Need Some Ideas for a Speech Topic
Eric Matto
manual is assignment #5, "The Abstract Concept", which I've been putting off
since I can't seem to come up with a topic. This is a 10-12 minute speech in
which the speaker is to "research and organize the thought of experts on an
abstract concept, theory, historical force, or social/political issue".
For those of you who have completed this assignment, what topic did you choose?
Did you find this to be a difficult speech?
--
Eric Matto, DTM
Chicagoland District 30 Governor-Elect
Hoffman Estates, IL, USA
Fred Lawson
Needs. Related it to selling and to recruitment of Toastmasters. Was able
to do the majority of research on the internet, although I was very familiar
with the subject previously. Many sales training courses, including the
ones I give, use Maslow to explain customer predispositions.
Fred Lawson, DTM
Schooner Toastmasters 3978-45
Area1 Gov-designate
"Eric Matto" <er...@toastofchicago.org> wrote in message
news:ERuY6.4414$yp1.1...@www.newsranger.com...
john dwyer
Eric Matto wrote in message ...
I used aspects of the Australian Electoral System.
John Dwyer, Able Toastmaster.
Gene Wirchenko
>I'm working on the Speaking to Inform advanced manual. My last speech from this
>manual is assignment #5, "The Abstract Concept", which I've been putting off
>since I can't seem to come up with a topic. This is a 10-12 minute speech in
>which the speaker is to "research and organize the thought of experts on an
>abstract concept, theory, historical force, or social/political issue".
>
>For those of you who have completed this assignment, what topic did you choose?
>Did you find this to be a difficult speech?
My speech was called "How to Make a Cake". I spoke about
planning (the dry stuff) and execution (the wet stuff). I found it to
be quite easy ONCE I HAD WORKED OUT A NON-ABSTRACT ANALOG. Cake
rules!
Salmon Arm Toastmasters is meeting tonight and one of the
speakers will be doing this project. He had difficulty at first on a
topic, but he decided on the ideas behind his seaman training and how
it has affected his life.
Try looking underneath things that you do. What motivates these
things?
Sincerely,
Gene Wirchenko, ATM-S, CL
VP PR & VPE Elect, Salmon Arm Toastmasters (2861-21)
Member, Enderby Toastmasters (3849-21)
Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation:
I have preferences.
You have biases.
He/She has prejudices.
Regina Litman
>
> I did this project not long ago. My subject was Maslow's Hierarchy of
> Needs. Related it to selling and to recruitment of Toastmasters. Was able
> to do the majority of research on the internet, although I was very familiar
> with the subject previously. Many sales training courses, including the
> ones I give, use Maslow to explain customer predispositions.
I did a speech that included the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs for speech
#2, Speaking with Sincerity, on my current path to my second CTM. I
related it to self-esteem. I had gone to a seminar the previous week
that discussed this hierarchy in relationship to several personal goals,
including self-esteem, and I decided to impart some of the knowledge I
picked up there to my fellow Toastmasters. This was in May of last
year.
Regina Litman
>
> I'm working on the Speaking to Inform advanced manual. My last speech from this
> manual is assignment #5, "The Abstract Concept", which I've been putting off
> since I can't seem to come up with a topic. This is a 10-12 minute speech in
> which the speaker is to "research and organize the thought of experts on an
> abstract concept, theory, historical force, or social/political issue".
>
> For those of you who have completed this assignment, what topic did you choose?
> Did you find this to be a difficult speech?
I know I did this manual towards my ATM, so I went to find it to see
what speech I had done for the project. It turned out to be one of my
more personally memorable speeches, although I had not remembered what
project I had applied it to. I gave the speech on January 16, 1997.
The background on this speech is that one day while I was waiting in
line in a supermarket checkout line, I looked through one of the women's
magazines, probably "Good Housekeeping", that was on the rack. There
was an interesting-looking story about how to apologize gracefully, and
I thought about buying the magazine just for that one article. However,
I put it back, maybe thinking I'd get it the next time I went to the
store, but I never did.
I thought about the concept of apologizing and how I was not always
taken seriously when I apologized during my youth because sometimes I
just went ahead and did whatever wrong I did again. And I thought about
how I felt when others apologized to me. I decided this would make a
good topic for a Toastmasters speech.
Well, as that January 16, 1997, meeting approached, I did not have an
assigned role because I thought I was going to have to go to jury duty
that day. But my jury duty was postponed until later in the year, and
someone from the club (I was still in the corporate club, where everyone
worked in the same place) asked me the day before if I could speak. I
thought about the magazine article and wondered if I could find it in
the local library that night. So, I told them I'd try to do a speech.
I may have even had a second choice idea if I couldn't do this one.
Fortunately for me, the library had a circulating copy of the magazine
(and I think I was prepared to photocopy the article if it had been
there but not circulating), so I took it home and began my speech. It
apparently didn't take me long to put together because I had been
thinking about what I wanted to say for some time. I must have finished
this in the morning before our lunch-time meeting because the evaluator
noted, "Regina, this was a great speech - especially since you finished
writing it 2 hrs. before the meeting!"
The title I gave to this speech was the simple, "I'm Sorry". But I was
not sorry that I did this speech!
Rod Taylor
news:ERuY6.4414$yp1.1...@www.newsranger.com...
from this
> manual is assignment #5, "The Abstract Concept", which I've been
putting off
> since I can't seem to come up with a topic. This is a 10-12 minute
speech in
> which the speaker is to "research and organize the thought of experts
on an
> abstract concept, theory, historical force, or social/political
issue".
>
> For those of you who have completed this assignment, what topic did
you choose?
> Did you find this to be a difficult speech?
In most cases this project reqires a lot of work. I've now completed
this manual four times over a twelve-year period, the last of these
being six years ago. For what it's worth, the first time I spoke on
Game Theory and how it applies to everyday situations. The second time
was on Motivation (I guess we all get there sooner or later). The third
was on Negotiation and the fourth on Human Rights.
Rod Taylor
Able Toastmaster Silver, DTM
Transformers Toastmasters Club
District 74, Southern Africa
John Fleming, DTM
Matto<er...@toastofchicago.org> wrote:
> -- $I'm working on the Speaking to Inform advanced manual. My last speech from this
> -- $manual is assignment #5, "The Abstract Concept", which I've been putting off
> -- $since I can't seem to come up with a topic. This is a 10-12 minute speech in
> -- $which the speaker is to "research and organize the thought of experts on an
> -- $abstract concept, theory, historical force, or social/political issue".
> -- $
> -- $For those of you who have completed this assignment, what topic did you choose?
> -- $Did you find this to be a difficult speech?
I did it on on the structure of the choral mass setting in
music and its roots in the ordinary of the Roman Catholic
mass.
Once I had the topic, it was a piece of cake..
--
John Fleming, DTM
Attitude Boosters Toastmasters, Member
Chamber Toastmasters, Member
Edmonton, Alberta
email: joh...@nice.ab.ca (nice should be ecn, remove 'gh')
web pages: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pointe/6070
http://www.ecn.ab.ca/~johnf
- Only if you have been in the deepest valley can you
ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest
mountain.
R.M.Nixon 1913-1994
This message may be freely copied, distributed, or
otherwise be retransmitted.
Renate Zorn
"Eric Matto" <er...@toastofchicago.org> wrote in message
news:ERuY6.4414$yp1.1...@www.newsranger.com...
I completed this project last year and did it on "fear" on the premise that
fear was abstract because you couldn't strictly speaking see, touch, hear it
etc.
I was a bit concerned that some people might feel it wasn't abstract enough
so I made sure I included lots of supporting detail & definitions to prove
my premise.
I had a great time doing the speech - it was my first speech in a new club
where no one knew me well or anything about my TM background. I played it up
for all I was worth - tripped going up, dropped my notes, hands shaking,
trouble speaking and so on - I think I had the whole room afraid I was going
to malke them suffer through a painful experience for 10 minutes. I then
went on to talk about the physiology of fear, how it prevented people from
reaching their potential & how it could be managed. It really was loads of
fun.
I'd tossed around several other potential topics (mass hysteria, gravity,
motivation) & agonized over it for months - trying to find something
abstract yet relevant and interesting to the audience. The fear speech was
very successful.
Good luck!
regards,
Renate Zorn ATM-G, CL
Confidently Speaking Toastmasters
Mississauga, ON. Canada
rz...@idirect.ca
Vincent Li
Eric Matto wrote:
>
...
> For those of you who have completed this assignment [Speaking to Inform #5
> The Abstract Concept], what topic did you choose?
> Did you find this to be a difficult speech?
>
I spoke on the concept of how computers tell time. Something similar might
have been what that old Y2K was about, but I was talking more of the 2013
(or something like that) bug, which is really far more insidious. Actually
it was more of how computers count.
[Briefly: many large scale systems use some variations of the Unix operating
system (versus Windows). Time is referenced from Jan 1, 1970 and counted from
there in seconds. The counter will loop back sometime in around 2013 or there
about, hence throwing us all back to the 1970's!] 8-)
--
!
/~\
@ ..?
_( ^) Vince, ATMS/CL
(__ ~_\ D21 Webmaster
//=ooOo=oOoo====================================================\\
|| vi...@vcn.bc.ca D21TM: http://www.toastmasters.bc.ca/ ||
|| One kind word can warm three winter months - Japanese Proverb ||
\\==============================================================//
Moira de Swardt
Eric Matto <er...@toastofchicago.org> wrote in message
> I'm working on the Speaking to Inform advanced manual. My last
speech from this
> manual is assignment #5, "The Abstract Concept", which I've been
putting off
> since I can't seem to come up with a topic. This is a 10-12 minute
speech in
> which the speaker is to "research and organize the thought of
experts on an
> abstract concept, theory, historical force, or social/political
issue".
> For those of you who have completed this assignment, what topic
did you choose?
> Did you find this to be a difficult speech?
I found this to be one of the most delightful speeches of what I
consider to be one of the easiest manuals.
I spoke about the topic "Ubuntu" which makes up the African system
of caring, but any interesting religious customs and thoughts could
be explained. I contrasted and compared Ubuntu with Christianity,
concluding that they were not mutually exclusive, but that ubuntu
was something to be desired in Christians and in society generally.
I later repeated the assignment just for fun in a theme meeting when
I spoke on the meaning of Easter. I used the fairly large
collection of stuffed rabbits I keep for emphasising the
pagan/fertility aspects of Easter which started out as a pagan
festival.
I have a whole host of possible topics along these lines.
An overview of systems of government would make a good thematic
speech at election time (either club, local or national elections),
as would the various electoral systems and procedures.
In Africa the topic of AIDS is always topical and makes a delightful
abstract topic with very practical applications.
The trick is to use a combination of pure information which should
be researched and a current situation to apply the information so
that it comes across as relevant rather than wishy washy and not
interesting or practical.
Moira, the Faerie Godmother
Moira de Swardt
John Fleming, DTM <nos...@sprynet.com> wrote in message
> Matto<er...@toastofchicago.org> wrote:
>
> > -- $I'm working on the Speaking to Inform advanced manual. My
last speech from this
> > -- $manual is assignment #5, "The Abstract Concept"
> I did it on on the structure of the choral mass setting in
> music and its roots in the ordinary of the Roman Catholic
> mass.
I did the same topic for one of my technical speeches. :-)
I also did a speech on the birth of 20th century music based on
Debussy's "Prelude a l'apres-mid d'un faune". It was one of my read
speeches (I think for the PR manual). I read it over the music.
The timing was an indulgence - exactly the length of the music -
granted in advance by the club education vice-president on condition
that the speech was *exactly* the length I promised. It was! :-)
I still have the script somewhere in another city where my
belongings are stored.
Moira, the Faerie Godmother
Ledema Renfrow
contest a few years ago and advanced to the District level with it. My
message was on the importance of an apology. I started by relating minor
incidences where people did not apologize to me and then told about not
getting an apology from the drunk driver who killed our son. He, of course,
was advised by his lawyer not to apologize. I told how I thought this had
affected his future. He continued to drink and drive after serving his 30
days in jail on a work release, which also minimized his transgression.
Just wanted to share my speech with the same title with you.
Ledema Renfrow, DTM
District 26
Regina Litman wrote in message <3B32A7D0...@philly.infi.net>...
John Fleming, DTM
<moira.d...@africaonline.co.sz> wrote:
> -- $
> -- $I also did a speech on the birth of 20th century music based on
> -- $Debussy's "Prelude a l'apres-mid d'un faune". It was one of my read
> -- $speeches (I think for the PR manual). I read it over the music.
> -- $The timing was an indulgence - exactly the length of the music -
> -- $granted in advance by the club education vice-president on condition
> -- $that the speech was *exactly* the length I promised. It was! :-)
> -- $I still have the script somewhere in another city where my
> -- $belongings are stored.
That sounds like a really intersting speech.
I've never thought of approaching a speech that way before.
You're giving me ideas. ;)
Moira de Swardt
> > -- $I also did a speech on the birth of 20th century music based
on
> > -- $Debussy's "Prelude a l'apres-mid d'un faune". It was one of
my read
> > -- $speeches (I think for the PR manual). I read it over the
music.
> That sounds like a really intersting speech.
> I've never thought of approaching a speech that way before.
> You're giving me ideas. ;)
Good. That's the point of the thread. :-)
Moira de Swardt, DTM
Eric Matto
Thanks to all who posted replies to my question. I finally did this speech today
(finishing an ATM-B) by talking about the World Wide Web and comparing it to a
flea market.
John Fleming, DTM
Matto<er...@toastofchicago.org> wrote:
> -- $Thanks to all who posted replies to my question. I finally did this speech today
> -- $(finishing an ATM-B) by talking about the World Wide Web and comparing it to a
> -- $flea market.
Congratulations ! ! !
Moira de Swardt
Eric Matto <er...@toastofchicago.org> wrote in message
> Thanks to all who posted replies to my question. I finally did
this speech today
> (finishing an ATM-B) by talking about the World Wide Web and
comparing it to a
> flea market.
Well done.
Moira de Swardt, DTM