2017: Toastmasters Magazine

Alicia was featured in the July, 2017 edition of the Toastmasters International Magazine.

“Timing Is Everything!

Shortly after receiving a master’s degree from Tulane University’s A.B. Freeman School of Business in 2004, I started my own company—an operations management firm specializing in business infrastructure.

Almost 11 years later, I joined Toastmasters. Since then I have held many roles in my club, but perhaps my biggest role to date came in September 2016 when I was commissioned by the chief strategy officer of a publicly traded company to help facilitate a strategic growth planning meeting for the company in Cancun, Mexico. It was particularly important for the meeting to flow smoothly since six presentations were planned for the board of directors in one day.

Leveraging my Toastmasters skills, I monitored the flow and timing of each presentation while simultaneously recording meeting minutes. This included helping to: 1) craft the timing of each presentation for the agenda, 2) explain the timing rules at the beginning of the meeting, 3) monitor each executive’s timing as they presented and 4) give visual cues to indicate when time was running short.

The meeting flowed extremely well, with the board remarking on how efficiently the information was presented. Timing was everything! Thanks to my club’s reporting and evaluation methodology, I was able to structure the final report in the form of “what I heard, what I saw and what I felt,” along with the timing of each executive’s presentation and tips for improving the presentations and overall meeting.

The protocol used to assign, monitor and report on timing will now be used for future executive meetings. A precedent has been set. And I have Toastmasters to thank for this very satisfied client!”

As originally printed in: Toastmasters International Magazine.

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