23 Jun First impressions of a guest by Michael
Map in my hand I walk in the hot sun. There it is. Kürnberghalle Leonding. 18:35. I am on time. Happy greetings, happy people. I feel right at home. We sit outside, some eating, some chatting (mix of english and some german), more people coming, more smiles.
It starts. We go inside. I get a good seat in the middle – I am the timekeeper. The task is explained in a few words to me, I just show the speakers the green, yellow or red card at certain times. It’s great, everybody gets a nice sheet of the outline of the evening. People fulfill all kinds of roles, these roles cycle all the time. There is Patrick who is ‘Toastmaster’ this time – he guides through the structured program. There is an Ah-Counter, there are evaluators of the speech, a Grammarian – lots of stuff, creating together something very professional.
Then right on to the speeches. First one is me! Like every speaker I am greeted with applause from the fellow club-colleagues and a handshake from the toastmaster – a nice welcome for anyone getting out there on stage! Next is Markus with his speech ‘The peaceful Warrior extended’. I read the book, can’t await for the speech! His mission this time: to give a speech with a very clear structure. Both thumbs up, the structure was crystal clear. Other cool titles follow, like Karin’s “CheckWell Guide” and Daniel’s “The One Thing”. Then a break, again nice chatting and eating outside.
In the second part we hear Evaluators giving feedback on one speech – again in form of a speech. This is really a place to train speaking!
Michaela did the Table topics and had a whole story around it: People were thrown into doing impromptu speeches like ‘Your girlfriend found out that you went on a date with another woman – explain yourself’. Again, evaluation speeches after and then a report from Tomáš – quickly evaluating the whole meeting and giving tips. Feedback is the breakfast for champions!
A great evening. I felt great with my roles, and I heard it’s the first time we went to the pause on time. And so proud of my award!