The Hong Kong Toastmasters SpeechCraft 2nd Session was held on 23 Aug 2021.
HKTMC members enjoyed an exclusive workshop on crafting speeches focusing on the “purpose” and “structure”. The event started with 7-min speeches by our fellow members Samuel Wong on “Losing at the Starting Line” and Kavi Divan on “Speech Preparation”, with Stevie Au Yeung and Julie Lee being their evaluators.
Club President Raymond Chung then shared useful tips for developing a unique “Speech Purpose Statement”, with a homework assignment for everyone!
Next, our club’s guest speaker, Roberto Fong, delivered a workshop on “Speech Structure”, for which the 2005 Toastmasters World Champion’s Speech “The Ultimate Question” by Lance Miller was dissected for all of us to learn from.
As Roberto pointed out, Miller’s winning speech structure could be broken down to as follow:
- Open with a Big Bang (Jame Bond Opening)
- Transition is key to making the speech flow better.
- Use reflective questions.
- Add a metaphor to anchor the message.
- Close with the next step for audience to do.
Among other things, we have also learned the simple 3 Part Structure of an effective speech, such as
- Tell a story
- Make a point
- Apply to the audience
Here is some further learnings for those who could not attend: 5 simple structures to improve your speech.
We wrapped up the workshop by applying what we had just learned to the exciting Table Topics section – a chance for us to practice impromptu speech and storytelling. Hats off to Charlotte Leung, Kajal Aswani, and Jewel Ho who took up the challenge, well done!
