Anyone interested? It’s almost that time of year that the contest begins. We’d love to get some pictures, video, and stories from the 2010 contest.
If you’re a regular, or not so regular, reader of the site, please chime in!
Posts Tagged ‘public speaking’
Looking for some guest bloggers about public speaking, Toastmasters, and the World Championships of Public Speaking
Michelle needs some feedback!!
Michelle – one of our esteemed summer interns – is taking a class in public speaking. She needs some feedback on a practice speech she’s been doing. Please help her out and leave a comment! Also, feel free to add your own practice speech and get some feedback!
big day for speeches and presentations…
One of the things SpeakEasy really delves into – or at least we did in the last cut – is how closely strong leadership is tied to good public speaking skills. Yesterday, two pioneers, if you will, were in front of audiences to sell themselves and and push their agendas: Barack Obama and Steve Jobs. Obama’s State of the Union address showcased many of the trademarks of an Obama speech – strong posture, an air of authority, a booming, confident voice – regardless of his policies, he’s an excellent speaker to study just in terms of physical presence. Steve Jobs, on the other hand, has a physical condition that has left him weak, so he relied on humor, charming nerdiness, and confidence in his product – I thought his content was stronger than his delivery (he effectively ripped on the Kindle, for example). And he looks relaxed, casual, and friendly. It’s engaging. Either way, here are some clips from their speeches – a big day in presentation and public speaking.
Hey – Terry McGraw is a cast member in our documentary film about the fear of public speaking and the Toastmasters World Championships of Public Speaking!!
Long enough blog post title for ya’? At any rate, we had a fantastic interview with Terry Mcgraw of McGraw-Hill publishing. Yeah, he’s a pretty big deal, and a huge fan of Toastmasters. If you work for his company, and you finish the first ten speeches of the Toastmasters program, you receive a thousand dollars. Good stuff. Here he is today breaking news about the Apple “tablet”.
we need some public speaking stories!
Does anyone have a brief story about public speaking? We’re looking for some input!!
Awesome acceptance speech at Golden Globes
This is how you do it… from the heart.
Martin Luther King
If anyone in American – heck, human history proved that being a great public speaker can move mountains and bring about sweeping change for the greater good, it’s Dr. King. Incredible.
the newest cut of this film about the World Championships of Public Speaking
… is really good. Holy smokes we were happy with where we’ve found ourselves with this film (besides being a bit behind schedule!). The home stretch has officially begun. One major change we made was we added much more of the actual contest – the speeches of the final 10, on the big stage in Calgary, weren’t getting enough play, and why not get deeper into them? You know, actually witness the great performances. It was easy to forget how good those final speeches were, as we got lost in the hundreds of hours of footage leading up to it. It’s all really compelling, funny, slightly odd, and moving.
There’s still plenty of work to do – the music needs to be added, needs to be cleaned up here and there… but when we leaned on our stars (competitors) and let them tell their stories, it’s powerful stuff. The World Championships of Public Speaking was so compelling in and of itself, we just had to get out of the way. Yep, I’m giving this rough cut, and the progress we’ve made, one of these:
Emmy speeches
The day after each major awards ceremony – Oscars, Emmys, Grammys, Golden Globes, VMAs (okay, maybe not, but I’m also not a 13 year old girl AS FAR AS YOU KNOW) – much of the talk afterwards, and certainly the video highlights, are all about the acceptance speeches. The Oscar moments that appear on a DVD on late night TV (not that I would know cough cough). The rich and famous, so accustomed to being in the public eye, fumble over their words caught up in emotion, forget to thank their wives, cry, stammer, stutter, laugh, etc. etc. It seems like a pretty tough thing to do. I find myself cheering for the winners to not say something ridiculously stupid or crazy up there. So it’s always a relief and nice surprise when someone calmly, from the heart, says something funny and poignant and perfect for the moment. Maybe you can’t train for it, but it sure helps MY image of a performer immeasurably when the do it right. So on that note, I give you Ken Howard’s lovely, humble little acceptance speech. In 90 seconds he pokes fun at Kanye West, Joe Wilson, thanks his kidney donor for keeping him alive (!), and makes a very loving, awww shucks, yet classy and elegant gesture to his wife. Perfect. Well done, Ken Howard, character actor.
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