East Midlands Speakers Club

23/09/2026

☮️ Peace, pizza and public speaking! 🍕

Our latest East Midlands Speakers Toastmasters meeting had the theme “Peace be with us”, and what an evening it was!

We welcomed a fantastic 8 guests, our highest number yet, alongside 16 members. We loved seeing new faces getting involved and discovering what Toastmasters is all about. 🙌

A huge congratulations to our award winners:

🏆 Best Speaker: Liz Cole
🏆 Best Evaluator: Mike Hallett
🏆 Best Table Topics: Osas
🏆 Role of the Evening: Mike Cole

There was plenty to learn, too. Liz challenged us to think about making progress through small, consistent steps, while Matt and Kevin took us through the club’s annual “MOT” and asked members to help shape where the club goes next.

Table Topics took us into some interesting territory: forgetting past wrongs, the cost of fighting for peace, world peace versus 20 minutes of peace and quiet, and the important question of whether peace can be achieved through a piece of pizza. 🍕😄

Our Word of the Evening was “Amity”, meaning peace and friendly relationships.

If you’re looking for a friendly place to practise speaking, build confidence and meet interesting people, come and join us!

📅 Next meeting: Monday 5 October 2026
📍 Clock Warehouse
🕢 7:30pm

11/09/2026

🌾 What a bountiful evening at East Midlands Speakers!

Our meeting theme was “Harvest”, and we explored what we can cultivate and harvest through Toastmasters: confidence, inner strength, our own voice and stronger speaking skills.

A big congratulations to our award winners! 🎉

🏆 Best Evaluator: Mike Cole
🏆 Best Table Topics Speaker: Radish Rebecca
🏆 Role of the Evening: Liz Cole

We welcomed four guests, including Sven, Martin, Rebecca and Izzy, and they all added to a lively and welcoming evening.

There was plenty of variety too. Jason gave us an engaging look at social media and how it can help the club reach a wider audience, while Emma shared a heartfelt reminder about the importance of reaching out to people and believing in their potential.

And then came Table Topics! 🗣️ We tackled questions about farms, sheep in lifts, tractors versus combine harvesters and even changing your name to a vegetable. Radish Rebecca certainly made her mark! 🌱

Our Word of the Evening was “bountiful”.

If you’ve ever thought about improving your confidence, communication or public speaking, why not come along and see what Toastmasters is all about?

📅 Next meeting: Monday 21 September 2026

We’d love to welcome you! 🌟

04/08/2026

04/08/2026

Exploration and discovery were at the heart of our latest Toastmasters meeting as we came together to chart new horizons in communication, confidence, and leadership.

The evening was guided by our Toastmaster of the Evening, Gerri, with Matt leading an engaging Table Topics session that encouraged members and guests to think on their feet and share their ideas.

Congratulations to our evening’s award winners:
🏆 Best Speaker: Andrea
🏆 Best Evaluator: Louisa
🏆 Best Role Player: Mike
🏆 Best Table Topics Speaker: Jaspal

We were delighted to welcome two guests who jumped straight into Table Topics and did a fantastic job. Jaspal even took home the Table Topics award!

We also enjoyed inspiring learning moments, including Caroline’s insightful talk on improving speaking skills, capturing an audience’s attention, and creating stronger introductions that truly “nail” the opening.

Emma’s speech, included a great line “It’s All Practice,”. It was another valuable reminder that progress comes through consistent effort, experimentation, and learning from every opportunity.

Our Word of the Evening, “peregrinate,” reflected the spirit of the night: exploring new paths and continuing our journey of growth as communicators and leaders.

Thank you to everyone who participated, supported, and contributed to another evening of learning and connection. Toastmasters continues to be a place where we explore, discover, and develop skills that last a lifetime.

21/07/2026

An AI themed meeting led our wordmaster to choose ‘agentic’ as the word of the evening. Bilal posed imaginative AI related Table Topics questions. Caroline who won Best Table Topics Speaker had to answer the question of how she would react to her boss following an AI generated email that was sent erroneously to them instead of a romantic partner! Prepared speeches covered the Toastmasters Distinguished Club Programme by Jason, mentoring by Gerri and a speech titled, Good people do bad things and bad people do good things’ by Lee. Gerri was voted Best Speaker. Jason picked up Best Evaluator alongside 2 of our newest members, Divannia and Jo for their collaboration in evaluating Table Topics. Another of our new Jo’s stepped into the timer role at last minute and did a fantastic job of keeping everyone to time, reflected in her receiving Best Role Player. An enjoyable, entertaining and educational evening!

09/07/2026

Our holiday themed meeting on Monday was led by our Toastmaster of the Evening, Francisc (our Area Director). Oliver came up with a fantastic word for the night, ‘Absquatulate’ - to leave abruptly. Best Speaker went to Osas for his fabulous icebreaker speech. Gerri nailed Best Table Topics for her endearing commentary on why her husband, Garry, is her favourite holiday partner. Daniel was awarded Best Evaluator for his feedback on table topics. President, Caroline, chose Lilly as Best Role Player for her upbeat appraisal of the evening’s filler words. Another entertaining evening with many learning opportunities.

16/06/2026

‘Space and Time’ 🚀 was the theme for Monday’s evening. Kevin, our fabulous Toastmaster of the Evening, wove the theme into his introductions, making use of wonderful metaphors and entertaining members. His oratory masterclass was recognised through the Best Role Player award.

Speakers, who were referred to as stars, shone light on various topics: writing a blog, communication styles and impromptu speaking. Jason’s animated speech with multiple props and visuals on how to structure an impromptu speech stood out and he was deservedly awarded Best Speaker.

Bilal was voted Best Evaluator for his double delivery through his evaluations of Jason’s prepared speech and the table topics speakers.

Best Table Topics Speaker went to Francisc for his tall-tale regarding a trip to Mars.

As we near the end of our Toastmaster year, members voted Louisa as our Toastmaster of the Year. Louisa has been hugely committed to our club this year, supporting members and other committee members as well as successfully delivering a highly-professional mentor programme. We are truly grateful for her service. 😊

The new Toastmaster year kicks off on Monday 6th July. See you there!

03/06/2026

Another fantastic meeting and three wonderful speeches.
The nights theme was ‘Collaboration’ based upon the TME and the GEs 20 year wedding anniversary (Congratulations both)
With speeches from Elena, Kevin and Jason, we had a fascinating evening on a variety of topics from fear of public speaking to astrophysics to corporate problem solving techniques.
Tabletopics was equally enjoyable, presented by Louisa and followed the theme of Collaboration.
The night saw many awards. Best speaker went to Elena, best tabletopics to Gerri and best evaluator to Mike H. An additional award for best supporting role went to Louisa who did an incredible job of encouraging all tabletopics participants and putting them at ease.
Pathways awards went to Jason, James and Louisa.
Finally, we were visited by seven guests! We hope that they enjoyed the evening and look forward to seeing them at our next meeting 15th June

19/05/2026

Bilal, our newly appointed Division Director, led last night’s meeting and selected the apt theme of ‘Pass the Torch’ - perfect as we elected a new committee for the 2026-7 year.

Elected committee members consisted a perfect mix of new committee members and those already having served in a role.

Amongst our fabulous speakers from the evening were Mike H, who won Best Evaluator and guest, Lucas, picking up Best Table Topics. Gerri stepped in admirably to cover our President, Francisc, to bookend the meeting and present awards. 🏅

Certificate of level completions were awarded to Bilal and Jason 🎉

What a night!

23/04/2026

On Monday, our volunteering themed evening was highly entertaining and educational. Liz picked up Best Speaker for her speech on identity. Bilal gave us a masterclass in impromptu speaking on the topic of the importance of volunteering in today’s society. Jason, who recently won the Division E evaluation contest, showed us why when practicing for the upcoming District 71 contest. Best Role Player was awarded to Andreea for her role as grammarian, highlighting poetic license. An empowering evening for all.