Pushing boundaries at Speakers’ Corner - 16 August 2014

Stepping outside of your comfort zone is an underlying theme of Toastmasters – pushing boundaries to raise your game. Last Saturday, at Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park, Excalibur Speakers came together with Toastmasters from across London and beyond to deliver an entertaining and informative meeting to the unsuspecting public.

Toastmasters and guests gathered at Speakers' Corner, Hyde Park

Led by Immediate Past President Andrew, we all warmed up with some tongue twisters and also rehearsed our “call and response” if the hecklers turned up.

Andrew as Toastmaster

Handing over to President Cat for the first of the Table Topics sessions, the sunshine came out in a timely fashion for impromptu speeches (and impromptu evaluations!) on the theme of summer.

Six prepared speeches were given by both members and guests of Excalibur Speakers, with topics as varied as nuclear energy, conquering the cold call, what can go wrong in a PowerPoint presentation, and speaking humorously. And, of course, each of the speeches was evaluated in turn.

George speaking on the perils of PowerPoint

Visiting Toastmaster Maciej W led an intriguing Table Topics session on the theme of dinosaurs, which challenged the speakers and entertained the audience.

Proving that, in the nicest possible way, no one is safe at an Excalibur meeting, Andrew threw down the gauntlet to visiting Toastmasters Martin and Sebastian to go head-to-head in selling a packet of sweets in “Refreshers vs. Chewits”. After valiant impromptu persuasive speeches from both, it was declared a draw!

“Refreshers vs. Chewits”

Andrew brought the meeting to a close with “Around the World in 80 Days”, in which everyone present was given the floor to describe where the journey would go next and how they would get there.

“Around the World in 80 Days”

The sun continued to shine as we picnicked and networked in the park. Roll on spring for the next instalment of Excalibur at Speakers’ Corner!

Next meeting

Our next meeting is in fact our Humorous Speech & Table Topics contest night on Wednesday, 10^th September at the Fitzrovia Community Centre. It promises to be a fun night with lots of laughs, so please sign up on our Meetup group and be there for a prompt 7pm start. See you there!