International Director and Online Presenters charter member Carol Prahinski shared lessons learned from her time as a District Governor and the mentors who helped her grow into her Toastmasters leadership role.
Category: Club News
Sunny Fridge Wins Our Mini-Webinar Contest
Congratulations to our mini-webinar contest winner, Sunny Fridge, as well as Lois Margolin, 2nd place, Jim Barber, 3rd place, and all participants.
Here is the winning webinar speech, including feedback for the contestants from guest judge Jim Key, the 2003 World Champion of Public Speaking.
Here’s the full event replay:
The mini-webinar contest is an unofficial Toastmasters contest format, created to test online-specific presentation skills. You can read more about here.
World Champion of Public Speaking Jim Key Will Help Judge Our Mini-Webinar Contest
We are fortunate to have recruited a celebrity guest Judge for Monday’s Mini-Webinar Contest! You can learn more about Jim Key below. Click the RSVP button if you would like to join us as a guest.
The Mini-Webinar Contest is an unofficial Toastmasters format we developed to test online presentation skills. It’s a “webinar” in the same way that an International Speech Contest speech is like a mini-keynote. Speakers will have 6-8 minutes, including time fielding questions submitted via the chat function of our online meetings platform.
Meet Jim Key
(from jimkey.com)
Jim Key comes from a background in computer technology, sports, music, leadership, and public speaking. After entering the world of Information Technologies in 1987, Jim developed an IT consulting practice, working with leaders and managers from national non-profit organizations, manufacturing companies, and service companies across the United States. Additionally, he has volunteered for many years in his community and church, working with children and teenagers in various capacities for 20+ years.
Jim’s volunteerism and information technologies background converged in 1996, as he brought much needed automation to a national youth development program. His efforts led to an invited position of serving 6 years on the national steering committee for this youth program, and to a cutting edge computerized solution that is still in use today. Additionally, participation in the program more than quadrupled during those 6 years of Jim’s influence and involvement.
Simply put, Jim is a difference maker. He believes in pursuing excellence unapologetically, and without reservation. This passion for excellence enabled and drove him to become an award-winning speaker. Reaching the finals of the World Championships of Public Speaking an unprecedented three consecutive times, Jim set an unparalleled mark for continued presentation excellence on his way to becoming the 2003 World Champion of Public Speaking. He has subsequently delivered keynote addresses and workshops around the United States and in several other countries. Jim currently serves as an adjunct professor of communications at West Coast Bible College and Seminary.
Though Jim speaks to a variety of audiences, he always speaks from his heart directly to the hearts of the audience members. His presentations include examples to which everyone can relate, as he blends everyday humor with messages of gravitas to produce programs that yield results. You can expect his uplifting message to inspire your people to higher levels of achievement in your organization.
On a personal note, Jim is a devoted husband and father. He has three children: Jay (32), Michael (28), and Veronica (21). He has been very active in coaching soccer, baseball, and basketball with kids in the YMCA sports program.
How to Hold a Mini-Webinar Contest
The Mini-Webinar Contest is an unofficial Toastmasters contest format developed by Online Presenters to test the skills required to host a webinar or deliver an online presentation. See the replay of our first contest and stay tuned for the next one. Other clubs that meet online, or allow online participation, may wish to adopt or modify this format.
If you think of the International Speech Contest as being a competition for who can deliver the best keynote in a compressed, 7-minute format, the mini-webinar contest is the equivalent for an online presentation where part of the speaker’s challenge is to address audience questions and close with some sort of “call to action.”
How the Contest Is Organized
Speech Format: Speakers will be allowed 6-8 minutes. It is up to the speaker to decide how much of that time to spend responding to audience questions, but they will get points for audience engagement. Time spent on Q&A is included within the 6-8 minute time limit. Making a presentation plus Q&A work within this time is very challenging, but that’s what makes it a contest.
Contestants who speak for less than 5 minutes, 30 seconds, or more than 8 minutes, 30 seconds, will be disqualified.
Optional rule: The Timer should interrupt any speaker who goes past 9 minutes to keep the event as a whole on time. This is contrary to the standard rule that no signal should be given if a contestant is disqualified for time, but it may be necessary given that online speakers sometimes run over time for technical reasons such as losing track of the webcam image from the timer.
Everyone other than the speaker will be muted during the presentation, so questions will be submitted via the chat feature. If you are not competing, be sure to come ready to be a good audience with lively questions for our contestants.
A member is appointed to monitor the chat feed, and speakers have the option of asking the chat monitor to assist by relaying questions to them. Contestants are responsible for letting the chat monitor know whether they want assistance and, if so, whether to interrupt with questions during their presentation or save them until the end.
Speeches for this contest should also include some sort of call to action, whether it’s a sales pitch or an appeal to take some sort of political or moral or personal development action.
Voting Procedure
Consider using the online voting and vote counting app we developed for this contest, which is available as an independent tool or as part of the WordPress for Toastmasters system. It’s important to have backup methods available in case the technology should fail, so make sure judges can contact the Chief Judge by email, phone, and other methods.
Judges who prefer a paper form can use this version: Mini-webinar contest scoring (Word document).
Webinar Contest Scoring
| Max score | |
| Speech Development | 15 |
| Audience Engagement | 15 |
| Speech Value | 15 |
| Call to Action | 15 |
| Visual | 15 |
| Voice | 10 |
| Manner | 5 |
| Appropriateness/Correctness | 10 |
| Total Possible Score | 100 |
Speech Development is the way the speaker puts ideas together so the audience can understand them. The speech is structured around a purpose, and this structure must include an opening, body and conclusion. A good speech immediately engages the audience’s attention and then moves forward toward a significant conclusion. This development of the speech structure is supported by relevant examples and illustrations, facts and figures, delivered with such smoothness that they blend into the framework of the speech to present the audience with a unified whole.
Audience Engagement is a score for how well the speaker responded to questions submitted via the chat. This includes how well the speaker managed the time management challenge of delivering their core presentation and still allowing time for questions, as well as the quality of the responses.
Speech Value justifies the act of speaking. The speaker has a responsibility to say something meaningful and original to the audience. The listeners should feel the speaker has made a contribution to their thinking. The ideas should be important ones, although this does not preclude a humorous presentation of them.
Call to Action is a clear statement of what the presenter wants the audience to do following the presentation – buy a product, vote in an election, or change their life in some way. How clear was the desired outcome?
Visual Presentation includes all the elements conveyed through video, including body language and the use of slides or other content shared onscreen.
Voice is the sound that carries the message. It should be flexible, moving from one pitch level to another for emphasis, and should have a variety of rate and volume. A good voice can be clearly heard and the words easily understood.
Manner is the indirect revelation of the speaker’s real self as the speech is delivered. The speaker should speak with enthusiasm and assurance, showing interest in the audience and confidence in their reactions.
Combined in our scoring are: Appropriateness of language refers to the choice of words that relate to the speech purpose and to the particular audience hearing the speech. Language should promote clear understanding of thoughts and should fit the occasion precisely. Correctness of language ensures that attention will be directed toward what the speaker says, not how it is said. Proper use of grammar and correct pronunciation will show that the speaker is the master of the words being used.
Toastmasters Webinar Contest on April 16
Online Presenters Toastmasters will hold a mini-webinar contest on April 16 at 7:30 pm EDT, and guests are welcome to register to attend.
This is not an official Toastmasters contest format (at least not yet) but rather an attempt to craft a contest specifically for the online medium. Scoring is based loosely on the International Speech Contest, but with additional points awarded for delivering a clear call to action and fielding audience questions submitted via chat — as in a professional webinar. We’ve also tweaked the scoring categories to accommodatie the different visual presentation in an online meeting.
Celebrity Judges
To add some “Dancing with the Stars” pizzaz, we have recruited 3 celebrity judges — professional speakers and webinar organizes who will be on hand to give our contestants feedback on their performances.
Roger Courville is an expert on online presentations who led one of our first workshop sessions
Sheryl Roush, a well known professional speaker (and coach to speakers) who also honored us with a workshop
Nick Cavalancia, Founder / Chief Techvangelist at Techvangelism, has delivered more than 1,000 webinars in his work as a technology marketer.
About Online Presenters
The Online Presenters club mission is to develop skills for better webinars and online events of all sorts. The club meets Mondays at 7:30 pm US Eastern time, with the first half hour reserved for informal meet-and-greet (plus technical troubleshooting) and the formal one-hour meeting starting at 8 pm. Guests are always welcome.
Image credit: Webinar by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images
How the Contest Will Be Organized
Speech Format: Speakers will be allowed 6-8 minutes. It’s up to the speaker to decide how much of that time to respond to audience questions, but they will get points for audience engagement.
Everyone other than the speaker will be muted during the presentation, so questions will be submitted via the chat feature. If you are not competing, be sure to come ready to be a good audience with lively questions for our contestants.
A member will be appointed to monitor the chat feed, and speakers have the option of asking the chat monitor to assist by relaying questions to them. Contestants are responsible for letting the chat monitor know whether you want assistance and, if so, whether to interrupt with questions during their presentation or save them until the end.
Speeches for this contest should also include some sort of call to action, whether it’s a sales pitch or an appeal to take some sort of political or moral or personal development action.
Webinar Contest Scoring
| Max score | |
| Speech Development | 15 |
| Audience Engagement | 15 |
| Speech Value | 15 |
| Call to Action | 15 |
| Visual | 15 |
| Voice | 10 |
| Manner | 5 |
| Appropriateness/Correctness | 10 |
| Total Possible Score | 100 |
Speech Development is the way the speaker puts ideas together so the audience can understand them. The speech is structured around a purpose, and this structure must include an opening, body and conclusion. A good speech immediately engages the audience’s attention and then moves forward toward a significant conclusion. This development of the speech structure is supported by relevant examples and illustrations, facts and figures, delivered with such smoothness that they blend into the framework of the speech to present the audience with a unified whole.
Audience Engagement is a score for how well the speaker responded to questions submitted via the chat. This includes how well the speaker managed the time management challenge of delivering their core presentation and still allowing time for questions, as well as the quality of the responses.
Speech Value justifies the act of speaking. The speaker has a responsibility to say something meaningful and original to the audience. The listeners should feel the speaker has made a contribution to their thinking. The ideas should be important ones, although this does not preclude a humorous presentation of them.
Call to Action is a clear statement of what the presenter wants the audience to do following the presentation – buy a product, vote in an election, or change their life in some way. How clear was the desired outcome?
Visual Presentation includes all the elements conveyed through video, including body language and the use of slides or other content shared onscreen.
Voice is the sound that carries the message. It should be flexible, moving from one pitch level to another for emphasis, and should have a variety of rate and volume. A good voice can be clearly heard and the words easily understood.
Manner is the indirect revelation of the speaker’s real self as the speech is delivered. The speaker should speak with enthusiasm and assurance, showing interest in the audience and confidence in their reactions.
Combined in our scoring are: Appropriateness of language refers to the choice of words that relate to the speech purpose and to the particular audience hearing the speech. Language should promote clear understanding of thoughts and should fit the occasion precisely. Correctness of language ensures that attention will be directed toward what the speaker says, not how it is said. Proper use of grammar and correct pronunciation will show that the speaker is the master of the words being used.
Replay: Darren LaCroix, “How to Make the Most of Online Stage Time”
Darren LaCroix, 2001 World Champion of Public Speaking and founder of StageTimeUniversity.com, visited Online Presenters on Dec. 11, 2017 to share what he has learned about presenting online.
Replay: Workshop on Setting Up a Studio for Live Video
Jim Guld and Chris Guld of Geeks on Tour shared the basics of light, video, and sound you need to understand to do professional live video. They host a weekly YouTube Live show on technology for travelers as a service to attendees at their in-person seminars and members of their subscription website. They have recently added a second weekly show on Facebook Live.
Because they do these broadcasts on the road, from a traveling studio in their camper van, as well as from their home office, they offer a unique perspective on how to achieve a professional setup in any circumstance.
Sign up for our next educational workshop at op.toastmost.org/workshops/
World Champion Speaker Darren LaCroix Previews Dec. 11 Workshop (Video)
Online Presenters President David F. Carr caught up with Darren LaCroix, 2001 World Champion Public Speaker, at the District 47 Conference. Darren spoke about his Stage Time University online education program and how presenting online is different. He will join us on December 11 as part of our educational workshop series.
Share Your District Table Topics or Humorous Speech Contest on Facebook Live
As a live streaming video tool available to any Facebook user, Facebook Live presents a tremendous opportunity for clubs and districts to showcase their talent.
If we want to demonstrate that Toastmasters is more than a bunch of people giving PowerPoint presentations to each other, what better opportunity than the humorous speech and table topics contests? Since the district is the top level of competition for both table topics and humorous speeches, this is a great opportunity for districts to show just how compelling and entertaining a good Toastmasters speech can be — and perhaps inspire more people to visit a club and join. And by getting current members to share the video with their friends, districts have the opportunity to reach a sizeable local audience.
Below, I’m sharing a (slightly edited version of) the proposal I just sent to my district leadership. My suggestion is that other districts who have their conferences coming up consider this as well.
Update: One question I’ve gotten about this idea is what to do if one or more contestants do not agree to the broadcast. My answer is you acknowledge and respect their wishes, without pressuring them. Ask if they will agree to be video recorded, with the opportunity to review the video before it is published (see these tips). That’s an alternate strategy that’s perfectly valid — I just see Facebook Live as an ideal way of reaching a larger audience, if the speakers and contest organizers can agree on it.
Proposal: Facebook Live broadcast of District Humorous Speech Contest
I’m writing to suggest we take an advantage of a publicity, recruiting, and social media marketing opportunity by broadcasting the district humorous speech contest on Facebook Live.
I have been a proponent of video recording the contest speeches for the past several years, but a live broadcast from the event could be more engaging and reach a larger audience. If you agree, the planning and preparation would need to start soon — at least as soon as we know who won the division contests.
This would only work if all the contestants agree in advance and complete the video release form from Toastmasters International. This would be a live broadcast, meaning there will be no opportunity for the speakers to review the video before it is published. (However, we might offer them the option of having their video removed from the replay after the fact — I doubt anyone would request that, but it might be reassuring for them to know they have the option of destroying the evidence if they really mess up on stage).
I would NOT suggest doing this for the International Speech Contest, as the winners are often sensitive about not wanting to “tip off the competition” by sharing the video beyond the club. But the humorous speech contest is ideal, engaging content, and a chance to show off some of the best talent in our district. If this experiment works well, I also would suggest doing Facebook Live for the Table Topics competition in the spring.
Why Facebook Live
If you’re an active Facebook user, you have probably seen the alerts that some contact in your network or some business page you’ve subscribed to is going live with a Facebook video. These productions range from professional broadcasts to extremely amateur selfie video. The Online Presenters club I founded recently did a workshop (see replay) with the author of Facebook Marketing for Dummies on the Facebook Live tactics available to small businesses and nonprofits.
Live video tends to command more attention because there is more of a reason to turn in right now while an event (such as our contest) is happening. When a Facebook user tunes in and “likes” or comments on a live video, their friends who are online at that moment will also get an alert and may tune in, broadening our reach. We can do some advance promotion to tune in at the time we expect the conference to begin by visiting the District Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/District47Toastmasters – and that they should “like” the page to get an alert when the broadcast starts.
We can also make an announcement encouraging the in person attendees to share the feed as it is starting (right before they turn off or at least silence their phones and turn their full attention to the speakers).
Speakers can encourage family members or club members who are not in attendance but would like to see the speech to tune in.
I would also suggest doing a press release mentioning that the contest will be broadcast on Facebook Live – a detail that might make publications more likely to publish the release, send a reporter, or perhaps tune in for our broadcast.
Logistical Details
In addition to obtaining the video release forms from the speakers, here is how I would recommend setting this up:
- The Facebook Live broadcast should be sent out from the district Facebook page, not a personal profile. The camera operator will need administrative access to that page (at least for the duration of the event).
- The simplest way of doing a Facebook Live broadcast is from a smartphone (fully charged, with a couple of auxiliary battery packs handy!).
- Use WIFI rather than the cellular network. If the conference room facility WIFI isn’t trustworthy, consider bringing in your own wireless router and connecting to the Internet with a hard wire. Work out the details with the facility well in advance.
- The camera operator needs to be seated close to the stage. Although smartphone cameras works surprisingly well, audio and video quality will be much better if the camera is close to the subject.
- Bring in additional lighting, rather than what is built into the conference room. Video quality will be better if the speakers are well lit.
- The humorous speeches are engaging content, but the minute of silence between speeches is not. I suggest having a team of people recruited to post comments and keep the conversation lively during that period. If you do not like the idea of people in the room fidgeting with their phones, recruit allies who will not be attending in person to help keep the conversation active during that time.
- End the Facebook Live program after the last speaker but announce that the broadcast will resume for the announcement of the winners.
- Consider doing an additional Facebook Live broadcast as an interview with the winner.
I am sure there will be other details to be worked out, but that’s everything I can think of right now. If you adopt this proposal, I will be happy to do what I can to contribute to making it work, along with your public relations and social media team.
David F. Carr, versatile and inventive writer, editor, and web consultant
Author, Social Collaboration for Dummies
See my work on Forbes, connect with me on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook
Facebook Live: Screen Sharing and Scene Switching with OBS Studio
Facebook Live is a very powerful tool for democratizing access to online video broadcasting, but until recently I thought of it as something you could only do from your phone. I knew some professional broadcasters had put on more elaborate productions, but I didn’t realize those techniques were within easy reach thanks to free open source software.
I first used screen sharing used by a mere mortal in a Facebook Live session while attending one of John Haydon’s weekly broadcasts and studying his technique. (See Replay: Workshop on Facebook Live with John Haydon, author of Facebook Marketing for Dummies).
He pointed me to a Social Media Examiner tutorial on connecting the OBS Studio software to the Facebook Live service. That article does a great job of explaining all the detailed settings you need to get right for OBS and Facebook Live to work together. What I’m sharing below are the things I needed to figure out for myself as I considered how I would put these tools to work. In particular, the Social Media Examiner tutorial gives a passing mention to the ability to define different combinations of auto, video, and images as “scenes” in the OBS software and switch between them during the program.
That is what I explore in detail in this first video clip.
Going Live
To stream from OBS Studio to Facebook Live, you first obtain an API key code from Facebook and enter it into OBS.
Here is what that process looks like:
Important: If you will be looking at the audience view of your broadcast (as shown here) on another tab of your laptop, or on another device such as an iPad, be sure to mute the speakers (otherwise you’ll get a really horrible echo).
Another way of getting the link to your program is to schedule it in advance. Here’s how.
See also this tutorial document from Facebook.
Welcome to the Show
Finally, here is an example of the output that would result from the tutorial shown above.
