Our theme for the night was “embracing a new now” and didn’t we do that well. The very first online meeting of Sydney Speakers was well attended, efficiently run and well executed by all. A splendid job indeed.
The meeting was opened by Caitlin Manoharan who also read the Club Mission. Then it was our Chairman for the night, Heidi Heron, who was the driving force behind the successful application with a tremendous video demonstration on how it will all work. Our toast was conducted by Eugene Vass while Mario Salas entertained us with a humorous story.
Donald Zhang led an abbreviated Table Topics and Mike Fatouris displayed some great evaluation techniques. Sussana Chan then led the Club Business and provided updates on fees and the Coronavirus impact on Sydney Speakers. After this we had a fluid adjustment break.
Caitlin Manoharan got the second half started with Ramesh Shanmugam telling us what the world needs to know – all about food waste. Victor Siyu Hou was our Toastmaster for the prepared speeches. The first speaker was Rati Jain on her communication style. Carlos Garcia then continued with more of his MDM project that we had started on previously. Meanwhile Sammy Rehim delivered a presentation of the 70/20/10 model. These speeches in turn were evaluated by Bella Wang, Caitlin Manoharan and Aaron Ross.
Our Grammarian for the meeting was Ramesh Shanmugam, with Margrit Fisher being umms and ahhs counter and George Pajmakoski keeping the meeting flowing with judicial use of the novel buzzer and superbly adjusting the timing lights with coloured cards instead. This was all rounded up by David Fisher as our General Evaluator. A great night was had by all, embracing a new now.