It was the first time that I have become a host of a Toastmasters event. I was nervous as well as excited since the mood of the event depended on me. Moreover that day we had many visitors from a university. The opening and welcoming part didn’t go as I wanted. I felt the pressure in the atmosphere. In order to increase this pressure even further, of course I decided to try out a new game.
In the summer I visited a Korean TM club called Burning Brunch in Busan and beside the traditional parts of the event they added a quiz part, where the quiz master had to make a list of questions based on what was said during the event. It could be anything that was said in the beginning, at the round question, prepared speech, table topics or at the evaluation.
With the approval of our president, we decided that the Grammarian would be the Quiz Master as well. In return we didn’t have word of the day but at the end of the event he would conduct the quiz.
Szoda’s long-running and professional member, Tihamér Németh was open to any new challenges. Therefore he undertook the role. During his part, he first gave a feedback as Grammarian then he conducted the quiz. He gave details about rule of the quiz. He asked question and whoever wanted to answer had to raise their hand and say their name. The questions were interesting and detailed. Me, as a host I was too concerned with my role, so I couldn’t answer any of the question. To my surprise the audience enjoyed the quiz a lot. The atmosphere was much better than in the beginning. Whoever gave a good answer got a chocolate as a reward. The reward made the audience much more motivated.
The event was successful and we finished on time. For this part I have to thank my colleagues for giving a fast but detailed enough feedback.
On a previous event of Szoda, I also tried out the Quiz Master role. I have to say I had never paid as much attention as that time. The role requires the skill to pay attention to every detail. I always tried to find an interesting part whenever anyone opened his mouth. For me it was very useful because I got to remember more information than usual. In my opinion giving chocolate to everyone who answered well wasn’t the best choice of rewarding in the long term. In Korea the quiz was also a competition. Who answered the most would win 1000 Won (~250 Ft). I don’t say the reward has to be money, but it should be something that only one person can win. It would be more motivational to make people want to participate and to pay more attention to the speakers.
Trying out new methods are not easy but it’s definitely challenging and it makes the event more colourful. Did this article make you fancy to try the Quiz Master role in your TM event? If so, I hope you try this game and share your experience with us.