Prepared speeches night.......and the views of the adjudicator.

Hello blog readers - well once again Monday evening was interesting and stimulating.  Most of us had our speeches prepared from a choice of five topics.  Barry welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced Lynsey, our adjudicator for the evening.  I volunteered to start off, thinking that was a better choice than waiting. The chosen topic was 'The best golden rule is that there are no golden rules'.  It was quite a challenge to cover all the material I had prepared into four minutes, as there was so much to say on this subject.  The next speaker  tackled the topic of ' The thing we should remember most about 9/11 is that the murderers weren't psychopaths but religious fanatics' - very emotive subject this one.  Other topics were - 'Should we all go to bed hungry once a month out of respect to those who have to do it every day?   Then 'Lonely Planet was right.  The British are totally celebrity obsessed' and finally, a topic no one tackled funnily enough - ' Last night I slept in sheets the colour of fire, to-night I lie alone and curse my own desire'  Maybe you didn't know that these lines are from a Carly Simon song.
And so, having completed our speeches, we awaited judgement.  Lynsey was most impressed, but just to balance out her compliments, she mentionned the danger of 'over-cooking' our speeches in the sense that the average person will only remember three things about a presentation.  I guess it makes sense of course in the space of four minutes to think of three key points and devise ways of getting the audience's attention.  This could be by beginning with a question or striking quote, using some form of story-telling, vocal variation and pausing.  Barry thanked Lynsey for her very helpful adjudication and the meeting adjourned to the refreshment table.