About This Year’s Event
REGISTRATION CLOSED May 15, 2023
In addition to reconnecting with the toastmasters’ community we have two wonderful plenary speakers – Naomi and Larry!
Naomi Takeuchi
With over 18 years of experience as a Toastmaster, Naomi enjoys delivering impactful speeches that encourage us to think about our lives with meaning and purpose. Naomi is a dedicated Toastmaster having served in every officer role at the club level, all three TRIO roles as a District Officer and most recently as the 2019-2021 International Director from Region 1. She is a proud member of the District 2 Club, Seattle International 10, and she enjoys combining current events, science, pop culture and humor into her speeches. Her speech, ‘The Toastmasters Forest: Tapping the Power of the Wood Wide Web,’ will provide us some new insight and tools for growing tighter bonds, communicating effectively and cultivating community throughout District 2 and beyond
Larry Asher
Larry Asher is the director of the School of Visual Concepts (SVC). He has led the expansion of the School’s offerings into corporate professional development workshops, multi-month certificate programs in User Experience Design, and UX Writing & Content Design. He also teaches copywriting, case-study writing, presentation skills, and creative briefing and brief writing.
Make it Personal
Most people think if they’re giving a presentation, they need to talk about life insurance, heavy construction equipment, charitable organizations, government affairs, or whatever they and their audience ostensibly came to hear. But how you talk about the subject at hand doesn’t have to be a head-on, frontal assault. And nor does it need to stick to the “just the facts, ma’am” formula. The best way to grab an audience and hold their attention is by making your speech or presentation emotional, relatable, and — yes — personal. Your stories are quite possibly the best material you’ve got for making people listen up and retain your message. In this presentation, Larry Asher, a marketing communications pro and instructor of presentation skills, will show you how to unearth and share the stories in your own life that can be more persuasive than generalizations, platitudes, and things that never really happened to you.Keynote Topics
* Why stories are stickier — and why you should use them to increase the memorability of your presentation
* The power of making it personal — why your own stories deliver an extra helping of humanity and emotion
* Relatable tales build empathy — personal stories show your audience your vulnerability which they’ll repay with empathy
