Mangalore: Toastmaster Clubs' 'Reverberations 2011' off to a Flying Start

Media Release

Mangalore, Nov 26: 'Reverberations 2011', the semi-annual conference of Toastmasters Clubs was off to a flying start with a colourful inauguration ceremony on Saturday November 26 morning at Hotel Ocean Pearl, Kodialbail.

The much-awaited two-day event has brought together 287 delegates representing the 170 plus clubs of Toastmasters District 82, Division 1 comprising South India and Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan delegation comprised 82 members.

The conference has brought inspiring speakers and leaders from India and Sri Lanka to conduct educational sessions for the delegates and includes with the district level Humourous Speech Contest and Evaluation Contest. In keeping with the impressive presentations expected from the various star speakers, the organizers have selected 'Time to be Dazzled' as the theme of the conference.

The function began with a ceremonial march of the dignitaries with the flags of India and Sri Lanka and a welcome dance by a troupe comprising the students of Sharada Manishekar. Then the Conference Chairman M.N. Pai formally welcomed the gathering. The District Governor Zameen M. Saleem inaugurated the conference to a traditional manner by pouring paddy into a wood cask to the shrill cry of clarions and drum beats.

A highlight of the conference is the presence of Ed Tate from Colorado, USA, who is the international champion speaker of Toastmasters International, who set the ball rolling with his Key Note address. Ed Tate also released an E-Souvenir of the conference edited by Samina Nayak.

This was followed by the District Evaluation Contest and two educational sessions: 'How to Sell Toastmaster' by Rajan Parulekar, a renowned marketing expert and the author of Contextual Selling: A New Sales Paradigm for the 21st century and 'Art of Evaluation in Real Life' by Kathivaran Pethi, who is a Guinness World Record holder for the longest lesson learned and the Winner of the International Speech contest;

The five Toastmasters Clubs of Manglaore, namely Winners Club Toastmasters, Mangalore Toastmasters, INFYnity Toastmasters, ProAct Toastmasters and Inspiron Toastmasters are the hosts of this grand event under leadership of Conference Chairman CA M.N. Pai.

Toastmasters International

Toastmasters International is a global organization devoted to developing communication and leadership skills among the members. It was founded by Ralph Smedley in 1924, is spread over 90 countries and has over 2,50,000 members. As communication skills and leadership abilities are very important for career success, Toastmasters actively encourages corporate clubs for employees of large organizations. Many companies like Infosys, IBM, Wipro, Microsoft, Dell, TCS, Accenture, Cognizant, IIMs, Coca-Cola and Intel have adopted the idea and patronized such clubs within their organsiations. There are community based clubs too, whereby any one who is of the age of 18 years and keen to learn communication and leadership skills is welcome to join the positive learning environment.
 

Toastmasters in Mangalore

'Better Communication' is the need of the day – be it in personal or professional life and Toastmasters International, is the right forum to nurture this need of self-expression.

Toastmasters Movement was introduced in Mangalore in 1992 by Max Rasquinha, a US based entrepreneur and active Toastmaster out of love for his home town. The first club, Winners Club Toastmasters was chartered in 2002 and since then four other clubs, namely Mangalore Toastmasters, INFYnity Toastmasters (corporate club of Infosys Technologies), ProAct Toastmasters and Inspiron Toastmasters have been chartered. The clubs have also initiated 'Gavel Clubs' for students in various colleges of this region and regularly conduct 'Demo Meets' to introduce Toastmasters movement to newcomers.