14 Feb

Where Public Speaking Skills Take Center Stage

If you find yourself stumbling over words or feeling uneasy when speaking in front of an audience, BASF Toastmasters is the perfect platform to hone your public speaking skills. As a part of the global Toastmasters International network, the Ludwigshafen club provides a supportive and encouraging environment for individuals to develop their communication, leadership, and presentation abilities.

At BASF Toastmasters, members come together to improve their public speaking skills through a series of structured programs and activities. Our next meeting will be on March 25, 2024, 17:45 - 19:30. From impromptu speeches to prepared presentations, participants have the opportunity to engage in various speaking opportunities that allow them to practice and refine their communication techniques. Constructive feedback from fellow members and designated mentors further strengthens the learning process, ensuring that individuals receive valuable insights to enhance their speaking prowess.

Diversity and inclusivity are fundamental pillars at our Toastmasters Club. We welcome individuals from all backgrounds, ages, and professions, fostering an environment where everyone’s unique perspectives and experiences are valued. This diversity not only enriches the learning experience but also reinforces the understanding and appreciation of different communication styles, ultimately contributing to the overall growth and development of each member.

Whether you aim to become a more confident public speaker, elevate your leadership skills, or simply connect with like-minded individuals on a journey of self-improvement, for BASF employees and externals we offer a welcoming space for personal and professional growth. By becoming a part of our community, you can embark on a transformative journey that empowers you to conquer your fear of public speaking and unleash your true potential.

16 Dec

Start 2024 with us!

As the year comes to an end, we would like to extend our warmest wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone. We hope that the new year brings you joy, happiness, and success in all your endeavors. We also invite you to visit the BASF Toastmasters club in 2024 to enhance your public speaking skills.

The club meetings are a great way to meet new people, learn new skills, and have fun. So why not join us on our first meeting on January 08, 2024 and see what we’re all about? And if you miss this one no worries, we meet every 2nd and 4th Monday each month.

23 Jun

Fabian, Harald, Karsten and Zeyue will lead the Club 2023/2024

Every club needs leaders who can work with and motivate others to move the club forward. Electing these club officers is an important aspect of a club’s success. For the upcoming time our club has identified and elected four people, who will manage BASF Toastmasters’ activities in the future. Feel free to contact us in case you have further questions regarding Toastmasters or especifically our club! We are looking forward to see you at our next meeting on March 25, 2024, 17:45 - 19:30.

01 Jan

Welcome to 2022!

Dear fellow Toastmasters and Guests

the year of 2022 has just started and this can be the year where you make the important step to become a better speaker and presenter? We welcome you to participate actively in our meetings in January! Join in from wherever you are because this month will only be online meetings!

Meetings on Monday 10th and 24th Januaray will open on 17:45 and last until ca. 19:30 including a small break.

Want to prepare a speech or short presentation? Use easySPEAK  to enroll for your favorite activity or contact  us! You don’t believe online presentations can be fun?! Then you simply must participate!!

Yours Club Officers, BASF Toastmasters

27 Apr

How to Survive Table Topics (10 May 2021)

http://basf-toastmasters.com/spring/

Are you the one on the stage to answer the Table Topics® Master’s question? Sweaty hands and a hot head? No words in mind? No idea how to fill the next two minutes?

You’ve got the chance to find out more about Table Topics® and how to approach the successful delivery of an entertaining speech. Have a look at some strategies and methods that help you to find the right words.

Overcome the scary ideas in your hot head that are slowing you down in being an excellent impromptu speaker! Join in to our workshop by registering  →here.

27 Apr

The Biggest Toastmaster Event in 2021

Dear Toastmasters ,

With

  • the english Key-note speech from the 2013 World Champion of Public Speaking Pres Vadilev
  • the German Key-note Speech from extreme Alpine Mountaineer David Göttler (who I got to interview personally and hear about his spine chilling experiences on Mount Everest)
  • eminent Panelists from District 95
  • 14 Workshops from eminent Toastmasters, With over 10 Exhibitions at the Expo booth
  • talented Toastmasters exhibiting their talent at the gala night

I have seen the preparations take shape slowly over a year of rigorous effort from so many Toastmasters in District 95.

Being a part of the Organizing Committee from start to end, I have seen our dreams of organizing a 350+ in presence conference shatter because of Corona and then like the Phoenix how we re-built our dreams from its ashes to have now organized this Conference online where 400+ Toastmasters are now participating from Germany, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. If you still haven’t registered here, you are missing out big time on a plethora of programmes and networking opportunities that the TM District Conference 2021 has to offer between May 7th – May 9th 2021.

Register now (from private browser) for the event by clicking https://d95-conference.org/#registration

Thanks and regards
Piyali Bhaumik IP5, DL3, Area Director F1 2020-2021
Head of Innovation and PR – District 95 Conference 2021
President, Deutsche Börse Toastmasters (DBTM)
District 95, Div F, Area F3.
Toastmasters International
Where Leaders Are Made
“Let’s grow together”

23 Apr

Toastmasters Division Contest in spring 2015: The best speakers from the southwest meet near Ludwigshafen

 From Freiburg to Frankfurt and from Ramstein to Reutlingen – on May 02, 2015, the best speakers of Toastmasters Division F meet in Mannheim. Winners of the previous Area contests compete against each other in the categories “International Speech” and “Evaluation speech”. The champions can proceed to BorĂĄs / West Sweden and present their speeches from 22.05–24.05 at the District Conference (D95, Europe North / East).

All those who are already member of a Toastmasters club or perhaps would like to be, are  cordially invited to the event. It is an excellent way to get to know what Toastmasters provides: brilliant rhetoric, a warm and friendly atmosphere, inspiring exchange with others and know-how in leadership and organization. A buffet and drinks will be served. The event takes place at venue:
Buergerhaus Neckarstadt-West,
Lutherstr. 15-17, 68169 Mannheim.

For more information:
http://doodle.com/6hzsra6fadq7zyzu
http://tmclub.eu/view_agenda.php?t=41039

10 Sep

5 Presentation Tips From The World Champion Of Public Speaking (article by Richard Feloni)

Public speaking can be terrifying for many people simply because they’re not accustomed to having a room full of people paying attention to their every word and action. There are also plenty of people brimming with self-confidence who, due to a lack of practice or preparation, give a presentation that doesn’t connect. In both cases, the result is a wasted opportunity to teach your employees, impress your boss, or win over clients.
To find out how to give an excellent presentation, we turned to one of the best public speakers in the world, Sri Lankan human resources consultant Dananjaya Hettiarachchi, recently crowned the World Champion of Public Speaking by Toastmasters International. Hettiarachchi survived seven rounds of a competition that lasted six months and included 33,000 competitors from around the world.
He and eight other finalists competed at the Toastmasters annual convention last month in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. On Aug. 23, Hettiarachchi took first place for his speech “I See Something,” which clocked in at seven minutes and 20 seconds.
Below, he shares his best advice for novice public speakers:
1. Always start with a message.
Hettiarachchi says that a common mistake beginners make when crafting their speeches is by starting with a topic. Instead, he says you should begin with a message, and it should be as concise as possible. This message is whatever you want your audience to be thinking about when your presentation concludes.
For example, the message of the speech that brought him through the semifinals, “Deadly Samba,” was: “If you don’t burn for your dream, your dream will burn away.”
He says that there are two approaches to developing a speech. In the first, you write your speech as an essay and practice it until it becomes memorized and conversational. The second, which he prefers, is starting with a speech off the top of your head and then refining it until you are happy with writing it down.
With a recorder in hand, Hettiarachi will focus on a message and then begin speaking spontaneously. He’ll listen back to his speech, making note of what needs improvement and then begin again.
2. Be confident enough to be yourself.
“You need to sell yourself before you sell your message,” Hettiarachi says. And the way to do that is by being genuine, which Hettiarachi admits is easier said than done. “It took me 10 years to learn to be myself on stage,” he says, laughing.
Hettiarachi entered the Toastmasters contest every year for the past 10 years, reaching the semifinals four times, but didn’t make the finals, he explains, until he stopped behaving as if he were an actor on stage. A speech should be conversational, not theatrical, he says.
Sure, he understands the value of using a prop like a flower to add drama to his words, as he did in the finals, but he did so in a way that engaged the audience rather than focusing the attention on himself.
The only way to go in front of an audience and to present in a way that isn’t simply miming is to practice again and again, pretending (if need be) that you’re talking to a room full of your closest friends.
Toastmasters International
Hettiarachchi with his championship trophy.
3. See yourself through your audience’s eyes.
Novice speakers tend to become wrapped up in themselves, which may just be because they’re afraid to acknowledge a room full of listeners. But if you’re going to speak, you need to realize that you’re doing it for the benefit of others, not yourself.
Hettiarachi’s championship speech “I See Something” began its life as a 20-minute TEDxYouth talk. It was a talk that he gave about 90 times, he says, and each minute of the personal story he told about going from a wayward child to an adult who wishes to inspire others seemed important to him. But then he went back and tried to imagine what information was essential to communicate his message and was able to cut it down to 10 minutes.
To make Toastmasters’ regulation time of seven minutes and 30 seconds, he imagined being an audience member who knew nothing about his life and cut away whatever they did not need to hear.
He uses this mindset to keep his audience guessing. He has a rule where he will not communicate a lesson for longer than 30 seconds, since the focus should be on storytelling.
In “I See Something,” Hettiarachchi tells the story of his mother picking him up from jail when he was a teenager. Within the span of 20 seconds, which you can see in the video excerpt below, he gets the audience to answer a question, makes them laugh, and then suddenly brings them into somber territory.
“A speech has to be like a roller coaster,” he says.
4. Have a forum to practice.
Eighty percent of the path to becoming a great speaker is trial and error, Hettiarachchi explains, and the only way to learn is by speaking in front of an audience that will give honest feedback.
It’s why he says he has enjoyed giving speeches at schools, since children often react honestly, unrestrained by etiquette.
For Hettiarachchi, his Toastmasters group provided a place to grow as a speaker, but he says any kind of similar forum is suitable, because like any skill, you must practice public speaking to become and then stay great at it.
5. Find the right coach or mentor.
And finally, Hettiarachchi says, you should find someone willing to help you grow as a public speaker. Interestingly, this does not need to be someone who can teach you advanced speaking techniques; they just need to be someone who “gives you permission to explore possibilities, who gives you permission to fail,” he says.
Hettiarachchi has had several mentors in his life, including Arunasalam Balraj, whom he met through Toastmasters. He considers him like a second father, and was privileged to win the speaking championship on the day Balraj was elected second vice president of Toastmasters International.
The path to becoming a great public speaker is the path to becoming comfortable with sharing who you are with other people, and a coach or mentor who understands you personally can help push you toward this goal.
Watch a short collection of clips from Hettiarachchi’s winning speech, “I See Something”: http://www.businessinsider.com/public-speaking-tips-champion-dananjaya-hettiarachchi-2014-9