the progress, there are still over 16,000 alcohol-related deaths in this country. To make that statistic more impactful he said that was the equivalent of 40 jumbo jets crashing. He then posed the question the difference in response to the deaths happening if in 40 jumbo jets versus the same number of deaths due to alchohol.
He then ended his speech by saying he joined Toastmasters recently because he wanted to do something about the guilt he has carried for over 30 years due to his perceived part in his 4 friends deaths.
Well, I won! On to the District F contest in Fullerton on Nov. 14th. This first part will give information on the target speech. The second part on my mental process during the target speech and the 5 minutes all the evaluation contestants were given to organize their presentation. The third part is a video taping of my award-winning evaluation.
Part One: The Target Speech
Title: One for the Road
Presenter: Nigel
Props: 2 beer bottles, a silver colored goblet and a Power Point presentation given on an overhead above the speaking area.
Nigel opened his speech in a relaxed manner talking of going to the pub. There he talked about conversations which always involved drinking. His opening slide displayed his speech title. He then showed a picture of his pub, the King's Arms and then made a joke about Royal Body parts being the names of pubs, with the Queen's Chest and the Prince's Head pubs close by.
He then talked about a fateful night with 4 of his friends and at closing the call for a last round. Nigel spurring his mates on with a query of "One for the Road". He changed the tone of his presentation when he talked of his 4 friends ending up in a fatal car crash. To underscore his point he showed a picture of the car wreck. He then talked about his guilt about urging his friends on taking "One for the Road".
Nigel then transitioned into the story of Candy Lightner, who due to her daughter's tragic death from a drunk driver, established M.A.D.D. He then talked that in spite of the progress, there are still over 16,000 alcohol-related deaths in this country. To make that statistic more impactful he said that was the equivalent of 40 jumbo jets crashing. He then posed the question the difference in response to the deaths happening if in 40 jumbo jets versus the same number of deaths due to alchohol.
He then ended his speech by saying he joined Toastmasters recently because he wanted to do something about the guilt he has carried for over 30 years due to his perceived part in his 4 friends deaths.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Evaluating the Information Speech
I got to practice for the upcoming Division B Evaluation Contest by going to the Speakers Bureau meeting in Garden Grove.
The speaker I evaluated gave a 20 minute information meeting. The theme for my evaluation was presenting the information in a way that made it personal. In other words, make each audience member realize they had a problem or someone close to him/her that had a problem and that the information to be presented offered a solution.
For this speech, the information was on an Eastern method to relieve stress. To engage the audience in the beginning, I suggested asking two questions of the audience:
#1 Are you stressed right now?
#2 Do you know someone who is stressed?
What the speaker did was invoke statistics from a Gallup Poll regarding California residents and one of the reasons for the stats was stress. I pointed out this was too abstract. It also ran the risk of a listener not believing he/she was a part of the statistics mentioned. In other words, hey you're not talking about me so why should I continue to listen to you?
To recap my methodology:
#1 Figure out it was an information speech
#2 What are the main obstacles preventing that information from being received by the audience.
The speaker I evaluated gave a 20 minute information meeting. The theme for my evaluation was presenting the information in a way that made it personal. In other words, make each audience member realize they had a problem or someone close to him/her that had a problem and that the information to be presented offered a solution.
For this speech, the information was on an Eastern method to relieve stress. To engage the audience in the beginning, I suggested asking two questions of the audience:
#1 Are you stressed right now?
#2 Do you know someone who is stressed?
What the speaker did was invoke statistics from a Gallup Poll regarding California residents and one of the reasons for the stats was stress. I pointed out this was too abstract. It also ran the risk of a listener not believing he/she was a part of the statistics mentioned. In other words, hey you're not talking about me so why should I continue to listen to you?
To recap my methodology:
#1 Figure out it was an information speech
#2 What are the main obstacles preventing that information from being received by the audience.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Inspiring Evaluations - Part 2 of 2
Part Two of Jeffrey Washington's Inspiring Evaluations Presentations
Contest Tips;
1. Familiarize yourself with Contest Manual. Look at a Judge's ballot.
2. Be unique - something to differentiate yourself from the other competitors
3. Sit at the front row - to be able to see everything the speaker does
4. Take short "trigger" notes - Don't miss anything the speaker is doing
5. Evaluation is a regular speech - Have an open, body and close
6. Anticipate things - i.e. smile, vocal variety
7. Remember your are being evaluated by the judges the minute you step on stage.
8. Have the spirit of supporting your fellow competitors
9. Keep your focus from you and on the speaker
10. Enjoy the experience
Evaluating the English as 2nd language speaker:
Encourage the speaker as much as possible. Jeffrey quote used in evaluating one such speaker, "I'm sure you English is much better than our Japanese."
Contest Tips;
1. Familiarize yourself with Contest Manual. Look at a Judge's ballot.
2. Be unique - something to differentiate yourself from the other competitors
3. Sit at the front row - to be able to see everything the speaker does
4. Take short "trigger" notes - Don't miss anything the speaker is doing
5. Evaluation is a regular speech - Have an open, body and close
6. Anticipate things - i.e. smile, vocal variety
7. Remember your are being evaluated by the judges the minute you step on stage.
8. Have the spirit of supporting your fellow competitors
9. Keep your focus from you and on the speaker
10. Enjoy the experience
Evaluating the English as 2nd language speaker:
Encourage the speaker as much as possible. Jeffrey quote used in evaluating one such speaker, "I'm sure you English is much better than our Japanese."
Giving Inspiring Evaluation - Part 1 of 2
Looking for any information that can give me a competitive edge, I saw Jeffrey Washington's presentation "Inspiring Evaluations". Jeffrey's presentation was in two parts.
The first part was on the different approaches in evaluting an Icebreaker versus an experienced speaker.
The second part was Evaluation Speech Contest tips. Jeffrey is a previous District F Evaluation Speech Contest Winner. Here is Part One...
#1 Goal of evaluator is to help speaker improve.
Two fears that can hinder an evaluator:
1. Don't want to hurt the speaker's feelings
2. Don't know if speaker takes feedback well.
Four Areas to be covered:
1. Icebreaker vs Veteran Speaker
2. Being specific and demonstrate feedback
3. Use humor
4. Evaluating the English as 2nd language speaker
Being prepared to evaluate:
1. Always bring your CC manual to the meeting
2. Call speaker beforehand to ask if speaker has any areas to be focused on for evaluation. By calling beforehand, motivates speaker to bring "A Game" to presentation.
Evaluating the Icebreaker:
Remember the speaker is doing a lot of negative self-talk. To address this give a praise heavy evalution. At the most, give one area to improve. Also acknowledge speaker's anxiety by pointing out courage to give 1st speech.
Evaluating the Experienced Speaker:
Can provide more constructive criticism even to the most experienced speaker, even to as accomplished a speaker as President Obama: http://www.toastmasters.org/FunctionalMenuCategories/Media/PressReleases/Evaluation-of-Inaugural-Speech.aspx
Also, ask the experienced speaker if any areas to focus evaluation on. As Jeffrey Washington says, "You may be a new Toastmaster, but you are not a new person."
The first part was on the different approaches in evaluting an Icebreaker versus an experienced speaker.
The second part was Evaluation Speech Contest tips. Jeffrey is a previous District F Evaluation Speech Contest Winner. Here is Part One...
#1 Goal of evaluator is to help speaker improve.
Two fears that can hinder an evaluator:
1. Don't want to hurt the speaker's feelings
2. Don't know if speaker takes feedback well.
Four Areas to be covered:
1. Icebreaker vs Veteran Speaker
2. Being specific and demonstrate feedback
3. Use humor
4. Evaluating the English as 2nd language speaker
Being prepared to evaluate:
1. Always bring your CC manual to the meeting
2. Call speaker beforehand to ask if speaker has any areas to be focused on for evaluation. By calling beforehand, motivates speaker to bring "A Game" to presentation.
Evaluating the Icebreaker:
Remember the speaker is doing a lot of negative self-talk. To address this give a praise heavy evalution. At the most, give one area to improve. Also acknowledge speaker's anxiety by pointing out courage to give 1st speech.
Evaluating the Experienced Speaker:
Can provide more constructive criticism even to the most experienced speaker, even to as accomplished a speaker as President Obama: http://www.toastmasters.org/FunctionalMenuCategories/Media/PressReleases/Evaluation-of-Inaugural-Speech.aspx
Also, ask the experienced speaker if any areas to focus evaluation on. As Jeffrey Washington says, "You may be a new Toastmaster, but you are not a new person."
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