Robn Hood Conference 15th - 17th May 2015

Wow, what a great weekend at the Robin Hood Conference in Nottingham!!

We spent three days being educated at workshops, networking with other clubs and members, watching the District Finals of the International Speech contest and Evaluation contest and last but not least what excellent entertainment!

We were lucky to have our club well represented with seven members attending, this is a third of all club members and so we had the chance to bring a lot back to share with the rest of the club.
Unfortunately Peter couldn't stay for the Gala Dinner :(.

Both of the contests at the weekend were of a very high standard and fiercely contested in front of packed audiences and it was a privilege to see Toastmasters at this level.
The winner of the International Speech contest will go to the World Final in VEGAS to represent our District and came from our very own Division E so congratulations to Jim Gregory.
The Evaluation contest was won by Elaine Gallagher so well done to her too.

We met with a lot of other Toastmasters who we already knew from other Area and Division events and met new members from as far away as Inverness, Milton Keynes and all over Ireland.  It was also really nice to bump into a few Toastmasters that had previously been with our club but have moved to other clubs when they relocated.

In this blog post all attendees will give you a taste of what the weekend meant for them.....

        Linda's perspective....

 

For me, apart from the excellent competitions and social activities, the high spot of the conference was a, far too short, well attended workshop by Judith Sheridan (www.singingallowed.co.uk)called 'Unleashing Your Vocal Power'. Judith had us under her spell from the start. We counted, as a group, out loud, spoke like children, cried, yelled, quacked like very angry ducks and made the 'nah na nana na' sound of derision we all recognise. We also learned a lot about how our voice is produced and how to make arriving from my hotel it resonate rather than squeak. We ended with very useful exercises to breath naturally, combat constriction, and warm up before speaking. Fantastic. 

My personal low, was arriving for the fancy dress do to find my ticket was still in my hotel room, so it was another 10 minute walk each way across Nottingham to recover it. I was just grateful I had not yet donned my 'one of Robin's archers' costume. 

 

        Tony's perspective ...

 

Although this was my fifth TM conference there were a number of firsts this time for me. This is the first time I have booked the ‘full package’ which includes tickets to all of the evening events, like pre drinks, fancy dress disco, gala dinner; all of which were great fun.

Also it was the first time I have presented a workshop at a TM conference. It has been great to have the help and support of many club members not just on the day, but over the months as this workshop has evolved. Special thanks goes to Tanya & Sanatan.

I believe it is the first time we had a succession of four Heart of England presidents: Linda, Sanatan, Tony, Kapil all attending. Five if you include Peter assuming he becomes the next club president. That speaks volumes about our club.

This was the first conference I have attended with so many members of our club there also. I think that made this conference of the best ever for me.

        Sanat's and Seema's perspective ...

 

"Quality of a person’s life in in direct proportion to their commitment to their Personal Development”

Well the nine of us from Heart of England Speakers certainly proved that by our booking places at the Robin hood Conference in Nottingham and for being there for each other.

I loved the energy gained from being in the company of near 200 fellow Toastmasters who want to share, support and sustain the common feeling of learning and comradeship which was so valuable to me that the memories of my first Toastmaster Conference will last with me forever.    

         Peter's perspective ...

 

The expectation was high as I travelled almost 90 Miles North for my first Toastmasters Conference. Over many months we had been encouraged to attend the event and sad that my Friday night was already booked, I still wanted to know first hand and experience an event such as this.

Joining a conference on the second day can be like arriving at a party when you're the only one that thinks it's a fancy dress!  You can feel a bit like the odd one out. Not the case this time. No sooner had I walked through the door than familiar faces from the Heart Of England speakers greeted me with a smile.  There was a warm, friendly atmosphere, a few familiar faces from competition days and a growing anticipation for the day's events.

 

Two highlights for me were the International Speech competition which was fascinating and had a keen personal interest because of just losing out at the previous stage. I felt somewhat better when later in the afternoon the winner of the competition was the speaker who pushed me into second place at the last event. The quality and the variety of the speeches were very interesting and showed how good judging was as perhaps some of the funniest speeches were not rewarded as high as some of the better structured and delivered speeches. The second highlight was the end of the AGM! For lots of reasons this was not the best part of attending the conference as VPE.

Overall, I would say that the day I spent at the conference was entertaining, engaging and educating. I think that the costs are little high, and by this would exclude perhaps many others attending. I suppose the question would be, would I attend again? Given sufficient incentive and time, probably so.

        Tanya's perspective ...

The conference was great fun. It was educational and I learnt a lot from the workshops and conference meetings but I think the most important thing I learnt was from being around liked minded people; people who understand and enjoy Toastmasters, people who want to develop and people who have been there and done what I want to do.

The other thing that really resonated was the speech from the future District Director Kevin Lee which made me re-think how I see myself in Toastmaster. He asked us "How fruity are we?". Obviously, at first we all looked at each other thinking he was a bit crazy, but Kevin went on to explain that whilst we are at Toastmasters to develop ourselves, we also help others and we may end up helping one of the game changers of the world to develop. Isaac Newton changed the way the world thought when that apple fell on his head; but who planted the apple tree to begin with? We plant thoughts and encouragement in each other when we come to meetings, we plant reflectiveness when we mentor and we plant more trees when we help set up new clubs.  That is what I will take back from the meeting and hope to continue through my whole Toastmaster experience.

        

 

        Mish's perspective...

 As a self confessed Conference Junkie this weekend did not disappoint.

The workshops were varied and informative and I enjoyed the ones I went to.
The competitions were great to watch.  I liked the way we all had a mini judging sheet in our programme so that we could join in. This not only helped us to see what criteria the judges were marking against but also helped us to develop our own judging skills.  Although the speeches and evaluations were all different in style and content they were of a very high standard and it will be useful to take this info back to the club.

The social side of the conference was also very important and was a lot of fun.  We had a chance to have much more informal chats, not only with those members we were meeting or re meeting, but also with the members from our own club.  We got to see each other in a relaxed setting and we all got up and had a good old dance :)

A great weekend so Thanks to John, Roma and all the team..