I've joined. Got my first role in a couple of weeks - looking forward to it.

Bit of an older book, but still very relevant. You can get a copy free at
http://www.manybooks.net/titles/carnegieda16311631716317-8.html

I went to toastmaster for the first time this week, and I think it is a great venue to improve public speaking.
They run a course where each member has to do a series of speeches which will be view and appraised by other members of the group, each speach focusing on a different area of public speaking (from voice tone and volume to eye contact and storytelling). The guys I spoke to who have gone through the program noticed massive differences in their speaking ability.
At the start of the session, they do something called 'table topics', where several people (members and guests) have to get up, and will be given a topic which they have to talk about for 3 - 5 mins with no preparation. It is a terrifying prospect! I didn't get to do it this week, but want to do it next week - I think it could really help me in those moments where I have to make an impromtu speech...
I would recommend this to anyone who wants to improve their public speaking.

Public speaking is always going to be a useful skill to have and practice makes perfect, so I want to start focusing on getting better at this

I have found a toastmasters club near to me which runs every Thursday morning (although early - 7am start!). I intend to go along next week to check it out, and maybe sign up to the course. It is meant to be one of the best ways to become proficient in public speaking...

Well I can safely say that I am okay with Public speaking but when I am required to add extra actions like act for a while or maybe jump, I think I worry about my reputation a lot. I want to be able to do whatever I want on stage without caring what-so-ever the people looking at me think. I only spoke for a small crowd of 1000 people (2009 for my level in a competition).

It was terrifying but I guess I managed to do it when we were on stage. But I admit I wasn't as good as the other teams and the other teams were not shy and all. They really know what to do and did their presentation to the level. I felt really shy to be on stage when we were required to jump and in the end, we didn't jump. It was horror.

One of the events I have committed to doing to put my improved public speaking skills to the test is open mic comedy. When I agreed to do this, I didn't really give it much thought, so I didn't really have a chance to get scared about doing it.... until last night.
Last night I went to the open mic night that I am planning to perform at - held in a bar in central london. I guess there must have been a paying audience of about 70 people - a lot more than I was expecting! Some of the acts were very good, some struggled, and some were very nervous, but I began to realise how hard it will be to actually do this. It is not easy to get up in front of 70 people to speak - even less so when they expect you to make them laugh.
The more I think about it, the more worried I am about doing this...

I love the video - thanks for posting!

The other day my best friend asked me to be best man at his wedding. I am really pleased, but at the same time terrified about doing the speech!
A friend of mine goes to 'Toastmasters', a group designed to improve members public speaking ability, and he dragged me along last week. When I got there, they started off with something called table topics, where someone says a topic and calls out a random name and whoever is called has to get up and speak about the random topic for 3 minutes with no preparation. When they started doing this I was terrified, and sure enough I was called up to talk about 'guilty pleasures' (a topic an audience member made up) for a couple of minutes in front of everyone. I was very nervous, but was actually better than I thought. Everyone feels the same nerves and they are very supportive. It was really worthwhile, as I think doing this a few times would reduce my nerves at being called to speak in public / large groups with little preparation.
The rest of the night is split into various different speeches given by members, all of which are preprepared and focus on various different elements of public speaking - such as use of eye contact, body language, different tone etc.
I thought it was a great venue to improve my public speaking, and I will definitely join up as a member.

The other night I performed my poem at Poetry Unplugged, an open mic poetry night in London.
I had to write this poem myself, which concerned me as I had not written a poem since I was 9 years old! It took me a full day to write it, but I impressed myself with the result - it was far better than I had anticipated (however on the night it was one of the few poems which rhymed).
I got the venue early to register as a performer, so had to wait for a while before the venue filled up - I estimate that there were between 60-70 people there, so it was quite intimidating to get up in front of all these people.
I had committed my poem to memory so that I could keep eye contact with the audience and focus on my speaking rather than reading the poem.
The audience was receptive and kind - and it went down well. From my own poem and from watching others, I think the key learnings are:
1 - keep eye contact with the audience wherever possible.
2 - read your audience - sit down when you are boring them. Many readers kept on reading poems which the audience had very little
3 - Be passionate about your subject. The audience are much more receptive to a performer which is passionate.
I will try and implement these learnings in my next public speaking event.

I want to be a great speaker, but I am certainly not a natural. But perhaps very few people are. When we see a great speaker, perhaps we are just seeing the result of a lot of practice and learning, which we instantly dismiss and proclaim that this person is a natural.
I found a great video in which Darren La Croix, a former world champion speaker illustrates this point in a very amusing manner. It is really inspiring. I have included this video in the 'videos' section - title Public Speaking Tips: anyone can do this. It is well worth watching, truely anyone can be a great public speaker.
Good luck all!

I have to do a lot of presentations for work, and I have often thought of taking steps to improve my public speaking skills. I have recently been asked to be the best man at a friends wedding and the thought of doing the speech has been enough to motivate me to set this as a goal!
Over the next couple of months I will be performing a lot of actions to get better, including joining a local toastmasters club, taking elocution lessons and testing out my skills at an open mic comedy night, an open mic poetry night and storytelling events.

I've joined. Got my first role in a couple of weeks - looking forward to it.

Bit of an older book, but still very relevant. You can get a copy free at
http://www.manybooks.net/titles/carnegieda16311631716317-8.html

I went to toastmaster for the first time this week, and I think it is a great venue to improve public speaking.
They run a course where each member has to do a series of speeches which will be view and appraised by other members of the group, each speach focusing on a different area of public speaking (from voice tone and volume to eye contact and storytelling). The guys I spoke to who have gone through the program noticed massive differences in their speaking ability.
At the start of the session, they do something called 'table topics', where several people (members and guests) have to get up, and will be given a topic which they have to talk about for 3 - 5 mins with no preparation. It is a terrifying prospect! I didn't get to do it this week, but want to do it next week - I think it could really help me in those moments where I have to make an impromtu speech...
I would recommend this to anyone who wants to improve their public speaking.

Public speaking is always going to be a useful skill to have and practice makes perfect, so I want to start focusing on getting better at this

I have found a toastmasters club near to me which runs every Thursday morning (although early - 7am start!). I intend to go along next week to check it out, and maybe sign up to the course. It is meant to be one of the best ways to become proficient in public speaking...

Well I can safely say that I am okay with Public speaking but when I am required to add extra actions like act for a while or maybe jump, I think I worry about my reputation a lot. I want to be able to do whatever I want on stage without caring what-so-ever the people looking at me think. I only spoke for a small crowd of 1000 people (2009 for my level in a competition).

It was terrifying but I guess I managed to do it when we were on stage. But I admit I wasn't as good as the other teams and the other teams were not shy and all. They really know what to do and did their presentation to the level. I felt really shy to be on stage when we were required to jump and in the end, we didn't jump. It was horror.

One of the events I have committed to doing to put my improved public speaking skills to the test is open mic comedy. When I agreed to do this, I didn't really give it much thought, so I didn't really have a chance to get scared about doing it.... until last night.
Last night I went to the open mic night that I am planning to perform at - held in a bar in central london. I guess there must have been a paying audience of about 70 people - a lot more than I was expecting! Some of the acts were very good, some struggled, and some were very nervous, but I began to realise how hard it will be to actually do this. It is not easy to get up in front of 70 people to speak - even less so when they expect you to make them laugh.
The more I think about it, the more worried I am about doing this...

The other day my best friend asked me to be best man at his wedding. I am really pleased, but at the same time terrified about doing the speech!
A friend of mine goes to 'Toastmasters', a group designed to improve members public speaking ability, and he dragged me along last week. When I got there, they started off with something called table topics, where someone says a topic and calls out a random name and whoever is called has to get up and speak about the random topic for 3 minutes with no preparation. When they started doing this I was terrified, and sure enough I was called up to talk about 'guilty pleasures' (a topic an audience member made up) for a couple of minutes in front of everyone. I was very nervous, but was actually better than I thought. Everyone feels the same nerves and they are very supportive. It was really worthwhile, as I think doing this a few times would reduce my nerves at being called to speak in public / large groups with little preparation.
The rest of the night is split into various different speeches given by members, all of which are preprepared and focus on various different elements of public speaking - such as use of eye contact, body language, different tone etc.
I thought it was a great venue to improve my public speaking, and I will definitely join up as a member.

The other night I performed my poem at Poetry Unplugged, an open mic poetry night in London.
I had to write this poem myself, which concerned me as I had not written a poem since I was 9 years old! It took me a full day to write it, but I impressed myself with the result - it was far better than I had anticipated (however on the night it was one of the few poems which rhymed).
I got the venue early to register as a performer, so had to wait for a while before the venue filled up - I estimate that there were between 60-70 people there, so it was quite intimidating to get up in front of all these people.
I had committed my poem to memory so that I could keep eye contact with the audience and focus on my speaking rather than reading the poem.
The audience was receptive and kind - and it went down well. From my own poem and from watching others, I think the key learnings are:
1 - keep eye contact with the audience wherever possible.
2 - read your audience - sit down when you are boring them. Many readers kept on reading poems which the audience had very little
3 - Be passionate about your subject. The audience are much more receptive to a performer which is passionate.
I will try and implement these learnings in my next public speaking event.

I want to be a great speaker, but I am certainly not a natural. But perhaps very few people are. When we see a great speaker, perhaps we are just seeing the result of a lot of practice and learning, which we instantly dismiss and proclaim that this person is a natural.
I found a great video in which Darren La Croix, a former world champion speaker illustrates this point in a very amusing manner. It is really inspiring. I have included this video in the 'videos' section - title Public Speaking Tips: anyone can do this. It is well worth watching, truely anyone can be a great public speaker.
Good luck all!