Maybe it’s life in quarantine or the endless hours of self-isolation but last night’s Silicon Speech meeting took a philosophical, introspective turn. It was a night of epiphanies!
Things began with a joke by Urja Nadibail about being in high demand these days. Companies are actually calling her left and right. Armando Yee followed with a Thought of the Day reminding us that a jump is not always as far as we think. This was followed by Len Kung, our first speaker, telling a story with a powerful life lesson that may have been her best birthday present of all.
Then, Azita Sacmechian, a therapist by trade, treated us to a free session in which we learned that if you focus on the process it makes the cookies taste even better, a powerful metaphor just before the dinner hour. Toastmaster Luis Hurtado then introduced yours truly and our team of thoughtful, supportive evaluators, Shar McBee and Sam Nazarian. Finally, Karan Bavadi conducted a very timely Table Topics session which focused on how to make the most of life in lockdown. Great stuff!
I would like to thank all of our guests for stopping by, Kensii Rose, Lien Le, li xin and Louise Hyland. I hope you’ll join us again, soon. Louise, by the way, is going to be competing in the District Speech Contest on May 16th. This fact led to a discussion of a podcast I’m listening to entitled, “Unforgettable Presentations” hosted by two world champions of public speaking, Darren LaCroix and Mark Brown. Great information for everyone who wants to improve their speaking skills.
Here’s the link if you would like more information.
- Toastmaster – Lauren Clayton
- Table Topics Master – Luis Hurtado
- Speaker #1 – Marina Romanova
- Speaker #2 – Alex Schams
- Back-up Speaker – TBD
- Chief Evaluator – Karan Bavandi
- Evaluator #1 – Len Kung
- Evaluator #2 – Steve Evans
- Timer – Armando Yee
- Grammarian – Sam Nazarian
- Ah Counter – Shar McBee
- Thought for the Day – Marisol Zumaeta
- Joke Master – Urja Nadibail
At the suggestion of First Laddie Luis, we’re modifying the Tuesday night workshop and now calling it the Silicon Speech Study Hall. The Zoom meeting will still be held Tuesday nights from 6:00 to 7:00 but in addition to Pathways questions, we’ll get together to help each other with any number of speech related challenges.
I’ll be sending out a separate email next week with more information and hopefully, you can join us Tuesday night for our first Study Hall.
