Where Style and Enthusiasm Meet

When two stylish and enthusiastic gentlemen meet, there will be sparks; sparks that will trigger a lot of thoughts and excitement. In the meeting held on May 24, 2016, Frank Liu and Samuel Poon brought us two highly entertaining and yet informative workshops on two amusingly contrasting topics – "Stylish Speech Writing" by Frank and "Toastmasters Magnet" by Samuel.

Frank used his story of writing a beautiful speech for a client to illustrate how a wide bank of vocabulary is not just useful in a written document, but also in a speech because they add colour and flavour to it. He highlighted that some words are best not used – or "banned" in his words – because they are dull and unable to create a vivid image to the receiving ends. He also suggested "decorating" speeches through the use of figures of speech such as metaphors and staccato sentences, as well as "dressing them up" with quality adjectives, adverbs and who/which clauses.

Samuel took the audience through a session on recruiting new members for Toastmasters clubs. As new members are the backbone of a club's continuous growth, it is critical for club officers and members to know what they can do to attract new members. Samuel shared some very useful tips on membership recruitment, and also highlighted some of the big no-no's. This highly humourous and engaging workshop brought a lot of laughter to the audience, but at the same time allowed them to think about ways to bring new members into their own Toastmasters clubs.

The two workshops were beautifully evaluated by other members who provided effective feedback for the workshop presenters to reflect on their performances, and gain insightful tips to further improve themselves.

The PTTM is established to provide opportunities for our members to practice their workshop presentation skills. With two evaluators doing the workshop evaluations, as well as floor evaluation from the audience, members will be able to further enhance their training skills. As such, it is a perfect place for trainers – current and inspiring – who want to become better training facilitators in a friendly environment.