A quest to become a better public speaker

How many of you have the fear of public speaking? How many of you have difficulty in doing an impromptu speech? How many of you get nervous when challenged in front of a crowd? Well, if you had asked me these questions, a year back, I would have raised my hand for every one of them. Today, I have gotten rid of my fear of public speaking. I am a toastmaster.

I had got several opportunities since my school days to stand in front of crowd and to deliver speeches. As part of my job, I had been to several customer locations to train people. However, I was not confident enough about my public speaking skills. I realized that there was still scope for improvement.

My friend recommended me to attend the toastmasters meeting in Santa Clara University. I attended as a guest for a couple of weeks and joined as a member in September, 2006. Toastmasters not only help you to improve your public speaking skills - but also, your impromptu speaking, leadership and evaluating skills. In fact, toastmasters helped me to hone my writing skills also :)

I am going to use this blog to post the speeches that I delivered in toastmasters.