Take a trip south and Go Hawaiian! For the 2018 SD conference.

Report by Ursula Beatty. 

Aloha was the greeting for the day. There were flowers everywhere! On the program, on everyone’s clothing, with Hawaiian style dresses and shirts. Also garlands of flower (leis), draped around necks or worn as  head bands. There were grass skirts too, and lots of colour, adorning attendees and scattered around the  venue.

Fortunately, we didn’t have to go too far south for this year’s Hawaiian themed, D69 Southern Division conference (plus round 3 of the speech contests). As, It was held at the Robina community centre Auditorium, in Robina on Saturday 10^th March, 2018.

A good  turn out from HDB club members at the SD Conference:

Ursula Beatty (President), Daisy Morris, Jude Morris, Elaina Massey, Julie Anne Cantwell (Contestant in the International Contest), Sarafina Zubovic (Area 24 director), Tom O'Sullivan (VPE & SAA), Hannah Castellijn (VPM). Missing from photo: Chris Lennon -  Catering co-coordinator.

This year’s tropical Hawaiian theme gave SD director, Garry Jardine DTM, a fantastic opportunity to showcase some of his own collection of Hawaiian shirts. He managed to wear 4 different shirts throughout the conference. I love the look. Well done Garry!

A Yates Sandwich!

 SD  Director, Garry Jardine (AKA Mr Hawaii), and TMI Immediate past president, Mike Storkey congratulate Anne Yates on her 20 year membership and service to TM. Well done Anne.

Conference Highlights:

Apart from the speech contests, and Garry’s shirts, other highlights for me, included an informative educational speech by Mark Hunter, DTM (also 2009 world champion of public speaking and speech coach). On the Anatomy of a keynote speech. Marks keynote speech tips included:

·         Establish your credibility as a speaker on that topic.

·         Work your speech around the values of the organisation or group that you are speaking to.

·         Ensure the structure of the speech enables the audience to clearly understand and follow its logic and flow of ideas.

·         Use different mediums to cater for the different learning styles (Visual, Kinaesthetic, Auditory).

·         Use Tweetable moments:  small repeatable phrases or quotes.

·         Very important  to use  relevant stories and metaphors to connect with the audience and link to what your message is about.

·         Appropriate  transitions between ideas.

·         Use a new idea or an old idea wrapped in a new way.

Also, special Guest presenter, Neil McLean gave us useful and interesting tips on public speaking and speaking on camera. Neil is well qualified ‘to get the best out of people on camera, with a 35 year career in media, more than 5,000  television news stories to air, and 20,000 interviews under his belt.” 

Neil best tips for being a great speaker:  

·         Be yourself. Be authentic, as there are no mistakes when you speak from the heart. Let others get to know you, like you and trust you as a speaker.

·         To become a great speaker, you first need great thoughts and emotions behind it.

·         Make effective use of pauses,  as there is often  more in what you don’t say, than in what you do say. “the Power of the pause”.

I particularly enjoyed Neil’s presentation, which was all the more admirable, considering he came to Robina straight from the airport, after a  long flight from India to speak with us. Thanks Neil.

Guest presenter, Neil McLean with  Conference MC, Stephen McDowall.

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Some of the HDB members enjoying the conference:
Tom O'Sullivan, Hannah Castellijn, Jude Morris, Elaina Massey, Daisy Morris, Sarafina Zubovic and Julie Anne Cantwell.

Mitch Drage, Evaluation contest Toastmaster with participants: Emily Vallientis, Alison Cleaver (1st place), Linda Hardstaff  (3rd Place), Carolyn Shaw (2nd Place),  and Jane Buckley.

Humorous contest Place getters:

1st place- Rod Smith, 2nd place- Shirley Lord, 3rd place- Jane McLennan

International contest Toastmaster, Hannah Castellijn with participants: 

Melisa Fernandez, Julie Anne Cantwell, Alison Cleaver,  Jane Buckley and Tim Whittle.

International contest Place getters:

2nd place- Melissa Fernandez, 1st place- Jane Butler and 3rd place -Alison Cleaver

Table Topic contestants:

Carolyn Shaw, Linda Hardstaff, Alisha Fernandez, Alison Cleaver and Keith Howden.

Table Topic contest place getters:

3rd Place- Keith Howden, 1st Place - Alison Cleaver, 2nd Place- Carolyn Shaw.

Well done to all of the contestants of this years contests, and Mahalo (Thank you), to everyone who contributed to making the conference such a huge success, including the organisers, catering and of course the judges.  

Best wishes to the winners of all 4 contests who go on to compete in round 4 of the contests to be held  on the 28th and 29th April at the 47th Annual District 69 conference at Ipswich. 

I look forward to seeing you there. A hui hou.