On Monday, I was at Menara Allianz Sentral, which is located in the heart of the KL Sentral business district on Jalan Tun Sambanthan, Kuala Lumpur, to attend my first meeting of the KL Advanced Toastmasters Club since I rejoined last month.
It was a homecoming to a club I had been a member of, many, many years ago.
Rohijas MD Sharif, being the VP Education and Toastmaster had kindly put me down as a speech evaluator for one of the two project speakers. [For those not familiar with the club's evaluation structure, it consists of three stages: the Lead Evaluation, where a designated evaluator shares feedback; followed by the Open Evaluation, where other members briefly share their insights; and concludes with the Speaker's Right of Reply, where the speaker shares their takeaways and responds to the feedback].
He had also given me five minutes to promote my two public speaking books. [And I successfully finalized the sale of three titles, two TDIYS and one TPOYS].
I have to admit though that I was disappointed with my assigned speaker because she failed to meet the objectives of her speech which was about "Managing a Difficult Audience". I had wished she had delivered this speech with the solemnity it warrants. Messages of a serious nature should convey resolute authority and gravitas.
And her irrepressible and ceaseless movements did not help at all.
The above aside, it was really good to catch up with fellow senior members Rohijas and Philip Wong, who have been long-standing members of the club.
Photos of the said meeting at Emspaced, a co-working space: