Riga Toastmasters

10/10/2026

02/10/2026

Riga Toastmasters contest night has passed, and what a night it was! Huge congratulations to our winners:

🥇 Teodora, winner of Table Topics
🥇 Ilze, winner of the Humorous Speech contest

Thank you to everyone who stepped on stage. Being brave enough to compete is already a win. 👏

The fun continued at our afterparty, where we wrapped up the contest and handed out diplomas over good food and good company. 🥂🍽️

Teodora and Ilze, best of luck with representing our club in international contests! We are cheering for you. 🚀

24/09/2026

A bread-cutting appliance? A wedding-speech club? Not quite. 😄

Toastmasters is a global nonprofit (running since 1924!) where people practice public speaking and leadership — in a room full of people who want you to improve.

At Riga Toastmasters, every meeting is learn-by-doing: no lectures, no formal instructor. You take on real roles, give prepared speeches through the Pathways program, try impromptu speaking, and get constructive feedback from people who've been exactly where you are.

Why members stick around:
🎤 Speak with confidence
🧠 Think on your feet
🌍 Grow a network of motivated people, locally and internationally
⏱️ Go at your own pace — no pressure, no deadlines

🏆 Compete, if you want.
Every year, Toastmasters International runs the World Championship of Public Speaking — the highest level of competition at Toastmasters, with contestants advancing through club, Area, Division, District, and quarterfinal rounds before the semifinals and finals. The most active, competition-minded members are the ones who climb that ladder.

The 2026 title went to Dirceu Da Silva from Rotterdam, Netherlands, for his speech "Best Decision Ever!" — worth looking up on YouTube for anyone curious what world-class Toastmasters speaking looks like.

However, most members join purely to get more comfortable presenting at work, handle Q&A without freezing, or just build everyday confidence speaking up. No requirement to compete.

Curious what a meeting actually looks like? Join one and see for yourself — guests are always welcome.

20/09/2026

Dear Riga Toastmasters and our friends! ✈️ This week's meeting theme was "At the Airport," with our Toastmaster of the evening, Madara, proving herself queen of multitasking by hosting the event and delivering a prepared speech herself.

First up was Krishna, presenting "Dear Departed" 🎯 as part of his Dynamic Leadership pathway. He shared experiences, frustrations, and successes from leading others, and inspired us all to look for our own leadership style.

Next, Madara delivered "Iron Opinions," a speech about how the loudest opinions we inherit from others are often false and forged without real experience. By the end, more than a few bars in the room felt a little less solid than before.

Then came Table Topics 🎙️, led by Marija, who put everyone on the spot with airport related questions. Ilze won the Best Table Topics Award with her story about always finding her way to the gate no matter how little time she has left before a flight. Closing out the night, Mihails took home the Best Evaluator Award 🏆 for his sharp, thoughtful feedback.

Thank you to everyone who participated this week! See you at our next meeting, Toastmasters! 👋

07/09/2026

Dear Riga Toastmasters and our friends! 📚 The momentum from our last meeting carried straight into Meeting #403, "Library!" — bringing three full speeches to the stage.

Ilze pulled double duty as both President and Toastmaster of the Evening, setting the tone for our night among the shelves.

First to the podium was Anete with her Ice Breaker, "The Impressions." 🌱 She shared her earliest steps into Toastmasters, along with an exciting dream she's chasing outside these walls too. A promising opening chapter for many more stories to come.

Next up was Madara with "A Menace in a Fur Coat," her Speech with a Purpose project. 🐀 We braced ourselves through anecdotes about her concerningly intelligent (and possibly criminally inclined) pet rat, Orion.

Our guest of honour for the evening was Margarita, an experienced Toastmaster of 6 years from the Confident Voices Vilnius Toastmasters Club who crossed the border to join us. She took the stage with her speech "Age," reminding us that it's never too late to start a new chapter. Her storytelling needs no translation as she walked away with the Best Speech Award 🏆 of the night.

Table Topics brought its usual delightful chaos, and Rihards stole the show with an improvised tale about a toaster that knows far too much, taking home the Best Table Topics Speaker award. 🍞

And in the evaluations, Ilze proved just as sharp giving feedback as she was running the meeting, earning Best Evaluator honours for the night. ✨

Between the speeches and the puns, this meeting was proof that a night about books can turn into quite the page-turner. 📖

A special thank you to Margarita for making the trip from Lithuania to spend the evening with us! 💙

Until next time!

20/08/2026

Dear Riga Toastmasters and our friends! 👋 Meeting number 402 leaned all the way into Movement & Momentum 🚀🔥 and from the first minute to the last, the room never lost its pace.

🎤 Our Toastmaster of the Evening, Krishna, made his debut in the role and opened with the idea that carried the whole night: momentum isn't about giant leaps — it's about being willing to start, take the next step, and then the one after that. And take steps we did.

🖤 Madara delivered her Ice Breaker speech, "A Black Leather Coat," with full gangster energy, proving that a crisis is just leverage waiting to be seized and that every setback is a chance to propel even further toward your goals.

⚡ Rihards took the helm as Table Topics Master and kept the momentum going with a set of fast-moving prompts that gave nobody a chance to slow down. Guests and Toastmasters alike stepped up, but it was Marija who matched the pace best of all and walked away with the win of the night! 🏆

🙌 Thank you all for keeping the momentum alive!

📍 And most importantly, don't lose this momentum — join our next meeting on Wednesday, September 2nd, at our new venue, the National Library of Latvia!

07/08/2026

🚀 Dear Riga Toastmasters and our friends! The stars aligned for our "Starships" meeting — beautiful weather ☀️, brave speakers, and a whole galaxy of imagination in Victory Park.

Our Toastmaster of the Evening, Madara, opened with the idea that carried the whole night: the best starship was never built out of metal — it is our mind 🧠, and it can take us to any time and any place.

Krishna returned with a revised version of his speech "When Sun Shines Again" ☀️, and what a difference a second flight makes! His vocal variety 🎶 and body language filled the room — proof that growth happens when we take feedback on board and launch again.

Madara also took the helm as Table Topics Master, turning the evening into an intergalactic job fair 🛸. We heard from an aspiring cow abductor 🐄, a suspiciously convincing human impersonator, and a crop circle designer who arrived with a portfolio ready. But it was Ilze who won the night 🏆 with her application to become a human abductor — delivered so persuasively that a few of us checked over our shoulders on the way home.

Thank you all for being such a stellar crew 💫! And of course, we landed the evening the way every good voyage should end — with an afterparty.

Missed this one? Keep an eye out for news about our next meeting, which will be led by Krishna. And wherever your mind takes you next, we hope it's somewhere bold 🌠!

01/08/2026

Dear Riga Toastmasters and our friends! 👋

What an evening it was! Our meeting on July 25 brought together Toastmasters and guests from near and far for an unforgettable educational session on evaluation, led by DTM Narendran Narasimhan — a speech evaluator champion of former District 108.

🎓 Narendran shared his expertise on what truly makes an evaluation great, offering several templates that guests are already planning to use as future speech evaluators.

🌍 The reach of this meeting was truly international. We welcomed participants online from multiple countries, including fellow Toastmasters from Lithuania and Poland, alongside our members joining in person at Riga Graduate School of Law.

🎤 Additionally, our club member Henrik delivered a thoughtful speech, "The Philosophical Speech," connecting storytelling to leadership, and received a live evaluation from Narendran himself.

🥂 The evening didn't end when the meeting closed, though — our on-site participants kept the energy going with an afterparty!

🙏 A huge thank you to Narendran Narasimhan for such a valuable and generous session, and to everyone who joined us — whether from Riga or hundreds of kilometers away. Moments like these are what make the Toastmasters community so special.

✨ Missed this one? Don't worry — there's always a next time. Stay tuned for our upcoming meetings, and as always, guests are welcome!

18/07/2026

Dear Riga Toastmasters and our friends! ☀️ Summer showed up in full force at our "Berry Bliss and Summer's Kiss" meeting — and so did some real, heartfelt storytelling.
Our Toastmaster of the Evening, Ilze, set the tone with warmth and sunshine, guiding us through a lovely, berry-sweet evening from start to finish. 🍓
Krishna's speech, "When Sun Shines Again," left the room moved with its deeply personal and captivating storytelling, reminding us that all darkness ends and the sun will always shine again. 🌞
Henrik took the reins as our Table Topics Master, serving up a delicious round of berry-themed prompts that had everyone thinking on their feet. After some fierce on-the-spot storytelling, it was Ilze who came out on top as the winner — proving she can run a meeting and win Table Topics in the very same evening. 🏆
Thank you all for such a warm, berry-sweet, and touching evening — this meeting's basket was full to the brim! 🧺
Ready for another juicy one? 🍒 Mark your calendars for July 25th (Saturday) at 17:00, when 2026 District 108 Champion of Speech Evaluation, DTM Narendran Narasimhan, joins us for a special Evaluation Workshop.
‼️It will replace our next Wednesday meeting, meaning that on 29.07.2026 there will be no meeting.

06/06/2026

Dear Riga Toastmasters and our friends! What a night we had on our meeting on the 3rd of June! Teodora, our Toastmaster of the evening, kicked off the meeting with her signature flair. She introduced the concept of the "12 Week Year," which, let’s be honest, sounded like a great way to condense our procrastination into a manageable timeframe. Who wouldn’t want to accomplish a year’s worth of goals in just three months?
Next up was Ignas, who presented an educational session on the art of evaluation. He made it clear that evaluations are not just for report cards and performance reviews; they’re also for helping us become better speakers. Ignas's tips were so insightful that we almost forgot we were supposed to be evaluating him! After his educational session, Ignas seamlessly transitioned into leading the table topics session. He posed questions that had us scratching our heads and laughing out loud. Anete stole the show with her impassioned speech about cleaning her space after exams. She painted a vivid picture of the post-exam chaos, complete with crumpled papers and snack wrappers that had taken on a life of their own.
Our meeting ended with elections of the Club’s Executive Committee for year 2026/2027! Let us welcome our President Marija, Vice-President Education and Treasurer Ilze and Vice-President Membership Krishna! We are greateful to exiting Executive Committee – President and Vice-President Education Marija, Vice-President Membership and Secretary Ilze, Vice-President Public Relations Henrik and Treasurer&SAA Martins!
Until next time, keep those intentions high and your actions even higher!