Spinnaker Speakers

Meeting Feb 9th 2026
2026-02-09 19:30 - 21:30 UTC | Keppels Head Hotel, Basement Bar, 24-26 The Hard, Portsmouth, PO1 3DT, United Kingdom
A Toastmasters meeting is a supportive, judgment-free environment where members practice and develop public speaking, communication, and leadership skills through prepared speeches, impromptu speaking, and evaluations. Our standard meetings last 2 hours and follow a structure of three parts: prepared speeches, impromptu speaking, and positive feedback. You can observe your first meeting without pressure to participate, and there are roles to fill to make the meeting run smoothly.
This event is for Spinnaker Speakers members and also guests who wish come along and experience one of our meetings as a taster to see if it is a good fit for them.

Online Meeting Feb 23rd 2026
2026-02-23 19:30 - 21:30 UTC | Online via Zoom, Southsea
A Toastmasters meeting is a supportive, judgment-free environment where members practice and develop public speaking, communication, and leadership skills through prepared speeches, impromptu speaking, and evaluations. Our standard meetings last 2 hours and follow a structure of three parts: prepared speeches, impromptu speaking, and positive feedback. You can observe your first meeting without pressure to participate, and there are roles to fill to make the meeting run smoothly.
This meeting will be held online via Zoom. Anyone can attend and should contact us in advance to be added to the invite list.

Speech Contest Mar 9th 2026
2026-03-09 19:30 - 21:30 (Europe/London) | Keppels Head Hotel, Basement Bar, 24-26 The Hard, Portsmouth, PO1 3DT, United Kingdom
On 9th of March, we have two contests taking place at our club – an Evaluation Contest and an International Speech Contest.
What are these Contests?
A) Evaluation Contest
This contest is to test members skills at giving feedback. An evaluation is a short speech of 2-3 minutes wherein an evaluator gives feedback to the speaker. The participants are marked on their structures, recommendations, use of language etc.
In this contest, we have a mystery speaker (or target speaker) who delivers a speech of 5-7 minutes. All the participants of the evaluation contest would then be given some time to evaluate this speech and write down their notes. Once the prescribed time is up, the first contestant stays in the room while others are led to a different room by our Sergeant At Arms, so they can’t hear the 1st evaluator. After the first evaluator is done and judges have marked their scores, the 2nd evaluator is brought to the room, and so on.
Eligibility Criteria:
Any paid member of the club can participate in this contest.
What next?
1st and 2nd place winners of club contest represent the club at an Area Contest. The winner of Area Contest would then go on to represent the Area at Division Contest. The winner of the Division Contest would then represent the Division at the District Contest. The winner of the District Contest is declared as the Evaluation Champion of the Year.

B) International Speech Contest (ISC)
This contest tests both your writing and speaking skills. In this contest, an original speech written by the contestant is delivered in 5-7 minutes. The speech can be about anything – a personal incident, a motivational story, a funny anecdote, a personal opinion etc. The speeches are marked based on the structure of speech, use of language, body language, vocal variety, etc.
In this contest, all the contestants can be in the room and are invited one by one to speak as per pre-decided order.
Eligibility:
All the members who have completed at least Level 2 in any of the Pathways are eligible to participate in this contest.
What next?
It runs similar to the Evaluation Contest up to District (national) level, however, the progress doesn’t stop there. The District-level winner then enters the World Quarterfinals by submitting the recording of their speech. The judges then select 14 speeches, one from each Region, that enter the World semi-finals. These 14 contestants are then divided into 2 groups of 7 each. 3 contestants from each group advance to the Finals, and the winner of that is declared Public Speaking World Champion.
Our Contest Chair for this year is our President, Yogendra Paranjpe. Kindly submit your names to him @ president@spinnakerspeakers.org.uk, and start preparing for your speech. See you all on the 9th.

Online Meeting Mar 23rd 2026
2026-03-23 19:30 - 21:30 UTC | Online via Zoom, Southsea

Meeting Apr 13th 2026
2026-04-13 19:15 - 21:30 UTC | Keppels Head Hotel, Basement Bar, 24-26 The Hard, Portsmouth, PO1 3DT, United Kingdom

Online Meeting 27th Apr 2026
2026-04-27 19:15 - 21:30 UTC | Online via Zoom, Southsea

Meeting May 11th 2026 & AGM
2026-05-11 19:15 - 21:30 UTC | Keppels Head Hotel, Basement Bar, 24-26 The Hard, Portsmouth, PO1 3DT, United Kingdom
A Toastmasters meeting is a supportive, judgment-free environment where members practice and develop public speaking, communication, and leadership skills through prepared speeches, impromptu speaking, and evaluations. Our standard meetings last 2 hours and follow a structure of three parts: prepared speeches, impromptu speaking, and positive feedback. You can observe your first meeting without pressure to participate, and there are roles to fill to make the meeting run smoothly.
This event is for Spinnaker Speakers members and also guests who wish come along and experience one of our meetings as a taster to see if it is a good fit for them.
This meeting will also act as our AGM where we select committee members for the coming year. The Toastmasters year runs from July to June so this gives adequate time for those selected to get up to speed on their new committee role.

Meeting Jun 8th 2026
2026-06-08 19:15 - 21:30 UTC | Keppels Head Hotel, Basement Bar, 24-26 The Hard, Portsmouth, PO1 3DT, United Kingdom

Online Meeting Jun 22nd 2026
2026-06-22 19:15 - 21:30 UTC | Online via Zoom, Southsea

Meeting July 13th 2026
2026-07-13 19:15 - 21:30 (Europe/London) | Keppels Head Hotel, Basement Bar, 24-26 The Hard, Portsmouth, PO1 3DT, United Kingdom
A Toastmasters meeting is a supportive, judgment-free environment where members practice and develop public speaking, communication, and leadership skills through prepared speeches, impromptu speaking, and evaluations. Our standard meetings last 2 hours and follow a structure of three parts: prepared speeches, impromptu speaking, and positive feedback. You can observe your first meeting without pressure to participate, and there are roles to fill to make the meeting run smoothly.
This event is for Spinnaker Speakers members and also guests who wish come along and experience one of our meetings as a taster to see if it is a good fit for them.
This is our first meeting of the new Toastmasters year which runs from July to June and our new committee should be in place and will be introduced during the meeting.
