May 28th - Time is of the Essence

This session was this author’s first encounter with the any form of “Toastmastering”. It was a great introduction, as the evening featured three highly capable (main) presenter, as well as other talented speakers, and was a big inspiration to all the members and guests of the evening.

The (main) Toastmaster of the evening was Catalina Maldonado. She explained the evening’s program, presented the speakers and used the opportunity to bring the session into context. There were also signs put up stating “punctual”, a clear reminder of the club’s current focus.

“A room, a giraffe and a tsunami” was the title of the first speech, held by speaker, Lídia Plaza. Through the use of body language and facial expression she vividly acted out her memories of a situation in which she made out with a giraffe, and how her contemplation about her own fear in reaction to that situation made her deal with the second situation, a tsunami warning, in a positive and constructive way. She then generalised this and told us how positive internal dialogue can help us react to situations in a more positive way.

“Driven by Ideals” was the title of the second speech, held by speaker Rayane Bachammar, talked about how a writer followed his ideals and how this should stand as an example to follow for all of us. This speech was acted out through the use of "props", papers with dates that the speaker held up as she "walked" through her speech.

“Brain 2.0”, the third speech, by Madalina Burghelea, was a technical presentation about how technology is advancing to the point at which one can read another person’s mind. In fact, she used an example of an experiment where one person controlled another person through the Internet. Very scary and fascinating at the same time!

Miquel Cazaña, the night’s Table Topic Master, had conjured three diverse and rather unusual situations to present. First out was “witnessing an alien invasion”, and Henry Obegi had the honor of convincing the audience about what he had seen. He did a brilliant job, and made the thought of walking home alone that night slightly less appealing. Second was “a drink with Robert De Niro”, which was also very well presented.  Finally, the third improve speech, “naked on a mountain after a drink with a friend”; a rather unusual situation to hold a speech in front of an audience was performed with great conviction. It was a true testament to this club’s high level.

But what is a toastmaster session without its evaluators? The general evaluator, Judit Permanyer, gave an over-all report; the ah-Counter, Lucie Arnaudies, did so as well (yet did not have many noted events); the grammarian was also pleased with the session; and finally, the Timerkeeper, Isaac Riera, reported that the only ones that went over their time limits were the evaluators. Aside from this, some constructive criticism was given, but in general, the evaluators seemed pleased.

In conclusion, the session was a success, and the author looks forward to visiting the club again.