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 Bob Hudack, DTM, PDG, attended the 2008 EDUCAUSE conference – the premier event for information technology in higher education – which was attended by more than 4,000 people. Although he was not a featured speaker, serving as a session convener would put his Toastmasters skills to good use.
The duties of a convener are very similar to a room monitor at Founder’s District’s Leadership And Communication Education (LACE) training and workshops:
- Introduce the speaker
- Pass out handouts
- Monitor the time and signal the presenter when time is almost up
- Summon help if there is a technology malfunction
- Remind the audience to submit evaluation forms
“In return for my efforts, I would earn free breakfast at the convention site.” said Hudack. “I got my pick of the sessions to introduce and a seat in the front row. I chose the very popular How to Use Technology to Be Funny and Successful presented by Dr. Peter Jonas, who is an accomplished national conference speaker and has published several books.”
Key elements Hudack needed to explain in a succinct introduction included:
- Describe why the speaker is qualified to speak
- Tell the audience how they will benefit
- Use the proper tone (in this case, informal)
- Pronounce the speaker’s name correctly
- Don’t steal his punch line
- Show the introduction to the speaker in advance for approval if possible
Hudack recalls, “Prof. Jonas told me he wanted to keep my text for his future use.” A job well done. “I expect to attend the EDUCAUSE conference again and this time I’ll convene multiple sessions and eat for free every day.”
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The winners of the Public Relations contests were announced at the Founder’s Fall 2009 District Conference:
With the success of having more than 30 local city Mayors support and celebrate Toastmasters International’s 85th anniversary, our public relations team reached out and received endorsements from California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to several U.S. Senators, Members of Congress, and the First Lady Michelle Obama. Now we're headed to Hollywood!