East Herts Speakers Club

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East Herts Speakers Club

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We empower individuals to become confident speakers, communicators and leaders.

27/02/2025

A night of competition, inspiration, and emotional storytelling at our Toastmasters meeting this past Tuesday!

This week, we held our Club Heat of the Toastmasters International Speech Contest and the Evaluator Contest—and what a fantastic evening it was!

Our speakers delivered powerful and emotionally compelling speeches, demonstrating the art of storytelling, persuasion, and connection. Meanwhile, our evaluators showcased the incredible skill of providing insightful, constructive feedback—helping speakers refine their craft and grow in confidence.

A huge congratulations to everyone who competed and to those who supported the event! These contests are a testament to how Toastmasters helps us sharpen our communication skills in a supportive, encouraging, and emotionally engaging environment.

🔥 Want to challenge yourself and become a more confident, impactful speaker? We meet on the second and last Tuesday of every month, and we’d love for you to join us! Drop us a message or come along to experience it for yourself.

14/02/2025

Another fantastic evening at our Toastmasters club this Tuesday!

We had the privilege of hearing from three excellent speakers, each delivering engaging and thought-provoking speeches. It was a great session filled with learning, encouragement, and plenty of inspiration!

One of the best parts of Toastmasters is the opportunity to grow alongside others—whether it’s refining our speaking skills, gaining confidence, or learning new perspectives from fellow members.

A big thank you to our speakers and everyone who contributed to making the evening so enjoyable!

🔥 Want to become a more confident speaker and leader? We meet on the second and last Tuesday of every month, and we’d love for you to join us! Drop us a message or come along to experience it for yourself.

29/01/2025

Had a fantastic evening at our Toastmasters club last night!

We were privileged to have Bob Ferguson run a workshop on how to use storytelling in a corporate setting—and what an insightful session it was!

Storytelling is a powerful tool in business, helping to engage, influence, and inspire. Bob shared practical techniques on how to craft compelling narratives that resonate with an audience, making complex ideas more relatable and memorable.

A huge thank you to Bob for his expertise and to everyone who attended and contributed to the discussion. Nights like these remind us why Toastmasters is such a great space for developing communication skills!

If you’re looking to sharpen your storytelling skills or become a more confident speaker, why not come along to one of our meetings? We’d love to have you!

28/10/2024

22.10.2024 Another fun meeting, can you tell?!

Well done to Mike for breaking the ice and delivering his first speech as part of our club.

The first speech after you join is literally called The Icebreaker, and we all love it! It’s a chance for us to learn more about you and it’s 100% pressure free.

While you’ll still get valuable feedback, that’s not what the first speech is about.

No one expects a perfectly delivered talk. We’re there to support you and celebrate the fact that you had the courage to get on the “stage”. It’s the most important step and we all want you to keep going.

So let’s do this!

Want to develop your public speaking and leadership skills in a friendly, welcoming, and supportive environment? Join us for our next meeting: November 12, 7:45pm at the St. Andrew's Centre in Hertford.
https://easthertsspeakers.org/

30/09/2024

24.09.2024 Another special evening at East Herts Speakers as 4 of our members competed for the winning spot that gets to move forward in the area speeches contest!

Huge congratulations to Dany for Best Humorous Speech and to John for Best Table Topic! Make us proud in the next phase!

And of course, well done to all the participants for being brave enough to sign up.

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Want to develop your public speaking and leadership skills in a friendly, welcoming, and supportive environment? Join us for our next meeting: October 8, 7:45pm at the St. Andrew's Centre in Hertford.

https://easthertsspeakers.org/

13/09/2024

10.09.2024 - "So you think you're funny?"

Though many of our meetings follow a certain structure, we will occasionally have special evenings with workshops or competitions!

And this Tuesday was one of those days.

Seasoned Toastmaster Steve Campion led a masterclass in… how to be funny 😀.

Humour on stage isn’t, as some believe, spontaneous. In many cases, it's thought-out and written into the speeches. And it’s a great way to keep the audience engaged.

But how?

In his workshop, Steve presented the association tool called “the startled spider”, that can help us find funny stories related to the chosen topic for our speeches.

I’ll spare you the drawings we created during the meeting, but the main point is this: by building a web of associated ideas, you can discover unexpected and humorous connections.

We were also joined by Guest Toastmasters Ian and Nissa from Green Square Toastmasters in Australia. So… Ian and Nissa, did you think we’re funny?!

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Want to join us next time? Come along on Tuesday September 24 at 7:45pm at the St Andrew’s Community Centre in Hertford. DM us with any question about East Herts Speakers, we’re happy to help!

28/08/2024

If you’re curious what happens during a Toastmasters meeting, and specifically during an East Herts Speakers one, here’s an example from last night.

👉 While the first part of the session is dedicated to 5-7min prepared speeches, which are well structured and rehearsed at home, the second half features “Table Topics”.

What are those, you ask?

Short, impromptu 1-2min speeches on random topics chosen by the Table Topics Master.

They range from
🔹simple ones such as choosing between tea or coffee,
🔹to more creative ones such as choosing a celebrity to have lunch with,
🔹all the way to the mind twisters that Vesna challenged us with yesterday.

“You can have £5,000,000 right now, but the only condition is that a super intelligent deeply evil raccoon will now be hunting you. Its only purpose in life is to find you and kill you. Do you accept £5,000,000 on this condition and why?”

I'm pretty sure I'd never ask this question at the dinner table, but to each their own, Vesna...

Aaaanyway... Even in today's economy, Eleni passed on the opportunity to get the £5mil. What would you choose? Raccoon or bills for life?

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Want to develop your public speaking and leadership skills in a friendly, welcoming, and supportive environment? Join us for our next meeting: September 10, 7:45pm at the St. Andrew's Centre in Hertford.

14/08/2024

“I haven’t laughed so much in a long time”, said two of our members after this week’s meeting.

We had three prepared speeches, a very creative table topic session, and quite a few roles that made us enjoy every minute.

🎉 Congrats to: 🎉

🔹 Andreea for winning Best Speaker with “A tool to change your life”,
🔹 Jonathan for winning Best Evaluator, after evaluating Andreea’s speech,
🔹 Vesna for winning Best Table Topic describing one of the mystery objects in a way that almost made us want to not guess what it is because we kept wanting to hear her speak,
🔹 and Anna for completing Level 1 of her chosen pathway.

Everyone who had the stage has done brilliantly, which was proven by the fact that our ah-erm counter Dany forgot to count the ah-erms! 🙈😃 Sometimes we have so much fun, we forget we have a job to do.

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Want to develop your public speaking and leadership skills in a friendly, welcoming, and supportive environment? Join us for our next meeting: August 27, 7:45pm at the St. Andrew's Centre in Hertford.

25/07/2024

23 July 2024 Meeting - The one with the books

Word of the day: exude
Prepared speeches: 3

Roxana’s Icebreaker: Parenting with good intentions: when parents want children to succeed
Johan: The enemy from within
Dany: 5 Years from Now, You'll Thank Yourself

Congrats to Roxana for her first speech, Johan for winning best speech of the evening, and Dany for reaching Level 3 of his pathway.

Roxana also won Best Table Topic, and Steve won Best Evaluator.

The table topics session was a special one, as Andreea brought 5 books and used the titles of the books instead of the usual questions.

“Are we there yet?”
“Why we eat (so much)”
“It ends at midnight”
“Always carry me with you”
“Things we never got over”

So fun!

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Want to develop your public speaking and leadership skills in a friendly, welcoming, and supportive environment? Join us for our next meeting: August 13, 7:45pm at the St. Andrew's Centre in Hertford.

10/07/2024

Happy New Toastmasters Year! The meeting on the 9th of July was our first meeting with a brand new committee and president Jonathan did a wonderful job!

Fit for a new year, the word of the day was BUZZ, which made multiple appearances in the speeches - including Buzz Lightyear and Buzz McCallister.

We had 2 prepared speeches:
🔹 Nadia's Icebreaker, in which we got to learn her story and how she got a new start to life at 19
🔹 Anna told us about her 125 hours driving lessons - a true lesson about persistence in reaching your goals

Our winners for the night:
🔹 Best Evaluator - Lance
🔹 Best Table Topic - guest Deborah

Our next meeting is on July 23rd. Join us!

Address

St Andrew's Centre
Hertford
SG141HZ

Website

http://www.easthertsspeakers.org/

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