The Subtle Art of Public Speaking

Today I went to a Toastmaster's Conference. Toastmasters International is a worldwide nonprofit educational organization for the purpose of helping its members improve their communication, public speaking and leadership skills. I'm a member of a club in the City, and happened to win my local area speaking conference. This meant that I got to go and speak at division level. I was competing in the humorous speaking contest.

The level of the speakers was a notch above my relatively novice level. I have only been doing it properly for about 6 months, and the most experienced in my group had been doing it for 33 years, and he was the guy who won! However, it was a great experience, and I was happy to take part for the opportunity to get up and speak to around 100 people I didn't know, feel the nerves, and actually overcome them.

My speech title was "Birth - One Man's Perspective". I talked about the birth of our first child, Aidan, outlining some of the humorous things that happened. These included: not realising how quick the process can be (in our case, all the kids have been delivered rapidly); the strange noises women in labour make; how I feinted at the birth; and how Anth has had to put up with me as a husband!

I hope that someday my kids can benefit from some of the confidence building that Toastmasters provides. The ability to be able to actively communicate your ideas to a group either in a prepared manner or off the cuff are skills I feel are very useful. Who knows, they may be the great orators of the future.

Ciao for Now, Angry Dad.