Oxford Speakers Club

09/12/2025

Please be aware that our meeting tonight will not be taking place. Our next scheduled meeting will be on 13 January. Have a great festive break.

See you then.

21/09/2025

Join us this Tuesday for our Table Topics and Humorous Club Speech Contest.

The contest starts from 19:00 at the Oxford Town Hall.

Members will participate in impromptu speaking and prepared humorous speeches in front of an audience.

# # #

What are speech contests? Each year, thousands of Toastmasters International compete in the Humorous, Table Topics®, Evaluation and International speech contests. Competition begins with club contests, and winners continue competing through the Area, Division, and District levels. Winners of the District level International Speech Contest proceed to the quarterfinal level. Following quarterfinals, winners advance to the semifinals for a chance to take part in the World Championship of Public Speaking®.

07/12/2024

It was our end of year meal this evening! In addition to enjoying fantastic food at Rewley House in Oxford, we each went round the room to reflect on our year. Thank you to everyone for coming.

26/09/2024

Tonight we welcomed Chris Boden to Oxford Speakers Club tonight for a fantastic masterclass to help us all ‘own the room’.

🙏 A big thanks to Chris for giving up his time to help develop other Toastmasters International UK & Ireland members’ speaking and presentation skills.

👏The standing ovation at the end showed how much all our guests enjoyed the evening.

20/09/2024

Less than a week to go until our 'Own the Room' masterclass.

We're looking forward to welcoming Chris Boden to Oxford Town Hall on Thursday, 26 September at 19:00 for a special masterclass.

Chis is a contest ju**ie who has made twelve District finals, in every contest discipline, and won three of them – International Speech, Table Topics and Evaluation; with various minor places too. In his spare time, he also does improv comedy.

In this experiential workshop, he will explore some ways to use your voice, body and position to make sure that when you talk, people listen.

Comment below if you have any questions :)

03/09/2024

⚠ September Speaking Forecast ⚠

- Oxford Speakers Club will not be meeting on Tuesday, 10 September as our normal meeting venue is unavailable.
- However, we will still be meeting on Tuesday, 24 September and we also are hoping to run a special workshop on Thursday, 26 September.

09/01/2024

Our meeting tonight will be held online. Full details available on our Meetup page:

**\*\*\*\* This meeting will take place online. \*\*\*** Most people dread public speaking. However, we all know that we must be able to communicate effectively with other

20/12/2023

Sorry folks...we won't be meeting on 26 December! Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, 9 January at 19.00.

More info is on our Meet Up page:
https://lnkd.in/e8dVkjmp

12/12/2023

Our last Oxford Speakers Club meeting of the year will not be taking place at the Town Hall tonight. Instead, please head to the Westgate social.

08/12/2023

👏 Oxford Speakers Club is proud to announce that Tom Wells, an Oxford Speakers Club member and student at the University of Oxford, will speak at January’s TEDxOxford event held at the Oxford Town Hall on 20 January 2024.

Tom first visited Oxford Speakers Club in May 2023 and became a member in June. Since then, he’s grown in confidence. He explains more: “My journey with public speaking has been difficult. At secondary school, I was uncomfortable with talking in public. However, I overcame this initial fear by taking GCSE and A-level Drama. I used those skills to become Head Boy. I published articles with the British Stammering Association (STAMMA) discussing my experience and my confidence in public speaking took off after visiting Oxford Speakers Club.

“The Oxford Speakers Club has been an excellent opportunity to learn the essential elements of public speeches in a safe and friendly environment. As a guest, I surprised myself by winning two table topic contests – improvised speeches under two minutes – and gained the club’s recognition when I received the best speaker award for my icebreaker speech. Despite this success, the club includes all abilities and encourages everyone to get involved. If you don’t try, you will never know your ability.

“Great public speakers have used Ted Talks to share their stories and ideas – especially on technology, business, academia, psychology, and life inspiration. But as a student and as a life-long stammerer, this experience feels surreal to me as you don’t usually see something on YouTube and then do it yourself.

“Unsurprisingly, I felt passionate about the conference’s theme, ‘We are all storytellers.’ I wanted to share how I used stories to find meaning and purpose in my life and to find a way to accept my stammer as a central pillar of my identity. So, I submitted a speech outline to the Ted committee (not expecting to gain anything from it), and it turned out it was what they were looking for. The final speech will be around 14-18 minutes long – longer than a club speech – but I look forward to overcoming old fears and seeing a large crowd before me.”

President of Oxford Speakers Club, Sunny Goswami said: "If you always do what you have always done you will only get what you have always gotten. The fear of public speaking is real but so are the benefits and the only way to get through the fear is to take the first small step, then another, then another.

"The club is there to help and support you at each step. Tom is a living example of how we can surprise ourselves if we give ourselves a chance to shine while accepting the risk to fail.

"Best table topic speaker, best speaker and now TEDx Speaker, Tom did it all by facing his fear and taking the step towards his ambition. If he can do it, so can you."

27/10/2023

We celebrated our 200th meeting this week! Be part of our ongoing journey and join our 201st meeting on 14 November. More here: https://lnkd.in/eKUKTe7m

11/10/2023

🌍 We held our meeting last night and it was great to welcome so many new guests! Our Toastmaster of the Evening (host) Domenica set the scene and kept us entertained throughout, as we delved into captivating Table Topics session led by Paul on celebrating International travel and diversity.

As we moved on to prepared speeches, Alan wowed us with his insights into scone making and Air BandB, Emma shared her take on time management, and Ian took us on a virtual trip to Prague. 🗺️🎙️

Thank you to all our evaluators, speakers, and others who helped the meeting run so well, our speakers for making the evening both informative and entertaining...and of course well done to Alan, Paul and Nick who were the evening's winners! 🙌