Table Topics: Once upon a time

Whether in Toastmasters, at a networking event, in an Interview, or maybe doing a Question and Answer section of a presentation…Impromptu speaking skills are important for establishing your credibility and being interesting.

Will we always be great? Not necessarily, yet with practice we will always be better than when we started.

I was in San Diego for a business conference recently and we had to partner up, pull an object from a bag, and then sell it to our partner.

This is an excellent exercise to practice with silly objects and I have asked Toastmaster members to tell stories with their object as the primary character in their story.

Table Topics: Storytelling #1

Whether in Toastmasters, at a networking event, in an Interview, or maybe doing a Question and Answer section of a presentation…Impromptu speaking skills are important for establishing your credibility and being interesting.

Will we always be great? Not necessarily, yet with practice we will always be better than when we started.

One exercise that is fun do with another person or in a group setting is telling a story that everybody creates. It works on both your impromptu speaking and your listening skills.

Table Topics: Abraham Lincoln Theme

by Susan Quesada

Abraham Lincoln

There is a new Abraham Lincoln movie out right now.  This table topics exercise is inspired by his quotes.

The person may draw a quote or the Table Topics Master may read the quote and assign it to a person.  Each person is then asked:

What does this quote mean to you?

Table Topics: 2012 Summer Olympics tribute

In the spirit of the Olympic themes of international competition, cooperation, and friendship, the following table topic questions were developed –

1. What are the most memorable Olympic moments (either summer or winter games) to you and why?
2. What are your favorite individual (i.e., non-team) Olympic events to watch (either summer or winter games) and why?
3. What are your favorite team Olympic events to watch (either summer or winter games) and why?
4. Tell me about the one or more important friendships or relationships you have developed in your life with a foreign-born person and discuss some things you learned about their culture in the process.
5. Tell me about your favorite international vacation and discuss some things you learned about the culture of the country or countries you visited.

by Jim Van Hoet, Summit Toastmasters

Table topics: If you were a wizard…

I just got back from a whirl wind tour of Grand Junction last week, visiting three Toastmasters Club meetings: Grand Junction Sayre’s, Wild Mustangs (pre-charter), and Summit Toastmasters.  I also had the pleasure of visiting with some of the Talk of the Town Toastmasters at a Pampered Chef get together.  All of this was accomplished last Monday and Tuesday.

After two days of traveling to get to my own Summit Toastmasters, I was coming up to my third round of Table Topics.  As you can see, I had had a lot of practice already.

Alan Swarz asked me:

If you were a wizard, what spell would you cast and who would you cast it on?

Forestglow by Alixendriss Inanna

As many of you know, Table Topics is a means of practicing extemporaneous speaking.  I had mere moments to collect my thoughts, and then speak on this topic for one to two minutes.

Here were my thoughts:

If I were a wizard or a witch (female), I would cast a spell on businesses and developers to encourage business development opportunities.  This would create more jobs allowing people to be hired.  These people would need supplies so other business would be hired.  The people with these jobs would spend money in their communities creating more local wealth.  Everybody would win.

These ~1 minute:20 second thought garnered me the Best Table Topics speaker for the evening.

So, my question to you…

If you were a wizard, what spell would you cast and who would you cast it on?