Thursday, 6 pm.
A lonely waiter slowly wipes the glasses at the bar counter in a dimly lit underground tap house in the downtown of Rzeszow boringly expecting another working night. Just a couple of visitors sit quietly listening to soft music. When suddenly the doors burst open the atmosphere breaks with light and sound! A crowd of almost 30 people fell in the bar bringing loads of smiles, talks and laughter, lifting everything around them in happy excitement! Who are they, you ask me?!
Well the riddle is easy!
Toastmasters from all over Poland have gathered for the biggest national speech event:
THE EFEKT CONFERENCE in Rzeszow!
An event many people were expecting for almost half of the year, counting days until the final date. We could finally participate in the National Polish Speech and Evaluation Contests! The best speakers and evaluators from the whole country gathered under the same roof and competed with each other. We listened to the 6 speeches that inspired us to make a difference and change something in our lives. Do you have any idea of how many people were sitting in the room and listening to the contests and workshops? Close to 300! That would really be a lot of Toastmasters in just one building! 🙂
But you are probably wondering about who won the contest… And who else stood on the podium?? Well, you can relax now, because I will dispel this mystery. Here are the
Krzysztof Jakubowski was an absolute champion! Congrats! The second place went to Katarzyna Czajkowska and the third one to Krzysztof Indycki! KUDOS to the winners and to all the participants!
During the whole weekend not only we had a chance to listen to wonderful speeches but also to learn at marvelous workshops! Two productive days of listening to experienced training officers and of course taking kilometers of notes 😉 Everybody must have got something valuable out of these classes. But there was one specific workshop that touched my inner self. Adam Pioch performed a workshop in which he gave specific ways on how to make your story more interesting, captivating and definitely unforgettable. And the best part was that the audience was taking and active part in this lesson of his – Adam P. created a poll in which the listeners made an impact onto the story. How the tale would go on, which path our hero would choose and of course how the story would end. It was something incredible and definitely unexpected!
This conference wouldn’t be such a success without… what? AFTER PARTIES!! On Friday all Toastmasters from all Poland had a chance to get together and exchange opinions during an after-party in the club “Piekiełko”. Whereas on Saturday we went… wher? To the BOWLING alley. Every participant could do something that made him happy. Some chose to chat, some opted for playing bowling or billiard and some being dancing queens and kings 😉 Certainly, many hours on the dancefloor will stuck in our memories for a very long time.
Overall the Toastmasters Effect was a fantastic opportunity to meet intelligent and funny people who have similar interests and can bring value to each other’s lives.
We can’t wait to see how the next conference will go. The expectation bar is set so high that the organizers will have a very difficult task to create something even better.
Go, EFEKT! GO!
Want to see more photos from the event and learn more about NEXT EFEKT EVENTS? Go here!
Watch a VIDEO from Rzeszow EFEKT Conference here!
Your District 108 Public Relations Assistant, Division A
Jadwiga Godziątkowska