I was the Toastmaster for our meeting tonight. Ideally, we should have 3 speakers, but right before the meeting we only got 1. I followed the advice of Dennis, a seasoned member, to ask members to step up to give impromptu speeches, and yay! We filled all three speaking slots.
Jay, one of the impromptu speakers, gave us great tips on how to give a speech on the spot:
1. Most Toastmasters meeting have a short impromptu speech section called "Table Topics", where members are given a topic and asked to give a 2-min talk on the spot. This is an excellent resources to help you quickly note down what topics you might want to give in your impromptu speech.
2. Talk about something that you're passionate about. Talk about something you know, do or love. Don't talk about things that need big research, because that will give you a hard time to put the speech together. Save those topics to another time.
3. Have some structure. The fastest and easiest way to organize your speech, is that you can write down your opening, closing, and 3 bullet point of supporting statements, and expand from there. This way, it's easy for the audience to follow and you'll feel great about giving a structured speech as well.
Give it a try :)
