Corporate clubs and corporate summits

12500 corporate clubs – meaning clubs established at the workplace, in more than 100 countries, that’s the corporate side of our organization that counts 14350 clubs in 122 countries. Yes, Toastmasters has more of a corporate identity than most of us might first have thought.

As a district, we have considered this issue: how can we support the creation of (more) corporate clubs in your city – as the proportion of corporate and non corporate clubs in Continental Europe is slightly lower than the average worldwide?

This week, we invite you to reflect on this possibility on the basis of a series of documents (blogs, texts, videos, etc.) that we will share with you across our different social media channels http://www.haikudeck.com/p/OTULkqG2fN/social-media-supported-pr

Mainly created to this occasion, the whole list of shared files will be then stored on the district website under a thematic page that we hope will make it easier for you to access the resources you need.

One of the possible strategies to help such corporate clubs emerge is to organize “corporate summits” meaning events intended for executives with HR responsibilities during which they are presented with the specific HR benefits of an in-house Toastmasters club. These corporate summits will take place in Helsinki (27th February), Lisbon (31st March), Brno (11th April) and Zurich (12th June) http://www.district59.org/events/corporate-summits/

Presentations will revolve around four words that are key in the human resources development field at the moment:

– experiential (where the learning and personal development processes are based on experience and observation)

– self-paced (designed to be used at the learner’s own pace)

– mentor-driven (a mentor encourages and supports the learner to maximize its potential and develop own skills)

– peer-feedback (co-workers, collaborators giving feedback)

As you know, peer-feedback is a Toastmasters brand feature that no personal coach, no HRD consulting company can compete with, as it is a tradition to have the entire audience evaluate a speech or a presentation as well as several people ponder on a specific Toastmasters leadership project.

These features built upon at Toastmasters clubs not only cultivate synegies between various departments in a company – and beyond if the club is open to non-corporate members, but nurture new collaborative paths that corporations will ultimately benefit from, and a reinforced feeling of trust and confidence between co-workers will ensue. New collaborative models also enhance the possibility for innovation and this is crucial to any business.

Help us help you: if you are an executive with HR responsibilities, if you have such business connnections we should approach in the targeted cities mentioned above, please e-mail our corporate summits coordinators  Tuire Vuolasvirta and Luis Caetano lgt@district59-toastmasters.org or for the Helsinki corporate event David Gelkin  ag5@toastmasters.fi

And we will soon add a club you mentored or sponsored to the corporate clubs below! THANKS!