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I was the Technical Chair in charge of A/V and technical operations for the Toastmasters District 29 Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI) on July 23, 2016. Held at the Verizon headquarters in Ashburn, VA.
It’s basically a half-day, five-track training session for about a hundred people, with an A/V setup for all of the rooms.
Note: The photo is by Edmond Joe, and is easily the best shot he took at the conference.
I was Technical Chair in charge of A/V and technical operations for the Toastmasters District 29 Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI) on June 25, 2016. Held at the Fairfax County Government Center in Fairfax, VA.
It amounts to a half-day, five-track training event for about a hundred and twenty people, with an A/V setup for all of the rooms.
I worked with Chiharu Bullock to run a four-week, four-session course on public speaking for a group of 11 – 15 year-old kids. The course was organized in conjunction with Toastmasters and Union Tae Kwan Do in South Riding, VA.
The Toastmasters District 29 Fall Conference was very successful. It was an interesting event to organize and run because it has a lot more moving parts than technical conferences such as RubyNation or DevIgnition. It featured an opening ceremony, a political keynote (the mayor of Herndon, VA), two speaking competitions, a variety contest, educational sessions, a leadership luncheon, a district business meeting, a raffle, fund-raising activities and a book sale.
I’m now planning three conferences at the same time, DevIgnition, RubyNation and the Toastmasters District 29 Fall Conference. Just shoot me now!
I’m proud to have been selected as the Area 45 Governor For Toastmasters District 29. This area covers the Ashburn and Dulles areas of Northern Virginia. It features four corporate clubs and two community clubs.
Note: By the end of the Toastmasters year, which runs from July 1st to the following June 30th, I managed to achieve a level of “President’s Distinguished” for Area 45, which is the highest level achievable for an area within Toastmasters.
I will be attending our local Toastmasters conference on May 4 – 5, 2012. Should be a great time!
I’ve been participating in Toastmasters, an organization devoted to improving public speaking and leadership skills, for two years now. I just achieved the Competent Communicator level. Many thanks to all of the people who have helped me improve my skills dramatically over this time period.
I just finished participating in the Toastmasters International Speech Contest for Area 45. It was held at AOL’s headquarters building in Dulles, VA, which I hadn’t been in since early 2008 when I used to work for AOL.
I’ve found Toastmasters to be an excellent organization for helping me to improve my speaking skills, as well as my leadership skills. I was proud to participate today in the Toastmasters 2012 International Speech Contest for my area (District 29, Division D, Area 45).
Edmond Joe, who is a Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) and an awesome speaker, was kind enough to take some photos of my talk:
It was the first time I’ve ever participated in a speech contest. It’s just you, an audience, no notes or visuals, and five to seven minutes to fill (and you get disqualified if you’re more than 30 seconds over or under). I was pleased to find that I was actually good enough to be competitive. While I didn’t win, I did take second place. I highly recommend Toastmasters if you’d like to improve your speaking and leadership skills.