Public Speaking....Toastmasters..Help Please..

Kim921 Posted: Jul 17, 2003 02:49 PM

Public Speaking....Toastmasters..Help Please..

Anyone ever hear of this? I have a sales conference to attend next month and I need to plan an excercise for about 40 sales people to do. I was thinking about doing a toastmasters game. I am looking for subjects for the sales people to pick out of a hat that they will need to discuss for 3 minutes. Is anyone familiar with these exercises? If so, topic ideas would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks in advance for any help!

Kim921 Posted: Jul 17, 2003 03:22 PM

Re: Public Speaking....Toastmasters..Help Please..

Anyone?? No one?

LizD Posted: Jul 17, 2003 03:23 PM

Re: Public Speaking....Toastmasters..Help Please..

Do they need to try to sell it or just discuss it.

Lunatrek Posted: Jul 17, 2003 03:24 PM

Re: Public Speaking....Toastmasters..Help Please..

The only ones I know are skill building/problem solving exercises... not much for public speaking. Have you tried doing a Google search?

Kim921 Posted: Jul 17, 2003 03:25 PM

Re: Public Speaking....Toastmasters..Help Please..

Are you familiar with it? There is an exercise where you type up about 50 topics and each person needs to pic a topic and discuss that topic for 3 minutes. I need to come up with topics to be discussed. I am open to any other ideas for a sales conference. Every sales person has to go prepared with one activity.

Lisa Rose Posted: Jul 17, 2003 03:26 PM

Re: Public Speaking....Toastmasters..Help Please..

I am a Toastmaster and part of our meeting was called 'Table Topics' That was where, someome that signed up for the role, make up different catagories and the participants had to take one of the topics and talk about it off the top of thier head. One topic that was always fun was a debate on something silly. Like milk chocolate vs dark chocolate, or reality shows True or Scam. Im not sure how professional you need to be...this wa s a
professional group but this was the one part that we could be silly!!

Let mw know if this helped or if you need more ideas

Kim921 Posted: Jul 17, 2003 03:26 PM

Re: Public Speaking....Toastmasters..Help Please..

I have done a google search, can't find any topics.

Kim921 Posted: Jul 17, 2003 03:28 PM

Re: Public Speaking....Toastmasters..Help Please..

Lisa- Yes, exactly!! That is what I am looking for. Silly, serious, any kind of topics! I knew a board full of bright women would be able to help!

Lunatrek Posted: Jul 17, 2003 03:33 PM

Re: Public Speaking....Toastmasters..Help Please..

How about this? (Got it from the internet)

Noah's Ark

Noah's Ark table topics are a lot of fun! Noah's Ark is about to embark and there is room for only one more pair of animals. Each speaker selects a piece of paper. On it, is printed the name of an animal. The speaker then 'becomes' that animal and makes a case as to why s/he and his/her mate should be the ones selected for that last vacancy. They are instructed in advance that they are not to give the name of their animal; just the reasons why they should be chosen. Some ideas are peacock, hippopotamus, rattlesnake, kangaroo, mouse, and alligator. The vote for 'Best Table Topics Speaker' determines which pair gets to sail on the Ark!

Lisa Rose Posted: Jul 17, 2003 03:33 PM

Re: Public Speaking....Toastmasters..Help Please..

a good one is to bring in different objects and have people talk about them. One woman brought in some poastcards of places she has visited and the people that had to discuss it could either tell how they liked the place...if they had been or if htey would like to go, or what appeals to them in the picture

The purpose of these exercises was so that we could get comfortable with talking off the top of our head and not getting nervous!!

Kim921 Posted: Jul 17, 2003 03:35 PM

Re: Public Speaking....Toastmasters..Help Please..

Lunatrek, thats not a bad idea, I will run it by my manager.

Any other ideas for public speaking exercises??

Lisa Rose Posted: Jul 17, 2003 03:35 PM

Re: Public Speaking....Toastmasters..Help Please..

here is a really good link to some table topics!!

Table Topics

Kim921 Posted: Jul 17, 2003 03:38 PM

Re: Public Speaking....Toastmasters..Help Please..

Thanks Lisa! This is a big help!!

Lisa Rose Posted: Jul 17, 2003 03:40 PM

Re: Public Speaking....Toastmasters..Help Please..

No problem! Let me know if you need any more help!!

Karen H Posted: Jul 17, 2003 06:50 PM

Re: Public Speaking....Toastmasters..Help Please..

I was part of a Toastmaster's group in Massachusetts and Table Topics was one of my favorite parts.

We had one session that might be perfect for you since it's a sales conference. The TT Master had a bag of stuff, but the twist was, instead of just talking about it, they had to SELL it like it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. It was fun to see how people tried to sell everyday items like a button, Kleenex, a wooden gavel, etc.

Other good themes - favorite holiday memory, fantasy vacation, greatest accomplishment as a child, favorite book, movie, TV show, food, Who do you admire most in history, who would you most like to share the dinner table with.

I hope these help!