I was in Davao for 4 days for the Philippines Toastmasters District Convention and during the entire discon, except for 1 quick live feed during the dancing, I did not post a single photo nor wrote about it.

Not because it was boring or unworthy of a post. But simply because I was so into it, I was so immersed, I was enjoying that I did not bother to post online.

I thought, it’s worth a blog post.

Before I share with you my 8 reasons why I loved Discon 2018, let me congratulate and thank the District Trio, the Discon team, all the district officers, the clubs under Area 4 and every single Toasmaster who contributed to the TM year 2017-2018.

I am also thankful to my best friend DTM Sha for being my constant companion on all conventions wherever and whenever it may be.

The District Trio, the council and the Division Directors of Toastmasters International District 75

Now here are my 8 whys.

 

1. Hotel hopping.

Breakfast at Mt. Apo View Hotel with fellow Toastmasters: PDG Tita Baby Luat, Ram and Ike Olandesca, Edit Garde and Sha Nacino

For some reason, I am okay with not booking ahead of time and just looking for a hotel to stay at when I get to the place. That way, I get to feel the vibe of the place and not get disappointed with pictures online. Sha and I did the same for Davao.

We thought there would still be a room in Mt. Apo View hotel where our conference was taking place. Unfortunately, every hotel we went to was fully booked. We did not know that coinciding with our convention was Mason’s convention as well! God was so nice that on our Day 1 of hotel no. 7 hopping, a reservation in Hotel Vicente was cancelled. That was were we stayed on our first night. What was funny was that we had no idea where to stay on the succeding nights.

When we told our Toastmasters friends about it that we shall try looking at online bookings, some of them, while the convention was on going, took the liberty to call their respective hotels and looked for available rooms online! Toastmasters Hazel, Alden and Mikel were sooo nice! They made our problem their problem! Haha. And guess what? Mt. Apo View had 1 remaining room for us!!! So on Day 2 after spending an hour going around Davao looking for a decent place to stay, we just went back to Mt. Apo View and enjoyed every minute of being there!

Lesson: This is stating the obvious. Book ahead of time. Stay where the convention is.

 

2. District 75 Director Chin-Chin Barrios Talaver’s Speech.

DD Chin during the Soiree

DD Chin in the Toastmasters world is the equivalent of Pres. Duterte in the Philippines. Amazingly, both are from Davao, too.
When DD Chin started her speech during the Director’s dinner/ fellowship night, I felt that it was different. I mean, I couldn’t figure out if it was a “good” different or otherwise. Then slowly, I saw that it was not the usual formal type of speech which made me feel indifferent.

She started by thanking the people closest to her, one by one. Her spouse, her immediate family, her bestfriends, her friends, her clubmates, her directors, and all the TMs in the room.
You see, a lot of leaders do this. DD Chin expressed her gratitude in a way that at least for me, I got to feel what she was really feeling inside. She made her speech in a way that it would really be a joy to listen to her. She made us understand the significance of every person she was grateful for. It was not boring. It was not OA. It was scripted yet it didn’t feel like it. It was nothing but sincere.

As with any other leaders of any organization, once you assume the top position, one way or another, you would have to sacrifice your career or time for your own business. As a lawyer, DD Chin also experienced the same for the last 3 years but she was in a win-win situation. She did involve heavily her other lawyer and judge friends. To end in a fun note, she added, “This is what I love during Toastmasters meeting. I don’t call them (her friends) Judge.” 🙂

Lesson: Let people see what’s inside your heart. When you share who you are and not just what you do, they will appreciate you more.

 

3. The DiviDi Band.

Imagine this. District 75 (The whole of Philippines) has 11 Division Directors (they are equivalent to the country’s Governors) who were elected by all of the TMs in the country. Their job was to lead each division. For discon alone, they instantly formed a band and performed for their members!

Nielsen Operations Director, Div Director Jayson was on guitar + lead vocals, Div Dir. Daryl was the second voice who was tasked for the “higher notes”, Dermatologist Div Dir. Ryan on Violin, Div Dir. Jeff on keyboards and IT Specialist Div. Dir. Mark on drums, + Div. Dir Kulay on vocals on the next set!

And that gave me an impression that work doesn’t really have to get in the way of experiencing fun! In my 7 years of attending the convention, I couldn’t recall a group performance as impressive as this!

Lesson: Work hard. Play harder. Create your own Dividiband in your life!

 

4. The World Championship of Public Speaking!

             

Fr. Casiano Anthony Cotiamco of Div. C, 2nd Place. Neb Perez of Div. K, 1st place and Kenn Arcenal of Div. L, 3rd place.   

The best of the best from all parts of the Philippines competed to be the country’s sole representative to the Grand World Championship of Public Speaking happening in Chicago, USA this year!

No kidding. They were all very good! Chris Dao-Anis from Div. G performed on stage a speech about sharing your gifts to the world. Jed Velarde from Div. A talked about how his little daughter served as an inspiration and has become so brave despite her heart condition. Chris Portugalisa from Div. I shared his take on what others think doesn’t really matter. Gelo Clavano from Div. B sang, danced and delivered a speech about how he found out what feeds his soul. Riznie Sevilla from Div. D shared how her “blank paper” or what to me is a “Vision Board” changed her life! (I loved it, Riznie!!!) Raymond Hernandez from Div. F shared a story about his father and the values that guide him in life. Duchess Nunsayac from H enterrtained the audience as she narrated how she found the one for her and how we can find ours, too. Sadly, I missed the first contestant Ivan from Div.E.

Kenn Arcenal from L shared with us a story about unloading his luggage. I think, that was one of his best performances ever! Father Casiano Cotiamco from C talked about appreciation and hardwork thru his Curly Tops story. Yes, he is a priest and he just joined Toastmasters late last year! Div. K’s Neb Perez  inspired the audience by asking us to Choose Love.

A few minutes prior to the announcement of winners, DTM Volts, Justine and I were exchanging our opinions. Surprisingly, Volts and I had the same set of winners with just differences on the ranking.

After the winners were announced, Justine went back to Volts and asked “How come you guys know who were winning?!!” Hahaha. Maybe, it comes with age in the TM world.

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet businessman, owner of several review centers in Laguna, future DTM Neb Perez.

A week before Davao, the newly built club, Laguna Toastmasters Club met for the first time and fortunately, we were graced with Neb’s presence. During the meeting, he delivered the exact speech that he performed at Davao. A number of members and guests cried they heard Neb’s speech.

I have casually known Neb for about 5 years now because I would always see him on stage competing. You see the process he has gone through has several difficult stages. Before you get a chance to be a semi-finalist in the World Championship of Public Speaking, you have to defeat every person in the ff. stages:
Club level-> Area level-> Division level -> District level. When you are the champion in the district level, it would be as good as saying that you have defeated thousands of aspiring contestants in your country alone!

Neb’s many years of hardwork, practice and dedication finally paid off!

Neb is set to compete in Chicago, USA, in a few month’s time. And with Toastmasters being present in 142 countries, that’s the estimate number of contestants in the semi-finals round. The SF round will have about 10 speakers and only 1 will emerge victorious! From those groups, only 10 will be competing for the grand finals. And only 1 will be called the World Champion of Public Speaking.
As you continue to read this, please say a little prayer for Toastmaster Neb.

Neb won because he used the perfect formula for award-winning speeches (which I understood clearly after the Keynote speaker presented on Day 1): Do not deliver your speech. Let your speech deliver you!

To all the contestants both for International and Table Topics (Maico, Manohari, Sha, Evelyn, Paul, Rainela, Raymond, Dominique, Joseph and Julius) please feel very proud of yourselves for going that far. It sure was not easy to stand before fellow speakers, to devote time practicing and much more, to share your precious stories. It was my honor learning from everyone of you!

Lesson: We may not be interested in winning speech contests like Neb. But just like Neb, we also have targets. We have dreams. And sometimes, we will get the feeling that maybe, since it is taking so long, we doubt that maybe, it’s not for us.
My friend, God did not put that dream in your heart for nothing. As one of my favorite line goes, you do not choose your dreams. Your dreams choose you. Think about it.

 

5. Toastmasters, presenting….Division M.

As the economy grows, so is the number of toastmasters members and clubs!
Friends, how about a warm welcome to the newest division of the district? Division M! ?

During the convention, this actually didn’t sit well with some of the members, including my very own clubs. And I guess the main reason why a conflict took place was mainly because of miscommunication. Yes, just that, at least for me. Because at the end of the day, every toastmaster only wants what’s best for him/herself and the district, of course. Wait, isn’t it funny that an organization whose purpose is to improve communication and leadership is also struggling with it? What do you think? Kind of. But it’s a learning process. And it doesn’t change the fact that Toasmasters is still the most effective, most affordable and most fun public speaking group that you will find!

Lesson: I won’t deny. I want you to join Toastmasters. If you are based in Laguna, message me now! If you are based elsewhere, okay, you can message me, too! ?

 

6. Mohamed Ali Shukri.

The Keynote speaker came all the way from Bahrain. He was one of the top 10 speakers of the world during the 2006 World Championship of Public Speaking held in Washington DC.

During his keynote, he proudly said that he became one of the top 10 because he was trained by a Filipino Toastmaster “Kuya Nomel.”

Listening to this international award-winning speaker was one of the best things in my journey as a Toastmaster.

Very briefly, let me share with you my top take aways.

Let me ask you. Yes, you who are reading. Do you find yourself interesting enough when talking to people or reading reports or delivering a speech?

Let me tell this straight: If you happen to be very intelligent but unfortunately boring, you will not have an impact to someone’s life.

Mohamed taught us that “Your speech will change no one’s life if there is no life in your speech.”

Now that we both know this, the right question will be “How do I make sure that my speech is interesting enough? How can I put life to it?”

3 simple steps, my friend. According to Mohammed:

1. Tell your audience what happened. Share a story. Share an experience.
2. Relate to them how did it touch you. Express your feelings. Make them feel how you felt.
3. Share what the experience taught you. Speak of the lesson it gave you.

For sure I am not the best person to explain this to you and if you wish to know more about it, feel free to visit his FB page: yaccesstrainingsolutions.

 

7. Mohamed Ali Shukri, again.

During one of my many encounters with Mohamed during the discon, I felt that learning from him alone made my Davao trip worth it. His sound advice was that as speakers, you shouldn’t actually be asking your audience what topics do they like so you can deliver it next time and please them. That is a no-no! To him, that is public speaking prostituting. He said that a speaker should stick to his or her area of expertise and leave the rest to those who are really experts.
That is the only way a speaker can be known and trusted. He said, “Make your audience want to listen to you.” That, you can only do so when you are the right person for the subject.

Lesson: Stick to your core. Have faith. The right audience will find you.

 

8. Recognition.

Receiving an award for Area 4 for being one of the only 6 areas out of 48 areas who reached distinguished level as of April 24. 

Past District Treasure, the imperial Mother of Presidents, VRS & Co. CEO Remy Santos said “It is very nice that during this discon, they have a thorough list of every awardee with their accomplishments flashed on screen.”

And then we realized that it is this year as well that the Presidents club got really good, useful prizes too! From Timer to lapel mic to mini projector! Just wow!

My clubmates and I personally appreciated the way recognition was done. Even with a long list of awardees, I not for once felt bored because with the way the discon team prepared for it, you would automatically see the effort and would automatically give the respect all the awardees deserve. In our table, we highly valued and liked how individual and club awards were given. Personally, I got so inspired and I could only wish that all my clubmates were there to feel proud of themselves for choosing to be part of Toastmasters.

Lesson: Public recognition that is prepared and well executed will definitely boost people’s morale and will empower them more!

                                                                          

Incoming Division Dir., Bizcore’s Gabby Go-Balauag with members from IConnect, Ortigas, Presidents, Emerald, ADB and Laguna TMCs

Sha and I plus the first and only Filipino International President of Toastmasters International, Johnny “Pawe” Uy, PDGs Dotty Du, Incoming candidate for TI’s 2nd VP, PID Christine Temblique and TI International Director Elisa Tay

Sha Nacino and one of our speakers, Michael Angelo Lobrin! P.S. Catch them both on May 19 for a day with Mr. Ricky Lee! 

The District Trio: Program Quality Director Benz Lim, District Director Chin-Chin Talaver, Club Growth Director Ann Danga

So was the discon a 10 out of 10?

I’ve always belived that experiences come to us as how we actually want to interpret them. With all honesty, the discon was far from perfect. I would have wished for a bigger stage, more glamorous props, more comfortable seats but with all those 8 reasons above, they did not matter much to me. I have forgotten about them.

I just  wanted to express my appreciation to the entire Discon team and District council for the big improvement in terms of content and the way things were done and presented.

If you are not yet a toastmaster and you liked what you read, visit www.toastmasters.org now and look for the club nearest you!

 

If you appreciated or learned something about this post, leave me a message or tell me:

If you were there, what are the 3 things that you loved about the Discon?

If you were not there, what reason did you like the most out of the 8 things I shared? 

I would love to know what YOU think! 🙂