Toastmasters International District 80 Semi-Annual Convention Welcome Dinner

21 November 2008
YWCA Ballroom

At 10.30am, reached YWCA (for the first time in my life) for the District Exco Meeting. The meeting was only open to Presidents and Vice-Presidents (Education). The meeting was encouraging in that there is much progress in the various divisions of District 80.

We adjourned for lunch and I was glad to make new friends from Hong Kong as we lunched together in the round table. There was exchanges of questions on how we run our programmes as well as some understanding of local culture.

The Chinese humorous speech and evaluation contest were an eye-opener. It inspired me to look into how I could go around adding more humour into my speeches in the future. I particularly like these statements made by one of the contestant:

Who says the person above a white horse must be a prince? It could be Tang San Zang (The monk in Journey to the West). Who says someone with wings must be an angel? He could be a Bird Man (in Chinese, it's a derogratory term).

The highlight of the day (at least to me) was the Welcome Dinner. Mdm Sim was the organising chairperson and had roped in Adelene and myself to help out in ensuring the smooth flow of the programme. The theme for the night was .

At about 5pm, performers started to arrive to test the sound system as well as do some final rehearsals. The Thai delegates did their dance rehearsal in their formal wear and it looked interesting (read comical).

At 7.30pm, the young performers marched up on stage and waved to the guests to signify the start of the event. These young performers are very entertaining and very professional. All of them had plenty of titles clinched in various competitions - locally and globally.

Olivia Tan - Nothings Gonna Change my Love for You

Christina Yeo, Tissany Tan, Victoria Pang - When You're Gone (The Best version I've ever heard)

Tissany Tan, Olivia Tan, Victoria Pang - Laigethong (Thai melody with Chinese lyrics - Thai delegates thronged the Dance Floor)


Braddell Heights Mandarin Toastmasters - 站在高岗上


Tissany Tan, Victoria Pang, Shermine Tong - Di Tanjong Katong

DTM Aziz Mustajab hosted the games segment of the night. The first part was the guessing of retro song titles. The second was identifying old photographs. The games sent everyone into hysteria, dashing in hope to win the table prizes.

Hong Kong delegates - Cantonese Song


Liu Qiu Feng - 天路, 西班牙女郎 (Amazing!)


Debbie Tok & Daphne Tok - Colours of the Wind

It was fun being programme coordinators. Frederick kept dancing to songs and even danced with Adelene on numerous occasions at the dance floor. Of course, who could miss taking pictures with the cute performers?

Shermine Ang - Japanese Dolls


Shermine Tong - Speedy Gonzales (I can't seem to forget that song)


Shermine Tong, Adelene, Shermine Ang, Tissany Tan, Victoria Pang

The finale item was a multiracial song which saw Tissany changing into various ethnic costumes on stage, ending with the song "Let's Twist". Everyone thronged the dance floor and later the stage to just "twist"! There was an encore and the mood just gets higher. The emcee had a hard time ending the programme. Haha.