"Turning Tides Convention Report"

On the Weekend of 12th to 14th May the semi-annual Toastmaster’s Convention was held in Shed 6 (next to ASB Arena,on the Wellington waterfront). Almost 400 Toastmasters from around the country attended to see the District Evaluation and International Speech Contests and attend the Council meeting plus Educationals and Keynote speaker addresses.

Our local Club ,Napier  was extremely well represented in the District finals with Craig (Evaluation) and Amy (International Speech) both representing Division D to compete against the eight other Division winners from around New Zealand.

 

The Keynote Speakers included David Fisher, DTM, International Director,Region 12 (Australia) and Mohammed Qahtani, 2015 World Champion of Public Speaking, (Saudi Arabia) who both gave interesting and educational presentations on both Saturday and Sunday. David has been fully involved with Districts splitting around the world (as we are due to do next year into District 72 (from a line across from Levin to Masterton South) and District 112 )all Clubs north of that line)-and that is us- so from July 2018 we will be in District 112!!

Mohammed was very entertaining, particularly in his Sunday morning session when he spoke about the “Power of the Word” which stemmed from his winning speech in 2015 and apparently ‘left a huge impact on his audience and is now spreading all over the world. It is changing lives and inspiring people in all walks of life as it touches them at the very core.’ Interestingly enough Mohammed was born mute and did not begin speaking until he was 6.

 

The Education sessions were worthwhile, I attended two of them, Margaret Austin “To Script or Not to Script, That is the Question?” when she spoke about the  leaning in Toastmasters on “having a piece of paper to refer to being not desirable” to the advantages of increasing the positive delivery aspects when you can refer to notes(script) and not have to remember entirely what you are going to say next. Look at many Public Speakers today and the majority utilise some form of script to refer to. A lady after my own heart. (that’s a personal opinion!). Her session was based on a book “TED Talks” by CEO Chris Anderson, one of the most up to date books about Public Speaking.

The other session I attended was “Pathways To The Future” run by David Young & Stephen Preston and involved information about the new Pathways Education programme , which is now not expected to begin in our District until next year. Anyone working on a current Educational Award will have until the end of 2019 to complete it. (i.e. Competent Communicator, Competent Leader etc etc.)

 

On Saturday morning the District 72 Evaluation Contest was held in which I had the privilege of representing Division D, after a very nervous night in which I evaluated 100 speeches that I had never even heard! the Test Speaker, Craig McGregor from Dunedin (a previous District 72 Champion) gave his speech and the nine Evaluators presented their Evaluations. Entitled “Checkpoint Charlie” it was a highly entertaining, educational and uplifting speech which was presented almost faultlessly as one would expect from a speaker of Craig’s background.This made Evaluation and particularly recommendations extremely difficult to find, however we all had to Evaluate the same speech and while I feel I did my best I was unplaced. I was also the last Evaluator so did not hear what the other eight suggested as recommendations, which I would like to have known! The winner was Jeremy Clarke.

 

The Council meeting on Saturday afternoon (always a highlite!!!!) was over in  2 and 1/2 hours and the main points effecting us were the details of the District Split, election of the top three Directors for the 2017/18 year( Sarah Bate- District Director; Toni Sharpe- Program Quality Director; Neil Stitchbury- Club Growth Director). We are yet to have anyone nominated as Area D2 Director or Division D Director- so put your name forward!!.

Also WHQ have decreed that in future we can only have one Convention per year so the November 2017 Convention in Gisborne will be the last November Convention and all four contests after May 2018 will be held at the May Convention. This is the way it was prior to 1997! Get along to Gisborne 11/12th November as it will be history making! (and oh so close!)

 

On Sunday the highlite for most of the Convention was held, that being the International Speech Contest in which Napier Club's Amy was competing representing Division D.The winner of this Contest represents District 72 at the World Championship of Public Speaking in Vancouver,Canada in August against some 80 other District winners from around the world. (they have nine semi-finals with nine contestants in each and the winners go on to the Grand final).

We have nine contestants in our contest and Amy did wonderfully well to be placed third. An excellent effort in this top quality field and I believe Amy’s speech, which many of you will have heard, “Connecting The Dots” was as well presented as she could have managed and should be really proud of her efforts. I am sure that Napier Club certainly are! The winner was Joseph Fa’afiu with a speech entitled “Live, Love, Laugh”, extremely well presented with a fairly simple message as can be gained from the title. We wish him well in Canada.  He also won the “most Entertaining Speaker’ Award.

 

Another excellent Convention, well organised and a good venue for the speakers and Education sessions, but unfortunately the am & pm teas were a little cramped. Overall I would say 8/10 (had I won the Evaluation Contest it could well have been 10/10!!).

 

Make plans for Gisborne now, Early Bird Registrations are cheaper and there is a $200 Travel voucher to be won for someone who registers before 31st May. Go to www.toastmasters.org.nz .

Craig, V/P Education, Pania Toastmasters Club.