After exchanging valuable experiences from other excellent toastmasters while enjoying wonderful seafood, three members from our club Katie, Tina and Jerel came back from the Xiamen Spring Conference 2011. The conference is held twice a year for the Toastmasters District 85 – this means Toastmasters members of Greater China, Hong Kong and Macau.

And this year, guess how many people attended? 1000! Let me repeat, ONE THOUSAND! During 13 – 15 May 2011, on the campus nearby a beautiful Beach in Xiamen, wonderful speeches were held throughout the entire event. From prepared speeches in the contest to conversations between members all around China, the whole meeting provided a harmonious and friendly atmosphere to improve English speaking and to learn from each other. Amongst the interesting and insightful workshops, Rory Vaden, a VIP speaker, taught the members to apply the “A.L.I.V.E.” rule to keep any audience awake during their presentations. “A.L.I.V.E.” refers to “Attentive”, “Laugh”, “Interested”, “Vulnerable” and “Engaged”. All in all, it was a memorable experience for everyone who attended the meeting.

Don’t forget our heroes who bring the honors to our club! Jerel was one of the judges of the Toastmasters International Speech Contest on District Level and Tina was elected to become the Division Q Governor.

Missed this meeting? Don’t worry! The next Winter Conference will be in Hong Kong and the next Spring Conference even around the corner in Hangzhou. Be prepared and maybe you can be one of the champions!