This was the theme of our meeting on 27 November 2019 and it certainly gives food for thought. We had a lot of contributions to this theme involving food which had been tried by our participants, and who vowed never to revisit the experience, as well as various sports activities and chance encounters which impacted on several lives.
Table Topics, our impromptu speaking section, meant that three members had to tell us without prior preparation, how they would control geriatric pilots flying themselves to the supermarket in drones in the year 2085, what would an alien think a serviette dispenser would be used for when coming across it for the first time, and a card with a saying on was selected from a pack and the participant had to speak about what was written on it. Each person had a nerve-wracking 1 – 2 minutes to fill with their take on their particular subject! To help us afterwards, and to give us all some useful tips, was Chris Callaghan who gave us an educational on how to best tackle Table Topics in order to achieve the best results.
We followed this with three prepared speeches. The first one was a most insightful 7 minutes about Communism, the second shared the speaker’s thoughts on waiting for exam results and our third was an advanced presentation speech given by a visiting Toastmaster, covering the sales pitch for a brand of coffee. So a most interesting and entertaining evening for speakers and audience.
We ended off the evening with extremely constructive evaluations and criticism and so it was as always, a great, interactive and entertaining meeting. We are all looking forward to 11 December, our last meeting for the year and the time for our annual Christmas Ghost competition! Competitors are in the starting blocks and we look forward to a ‘ghostly time’ with appropriate ghostly gear and eats!
So until next time, keep communicating and let speech be the wind beneath your wings!