Motivational speakers get standing 'Ovation'

Valentine was addressing the audience gathered at ‘Ovation-2011’ organised by Toastmasters International ‘District 82 - India and Sri Lanka’ at the Infosys campus, here on Saturday. Deccan Herald is the media partner for this four-day event, which will conclude on Sunday.

As the jam-packed audience listened with rapt attention, Valentine said that the qualities for a successful speaker are - a smile, an open posture, forward lean, territory, eye contact and nod to acknowledge the others.

Earlier, International Director, Toastmasters International, Keith Ostergard spoke about the road less travelled. He said, “I took the one less travelled by and that made all the difference.”

In this interactive session with Ostergard, the audience gained a better understanding of the lessons that can be learnt on the leadership path within toastmasters and learnt how these can be applied to their personal and professional lives in the ‘real world’ outside of toastmaster meetings.

Toastmasters including Ajith Bopitiya of Sri Lanka spoke about ‘Different strokes for different folks’, underlining the need to appreciate differences.
Pointing out the effectiveness of story telling Rajdeep Manwani discussed ‘Once upon time... (the power of stories)’.

Associate Professor, IIM(B) Chairperson, Vasanthi Srinivas, Centre for corporate governance and citizenship, emphasised on ‘Leadership challenges in the multi-generation workplace.’  Innovation Evangelist, Wipro Technologies, Pavan Soni  interacted communicated about innovation in his speech titled ‘Let Sparks fly’.

Theatre Director Arundhati Raja drew parallels between theatre and public speaking by focussing on ‘The magic of theatre... no retakes.’

‘Ovation-2011’ was arranged by Conference Chairperson Kumaran Pethi and Co-Chairperson T K Ramesh, who undertook planning and co-ordination of the event about six months ago.

Golden Gavel Awards for 2010-11

The Golden Gavel Awards for the year 2010-11 were presented to East Delhi Toastmasters Club, JPKU Toastmasters Club, CSC Noida Chapter Adobe Toastmasters Club, Chandigarh Toastmasters Club, Indian School of Business Toastmasters, SKIT Club, Toastmasters Club of Pune-West, TCS Maitree Kolkata Toastmasters Club, The Millennium Toastmasters Club, Microsoft Speech Weavers, CSC Chennai Chapter, Madras Toastmasters Club, Smedley Club,
Lyceum Toastmasters Club Nugegoda, FTZ Toastmasters Club, HNB Toastmasters Club and Deejays Club.