Last night at Toastmasters I delivered a technical presentation on the merits of the fabulous open source browser Firefox (click on the image to go get it if you’re not using it already!). I was disappointed to discover only one other member was already using it, with the majority sticking with IE.

After getting a list of the perceived good and bad things about IE from my audience, I went through each item on the list and explained how Firefox did it better. I then gave a demonstration of Firefox (hampered slightly by Windows crashing when I opened the laptop; if only I’d had my Mac!), pointing out the tabbed browsing and built in search features.

I finished with a 5 minute Q&A period. I heard some very intelligent questions, which I hopefully answered equally intelligently.

I think a few of my fellow members will be trying out Firefox. Hopefully they won’t look back.

For a good list of the benefits of Firefox, go here.

I gave my 5th speech from the storytelling manual at Toastmasters last night. The objective of the project was to tell a story based on a historical event, and make it entertaining.

Because of the date, I decided to tell the story of Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot. It was a little nerve-wracking because I had to keep my facts straight without any notes, but it seems my memory is better than I thought and I don’t think I made any slips. I even managed to remember the names of some of Guy’s co-conspirators. I’m usually terrible with names.

It was a 7 to 9 minute speech, and I came in at around 8 minutes so my “counting the words and dividing by 70″ approach to timing calculations seems to be working quite nicely.

Last night I delivered a speech for the 4th speech project in the storytelling manual for Toastmasters. The objective of the project was to tell a “touching story”. Now I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a highly emotional person, and I’m certainly not good at touching people, even in appropriate ways, so this was going to be a challenge.

I decided the only way to achieve my objective was to tell the story that has touched me the most, which is the story of how I met and eventually married my wife. I also decided, partially due to sheer laziness and partially because I thought spontaneity would give the story more reality, to do almost no preparation for the speech. After all, it is my story, I know it better than anyone except maybe Jennifer, so why rehearse it? My final decision was to promote a more relaxed atmosphere by sitting on the edge of the lectern table instead of standing up straight.

The story choice was good. From the feedback I got, everyone enjoyed it. The lack of preparation didn’t hurt the content of my speech, but rehearsal might’ve made the delivery more explicitly emotional, I’m still not sure on that one. I got mixed feedback on sitting on the table, some people loved it, some people said “stand up straight you lazy bugger” or words to that effect.

I’ve been a member of the McGill Toastmasters Club for about three years now. The club meets every Tuesday, 10 floors above my workplace which is very convenient.

I joined to improve my speaking and communication skills, but I’ve gotten more from it than that. I’ve learned some leadership and organisational skills. I’ve made friends. I’ve honed my web design skills working on the club website. I’ve become a better listener and evaluator. I’ve heard many interesting speeches on all sorts of subjects.

All that for $10 a month, and you get free coffee and cookies!