Discover How Many of These Communication Skills You Can Improve in One Day

Plus learn how you can help your club earn a World Champion Speaker educational DVD...

Join us for:

District 55’s Fall Conference
“Your Best Self Ever”
November 15th, 2008
Austin, TX

When is it time to take advantage of these opportunities?

• Listen to the best speakers compete to tell the best Tall Tale
• Hear the best evaluators in the District and improve your own ability
• Network with Toastmasters and trainers from all across the District
• Customize your experience from 12 different educational sessions
• Workshop style educational sessions to keep you up and involved
• And much, much more...

Click Here To Download Executive Summary Registration Flier

Click Here To Download District Council Proxy

Jump Ahead To:

What Speaking Is Like
What This Conference Will Do For You
What Others Are Saying
The Keynote Address
The Workshop Facilitators *NEW* Interviews
The Tall Tales and Evaluation Contests
Earn A DVD For Your Club
Conference Details
Register Now

Fellow Toastmaster,

As someone committed to personal development through communication and leadership, you already know there’s more out there for you.

You may wonder whether you should go to this trainer or that seminar. With so many options and so little time, the question may really be what to try next. If you’re like me, you have to weigh every opportunity against your other priorities.

With that in mind, the 2008 Toastmasters District 55 Fall Conference was planned with taking your communication skills to the next level in mind.

“Your Best Self Ever” is the theme of the conference this fall. This conference is designed for those members with a vision to accelerate their speaking abilities from any background, age or skill level.

Speaking Can Be Like...

Learning to give speeches can be like stumbling through a long, dark room.

You know there’s a door somewhere on the other side. You reach out to avoid obstacles... inching your way forward hoping there’s nothing on the ground to trip over. You begin wondering how far this room goes.

You find a wall and begin groping your way across for a door... a switch... anything. You knock over a lamp... kicking yourself for breaking what could have been your only light source.

As you try to contain your frustration and wonder whether you’ll ever reach your goal, you tell yourself to keep going. You know as long as you keep going you’ll find your way.

At last you find a door and twist the knob in anticipation. Locked. Maybe you didn’t turn it the right way or with enough effort so you twist and twist. Perhaps it’s a false knob so you yank and pull.

Nothing. You’re still in the dark. You realize there must be another door so you keep feeling along the wall.

What seems like minutes later, you find another door knob. With renewed hope you twist and pull... and realize this door won’t be opening for you either. It occurs to you that you don’t even remember how you got into this room.

A twinge of panic sets in and you start to wonder if anyone even knows you’re here or would know how to find you. You fight back the wave of fear and keep searching... testing the shapes and forms you encounter.

Faintly, you begin to hear voices in an adjacent room. You make your way over to where you hear them loudest and find another door. It too is locked. You think, "Why me? All I wanted was to reach the other side and now I’m stuck.”

The voices sound too far away but you figure it wouldn’t hurt to knock at this point. And you wait. You resolve yourself to wander this room.

There’s a slight metallic clicking at the door... and then it swings open. A kind and gentle face greets you saying, “There you are. We were beginning to wonder what happened to you. Were you in here in the dark?”

She steps into the room and with two swift claps, the lights come on. “I hope you get a chance to enjoy the gallery here before you move on,” she says.

You step back to admire the room that had just been your torment. Twenty foot ceilings are covered with classic art topped with a mural that stretches the length of the room.

As you take in the beauty of it all, your gaze crosses the broken lamp. Your new friend says, “Not to worry. That happens quite frequently here.”

As you relax, you notice that there were more doors and... all of them have keys sticking out of them. You walk to the nearest one and turn the key. The door opens easily and you now realize any door would have led you to where you wanted to go.

If only you’d been able to see the keys... or even the art! If you’d only known the layout of this beautiful place.

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Your Keys for Communication

This conference can turn the light on for your speaking ability. Every door is open to you when you can see the keys laid out as they’ll be. The session topics will include:

Whatever you’re working on in Toastmasters or in life, you can probably see that we’ve got you covered. Attend the sessions that interest you most and compare notes with friends who attend the others.

As you leave the conference, you’ll realize you have all the tools you need to be a confident, powerful speaker. Any door that seemed locked to you is now open for your exploration and development. You realize what a good choice it was to attend the conference.

This conference isn’t open to the public. You have to be a Toastmaster (or family member) to attend because of our status as a non-profit. Even though this conference arguably rivals any for-profit venture, we aren’t allowed to compete with them.

You may already be thinking of others who aren’t Toastmasters that could benefit from this power packed conference. Sign them up as new members in your club and they can come. They’ll be able to benefit from the follow up practice they’ll get as members.

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Never Been Before?

Here’s what others are saying about District conferences:

If you are in business, Toastmasters Conference pays for itself. My first conference was at T-Bar-M in New Braunfels. I heard Lee Moczygemba speak about becoming a professional speaker and immediately signed up with her to coach me. I was already speaking for pay, just very sporadically. Lee's coaching paid for itself the first six months. This past year I was the Keynote Speaker for Keep Texas Beautiful at their annual convention. If I hadn't been to that conference, none of this would have happened.

Kathy Moore, DTM
2007-08 District PRO

District conferences are where Toastmasters first experience the exceptional value of Toastmasters International. They are special sources of entertainment, education, and camaraderie that remain in our memories forever.

Norm Hershfield, DTM

I enjoy the District conferences for multiple reasons: networking, educational workshops, entertainment, contests, and the opportunity to learn from others’ leadership skills. I have learned how to work with a team to plan an event and the benefits of networking. I strongly encourage all Toastmasters to experience the event. You always walk away with something new – a friend, skill, or a perspective!

Wafae T. Owen, ACS, CL
Past Division J Governor

For me, the best part of D55 conferences is seeing friends from around the District. Great contests and education sessions are a bonus. The "main event" of every conference is our District Council, or business meeting. To me, it is tragic that so many of our clubs have no voice in these meetings, because there is no one attending on behalf of the club. I am always delighted to see first time attendees, especially when they become "regulars" thereafter! Every conference is unique, and offers many learning opportunities. If you have never attended, please join us in the fall and see what goes on. I feel sure you will be glad you came.

Gloria Williams, DTM, PDG
Spring 2008 Conference Chair

I popped in just for the contest and it was spectacular. Seeing such great speakers perform with drama and energy was inspirational. It encouraged me to go back and experiment with new techniques and be more creative and entertaining.

Helen Hunter, CTM
Member B&P, Outback, & SADD

I immediately think of meeting old friends and making new ones. The educational sessions are valuable because I am always looking for new ideas or better ways to do things. I can pick up Toastmaster supplies at the bookstore, and I can enjoy the cream of District 55 speakers at the contests. All in all, it’s time well spent.

Linda Williams, DTM
Division I Governor

I enjoy attending Toastmasters conferences. I was immediately hooked after attending my first conference on South Padre Island. The conferences are a good way of meeting people and networking with fellow Toastmasters. The speeches motivate and inspire you to accomplish personal and professional goals. Bottom line, you will gain valuable information.

Carol Conner
Capital City Toastmasters

I have been attending TM District Conferences for the last 18 years and every one of them I have enjoyed the company and made new, interesting and fun friends. I have enjoyed the training and the speech contests. I encourage every new Toastmaster in the District to take the chance and attend the next conference and their efforts will be well worth it.

Desi Mora, ACG, CL
Austintatious Toastmasters

If you haven’t been to a conference before, we have a special first timer’s gathering planned. Come make some new Toastmaster friends and start the day with some fun.

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The Keynote Address

"Secrets of Lifelong Learning Every Toastmaster Must Know"

With the flattening of the world through improved communication technologies and a more globally interdependent economy, the communications skills you're gaining through Toastmasters are becoming more valuable each day.

Though it may be almost too obvious to notice, you're also developing another valuable asset: your ability and identity as a lifelong learner. Being a skilled lifelong learner will serve you well in meeting the demanding learning requirements of our modern wired world.

Becoming a skilled lifelong learner means that you're developing a more flexible mindset, an optimistic attitude, and an appreciation of the mastery ethic -- all supplying a firm foundation upon which to build your speaking skills and present your very best you!

In this keynote address, performance consultant, Tom Carroll, will share a vision of Toastmasters as a lifelong learning tool and will give specific performance secrets for improving your ability as a speaker, a lifelong learner, and for getting the most out of this conference.

Highlights:

• Enriching your personal experience for deeper learning
  
• Noticing and incorporating others as examples of excellence
  
• Getting the most from evaluations of your performance

Tom Carroll is a performance consultant, former Toastmaster, and owner of Evolutionary Learning, an Austin, Texas-based instructional design, delivery, and learning media production company.

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The Workshop Facilitators

Facilitator Interview Transcripts

Each speaker was hand picked for their expertise in their speaking area. Let’s meet our speakers and their sessions...

Guy Monroe is a keynote speaker, workshop facilitator, corporate trainer, speaking, singing and expression coach, who develops innovative real-world tools which expand expressive freedom through the application of technical, mechanical and emotional vocal techniques.

“Unforgettable Voice and Presence”: In this session, Guy Monroe will share hidden secrets of master communicators. To the untrained eye, these techniques appear invisible. Techniques such as breathing, vowel emphasis, relaxed speech, intimacy and tempo. Discover how use these techniques to connect with your audience at perhaps, a deeper level than you ever thought possible. These tools may place you into totally new class of speaker, creating a voice and presence that is beautiful, irresistible and unforgettable.

Gus Villarreal, ATMB, is a member of Valero Toastmasters of San Antonio.

“Adding Value With Corporate Clubs”: Creating and maintaining a vibrant Toastmasters corporate club involves many of the same challenges that other Toastmasters clubs face with a few twists thrown in for good measure. This interactive session discusses what works, what doesn't work, and what can be expected when Toastmasters step into the corporate environment.

Reviews on Gus’ session from the TLI:

“Timeline”: A way to rewrite your mental and emotional perception of your history and create a compelling future. Timeline is also a new way of looking at and establishing club goals that members buy into. (This process is not limited to club goals – when used effectively, Timeline WILL change your life.)

“Stage Presence: How to Manage Your State in Any Circumstance”: Four steps to taking charge and having fun in front of an audience. Learn the skills to turn on the personality and persona you need to speak any time.

“Authenticity and Powerful Speaking”: Learn the difference between talking at your audience and really being present with them. We’ll look at the structure of energetic charisma and building rapport with your audience. Then Keith will lead exercises in speaking impromptu from that place of being present.

“Telling Hypnotic Stories”: Many of the greatest teachers the world has ever known spoke in stories. Learn how to balance speaking to the conscious and unconscious mind at the same time. Keith will include instruction on the structure and creating a plot to parallel real life to maximize effect.

“Power of WOW: How to Design, Develop, and Deliver a Polished, Persuasive Presentation”: Do you yearn to walk on to a platform and quickly "wow" the audience? This session will help you build that confidence. It covers winning tools, tips, and techniques designed to add the "Power of Wow" to the content and delivery of your presentation. Whether you're a beginner or experienced presenter, you'll find a tip or two or three to make your presentations more impressive, effective, and memorable.

“I Can't Make You Change Your Underwear, I'll Change Mine”: What do Ronald Reagan, Paris Hilton, Edith Bunker, and Einstein have in common? Are you like one of them? Attend this session and find out the answer. In this session, you’ll learn about the two dimensions that will help you determine the behavioral styles of individuals you interact with. You’ll discover your behavioral style and you’ll define how you usually interact with others in everyday situations.

“Listening From The Heart: Strategies for Communication and Conflict Resolution”: It’s rare that we meet someone who takes the time to listen to who we really are. This workshop is for anyone who wishes to become more aware of how we connect with others in a communication and leadership context.

“Stress and Self Care”: Stress is a feeling that's created when we react to particular events. During our work together we will ask the following questions: How do you contribute to our own stress? How do you approach your stress? How do you nurture yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually? How do you control your own stress?

“How to Activate the Law of Attraction for Your Goals”: People everywhere are talking about the Law of Attraction, which says that your thoughts create your experience...hence if you change your thoughts, you can change your experiences. But how do you do this? Come learn how the way you think affects your experience, and also learn a way to think about your goals that has them come to life faster than before.

“Laughter Yoga... The Best Medicine”: After a brief explanation of the origin and benefits of laughter yoga, Dallas will lead the group in a laughter yoga session. A session consists of a series of playful exercises that mimic everyday activities in which we use laughter in place of words. In between each exercise we do a bit of yoga breathing. Not only will your lungs, diaphragm and circulatory system get a good workout, you’ll feel better while enjoying the process.

Before you go on to registration, there’s another major component I ought to remind you about... the contests.

The District Contest is where the best speakers from all of central and south Texas come to compete. Lunchtime will be the Evaluations contest and dinner will be the Tall Tales contest.

In conducting training, I’ve heard a number of members say they need a way to increase the quality of their club’s evaluations. Attending the District Evaluations Contest is THE way to do it. Get as many of your members to attend that contest and see what happens to evaluations in your club.

Attending the Tall Tales Contest is a great way to spend an hour too. All the contestants at this level have put in weeks of preparation and will be at the top of their game as they tell us funny, exaggerated, short stories. No doubt you’ve already heard some at the club and area level and know how great they are.

If for some reason you can’t attend the education sessions during the conference, there’s the option to attend just the contests. And that option comes with or without meals according to your preference. It’ll be cheaper and more entertaining than dinner and a movie.

You may be saying to yourself that you never attend conferences. That’s true of most of our membership. This conference was designed with that issue in mind.

One appeal is that each speaker is easily well worth the entire educational registration fee. Most of them conduct professional workshops outside of this conference. And as you’ve seen from their bios, they’re all experts in their fields. Such an assembly may never happen again.

If you find a particular facilitator you’d like to follow up with, they’ll have tables out in the foyer. If they have published books or materials for further development, there will be a way for you to get more.

From experience, I know one of the more enjoyable parts of conferences is hangin’ with your Toastmasters buddies (ahem... I mean networking).

To help more of your friends come, we’re offering your choice of DVDs from Darren LaCroix. For every 5 members from your club, we’ll give your club one of Darren’s DVDs (up to $20 value each).

If you haven’t seen his ads in the Toastmasters magazine, Darren is the 2001 World Champion of Public Speaking. Some of the titles available include, “Just for Laughs” or “YOU CAN DO THIS.”

If you’d prefer one of the audio courses, there are titles like “How to Be a World Champion Speaker,” “Mentors Made the Difference,” “Laugh and Get Rich,” and “Healing Humor.”

This promotion is for full registrations and everything-but-the-meals registrations. I want people to come to the contests too but we aren't making money off those. This is to encourage more people to attend the education.

Seriously though, I just want you to come. If there’s some other Toastmaster educational program of comparable value you'd like to win instead of Darren LaCroix, we can be flexible. Just come and bring your friends.

There’s also another special announcement that we won’t be making until the conference to help you get even more out of this event. I’m dying to tell you but you’ll just have to come and hear.

Date: Saturday, November 15th, 2008

The Toastmasters rate is $89/night and includes breakfast. Rate applies for reservations made by October 31st. Other discounts may apply (AARP, AAA, gov’t, etc). Check online for non-group discount availability.

The approximate schedule:

We’ve made registration easy. You can come for everything, just the education and contests, or contests with or without meals individually.

The regular registration fees are $30 for all the education and contests or $70 to include meals. Meals will be served buffet style with vegetarian options available upon request. There are plenty of good restaurants nearby as well if you prefer. Outside food is not permitted inside the conference center per their food service license requirements.

Regular registration ends October 18th! After that, prices go up on all registration options except contests (we figured we shouldn’t penalize contest supporters who didn’t know their favorite contestant would be moving on).

Late registration starts October 19th and is $50 and $90 respectively. Save money and register now while you’re thinking about it. The cutoff date for meals is November 8th so that we can give the facility an accurate count to prepare.

There are two registration options. The first is to download the printer friendly registration form and then mail in a check to our District Treasurer. The second is to use our online registration system that comes with an at-cost transaction fee of 7%. The online registration system accepts MasterCard and Visa.

That’s all there is to know about the conference. Click one of the links below to register. See you soon...

See you there,

Louis Burns, DTM
2008 Fall Conference Chair

PS. Our District Leadership will be handing out a number of awards at lunch and dinner including the much anticipated Toastmaster of the Year award from 2007-2008.

PPS. If you're a club President or Vice President Education, your presence is requested at the business meeting. You're a voting member of the District Council and we'll need you there to conduct business. It's free too.