Toastmasters International District 60 Fall Conference Toronto 2012

I attended the Toastmasters District 60 Fall Conference this past weekend. I went for a couple of reasons, ie to listen to a lecture on going professional with speaking by Jane Atkinson http://speakerlauncher.com/ and to attend the Humorous Speech Finals, where I had to do an Invocation speech. Jane led a very interesting presentation about the elements required to become a sought after public speaker. She used an example of an Olympic Skier Vince Poscente, who struggled with success until she started to work on his business development plan. One of the first tools she used was visualization technique of the dream of being a travelling speaker and author. Another was on dreaming big about what type of income we wanted and the lifestyle we envisioned for us. It was a great exercise in goal setting. She has a few books on the subject with a workbook, on her website. Her suggestion is to start promoting your book, while writing it and most importantly write the book. Your fortunes will change once you become a published author. She had a great conclusion about how she visualized living in a house by the water, in a happy relationship and with children, and how she accomplished them all. BTW she also wrote a book about Kissing of Frogs before meeting her prince.

However, the highlight of the  conference was the Humorous Speech Contest, on Saturday night, which was staged  in a formal dinner theatre entertainment style. The venue was tastefully done, and I was privileged to give my pre contest Invocation speech. The message I used was the Roger Bannister running record where he broke the elusive 4 minute mile barrier. The story was a method to use for overcome limiting beliefs, in order to release our full potential in life. I ended with a quote from  Nelson Mandela's speech "Our Light"

The competition was outstanding with contestants ranging in age from the twenties to mid eitghties. Stories about learning how to drive manual transmission, to cats and murder, and finally to trying to look cool in highschool were shared with our district.

The winner of the contest was Michael Orrett Jr., a young Toastmaster with only 1.5 years of training. Son of a politician and a Toastmaster mother he commented that Toastmasters changed him and he just bought into the system, and the positive encouragement he got from his club members. He ended by saying he joined a new gang, called District 60.

Toastmasters is an amazing organization that is developing speakers, authors and leaders. It is the most supportive and esteem building organization I have ever experienced. I just hope more young people catch on to this training and engage in the process as soon as possible. It can make your career fly.


To Life and  To Toastmasters,



The Adventure Guy