Beckenham Speakers Club News
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 | Sunday 25th April 2010, George Anstey was the the runner up in the National Evaluation Contest in York. George was up against two former National Presidents with over 80 speaking years of experience behind them. He was totally unphased by the occasion and let his calm and yet enthusiastic evaluation shine through. George's evaluation was incredibly supportive of the target speaker who spoke on the subject of staging a theatrical event. What a year George has had. Considering this was his first year in speaking contests, a National Final would seem like too large a dream. But George has taken it all in his long stride and what a tremendous prospect he is for the future. |
 | Sunday 14th March 2010 at 4:30, George Anstey wins the the South-East District Evaluations Contest in Maidstone. George is Beckenham Speakers Club's first of many National Finalists and at the tender age of 25, one the youngest ever. It was a tremendous performance, measured yet enthusiastic, and both eloquent and articulate. It is a fantastic achievement considering this is George's first year of competition speaking. I'm sure we all wish him well in the National Finals in York at the end of April. |
 | On Wednesday 30th September 2009, members from Beckenham Speakers Club participated in the inaugural Chislehurst Festival by putting on a demonstration speaking event at The Legion, Green Lane, Chislehurst. The festivals' organisers approached the club in April asking if it would be able to schedule an entertaining evening to support the new festival. In total, five members from Beckenham Speakers Club attended the event and delivered a sparkling array of prepared speeches, evaluations and a demonstration of impromptu speaking. |
George Anstey, pictured above joined the club just before Christmas last year on a mission to improve his public speaking skills for his work as an economist. George has certainly achieved his goal and has now begun competing in professional competitions.
George participated in the College of Public Speaking's Corporate Challenge 2009, at St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside on Monday 28th September. His performance thrilled the audience and he gave his vastly experienced competitors a run for their money.
Beckenham Speakers Club welcomes people of all ages, colours, creed and gender. We meet the 1st and 3rd Thursdays at the Azalea Halls, 258 Croydon Road. You will receive the warmest of welcomes.
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Caitlin Johnstone's run of excellence continues by winning the Speakers of Bromley Trophy at the Bromley Festival on Saturday 28th March 2009. Challenged by a number of older and more experienced speakers, Caitlin's engaging presentation on the theme of 'If at first you don't succeed...' caught favour with adjudicator, Mike Stone who described her presentation as an excellent performance of technical and artistic quality. Caitlin was recently runner up in the South-East District's Topics final. She missed out on a place in the National finals in an extremely tight decision. |
 | Caitlin Johnson at just 18 years of age won the South Area Topics contest on Sunday February 8th 2009. This was a tremendous achievement in what was an incredibly tight contest. Jason Ashby also won the Area Evaluations contest and Paul Goodliffe last year's Area Speech Champion was runner-up this time in speeches. For a club in just its third year of operation, these were fantastic results. So it doesn't matter what your age is, everybody has great development opportunities at Beckenham SC. |
BBC 2 - The Speaker
For 8 weeks, probably during the months of February, March and April, BBC2 will be running a reality TV show called 'The Speaker'.
The aim (in the BBC's word) is to find the best young speaker (i.e. from 14 to 18) in the country.
This will be excellent publicity for the club, highlighting the importance of speaking and the need for learning and practising it.
At this moment of time, there is still no detailed Press Pack or other information available from the BBC itself. We shall send you this when we receive it. In addition the BBC website itself is likely to be updated with further details in the next 1-2 weeks.
In the meantime, however, there is contact between some ASC national officers both with the BBC and especially with the speaking consultant to the series.
Hear what Gino Grossi, Beckenham's latest member has to say about his first visit to the club. Gino Grossi mp3 file - 26 seconds interview. |
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Paul Goodliffe in his first year as a member of Beckenham Speakers Club has had a busy time. He's spoken in the House of Commons, he was in third place in the South Area Finals, he won the Bromley Festival speech competition and now to top it all, he has spoken at the ASC National Finals as the Evaluations guest speaker. On the link below, Paul tells us how he was feeling before his National engagement. |
| A delighted Vince Stevenson (founder of Beckenham Speakers Club) receives the award for being District Evaluations Champion 2007 from former National President, Bill Mitchell. In the last four years, this Area has produced three National Evaluations finalists, which shows the standard of consistency there is at the club. "The National Finals will be at the Novotel Hammersmith during the weekend 27th-29th April. It would be great for the club and the District if Vince can go all the way this year. |
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Gerard Casale gets up close and personal with Speaker of the Year 2006, Esther Rantzen at the Victoria Thistle Hotel. It was a wonderful evening with speeches, wine and good company. June Ford rounded off the evening with a short speech which congratulated Esther Rantzen on becoming Speaker of the Year 2006 as well as for her spell-binding speech about her life as a broadcaster and public figure. There was also an auction of donated prizes which raised £500 for the charity that Ms Rantzen founded, Childline. |
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Beckenham Speakers Club made their presence felt at the House of Commons on Monday 24th April 2006.
Here they are pictured with National President, Neil McLeod (4th left) and National Secretary, Gwyneth Millard (far right).
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Here they are now with a glass of beer with Big Ben in the background and Paul enjoying himself with a topic.
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Beckenham Speakers Club works hard to give its members every opportunity for self-development. Therefore, when somebody steps forward, takes on the challenge and succeeds, it is a great source of delight. During this period we had a BBC VideoNation camera tracking Stephen and his progress. Although the video clip below lasts only 3 minutes, it provides an interesting insight into Stephen's motivations for joining a speakers' club, as well as how much he has benefited from the experience. |
| Click here for Stephen Street on BBC VideoNation |
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One of the greatest speeches in the history of humanity. Martin Luther King Junior was a master of language and truly understood how to connect with an audience of 200,000. In his 'I have a dream speech...' he speaks with sincerity, passion and empathy and his compelling delivery was a defining moment in the American Civil Rights Movement.The speech was delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C. August 28th 1963. A full transcript of the speech can be found on the College of Public Speaking's web site: I have a dream.... |