It was a night of great speeches, dazzling visuals and spot-on extemporaneous speaking. Yours truly was the Toastmaster not only managing the meeting but also personally demonstrating the importance of pre-reading intro copy. Karan Bavandi and Kenzi Rose kicked off the night with jokes and a Thought for the Day, respectively, then Lauren Clayton was […]

Silicon Speech was a bi-coastal event last night led by our Toastmaster, Lauren Clayton, in NYC this week, and the rest of us under the red skies of Santa Monica. Everyone approached their meeting roles with typical, indefatigable enthusiasm and the night featured two excellent speakers, Alex Schams and Karan Bavandi. Alex was up first

It was a big night at Silicon Speech last night. Not only was it Mystery Guest Night but we also celebrated the 5th anniversary of our club. 5 years! My how time flies! Our Mystery Guest Speaker was none other than the recent winner of the 2020 Toastmasters International Speech Contest, Mike Carr. As you

The perfect Toastmasters meeting is, of course, a chimera but we’re getting closer every week. Last night was something special. Luis Hurtado introduced a platform that members can use to perfect their presenting skills called Silicon Speech Shark Tank. Luis was completing a Pathways Level 4 project and did so by pitching his new web

Hi Everyone, Last night, our Silicon Speech Toastmasters meeting was smooth, fun and well run thanks to Li Xin, large and in charge in his first stint as Toastmaster. He oversaw a meeting which included a joke by Karan Bavandi about a Trump fan (it’s not what you think) and a great Thought for the

It was a dive into commercial waters, last night with a speech about financial planning and a look into the building of a brand and blog. More about that in a moment. Karan Bavandi was our Toastmaster and he delivered an almost perfect performance in the role. He kicked off the night by introducing Joke

Last night’s Silicon Speech meeting was conducted with great style and panache. Armando Yee was the ringmaster and he introduced our first of two speakers, Li Xin with his Ice Breaker. Li did a great job delivering a speech that had a great message, “Anything worth having is worth working hard for” and his story

We had a few last-minute cancellations and an audio issue but the group was able to rebound with poise and grace resulting in a resplendent meeting at Silicon Speech, last night. I was Toastmaster and it was my pleasure to introduce, Area A1 Director, Carla Taravella who, just hours earlier, had volunteered to fill in

It was another great night at Silicon Speech, last night. Alex Schams has returned from his summer hiatus and was our Toastmaster for the festivities. I was Speaker #1 and I took the opportunity to introduce my new website to the club. It was the Pathways, Persuasive Speaking assignment and, hopefully, I persuaded a few

Hi Everyone, It was our first meeting of the new Toastmaster (fiscal) year and dignitaries were in the house! I would like to thank our new Division A Director, Ed Coffey and our new Area Director, Carla Taravella for dropping by and even volunteering to be our Chief Evaluator and Evaluator #2, respectively. I was