We have a wide variety of workshops, in all three of the conference languages.
Click on the arrow to the right of each workshop title you’re interested in to find out more information about the workshop and its leader.
ENGLISH WORKSHOPS
"How Leaders Build Thriving Teams" - Aletta Rochat
Description:
As a leader, how do you go about building a team that thrives?
If you’ve been lucky enough to be part of a thriving team, you know how memorable that can be.
On the other hand, if you’ve ever been part of a ‘dysfunctional’ team, you know how painful and draining that can be.
What goes into building teams that thrive? How do you, as the leader, navigate the personalities of your team, inspire them and also hold them accountable?
This workshop is designed to give you practical strategies that work.
Aletta has spent years leading multicultural teams. She is excited to share her experiences and insights so that you can build your own thriving teams.
Bio:
Aletta Rochat is a Career Acceleration Coach. She teaches clients to build executive presence so they can get promoted or hired. She works with clients to communicate confidently so that they can sell their ideas, persuade others to take action and build their careers.
Her clients include corporations, academics and professionals wishing to accelerate their results. Aletta also coaches TEDx speakers.
Aletta is the author of Speak Connect Succeed – Build Your Reputation As You Speak
Aletta describes leading, coaching and training as her ‘happy place’. She lives in Cape Town, South Africa, and loves walking, hiking and running the occasional half marathon.
"What's the deal with Mental Health and Leadership?" - Irene Anggreeni
Description:
Did you know that 1 in 5 people experience depression in their lifetime?
In 2021, 64% of business leaders were struggling with mental health conditions – that’s nearly 2 in 3.
Looking at these stats, you likely know someone dealing with mental health issues. Perhaps you work with that person. Or it’s someone you know from your Toastmasters club.
In this workshop, you will learn what it takes and experience what it’s like to create a safe space together. I’ll bring my unique expertise from the neuroscience of body-mind-emotion, mindfulness, and creative therapy.
Why should you care about mental health?
You are passionate about public speaking as a means to empower yourself and others. You show up, no matter when it feels vulnerable, to speak up about what’s important to you, oftentimes giving voice to others. That’s leadership in action.
To support you in that role, you also need to hone skills such as self- and other-awareness. This workshop will help you discover how to apply these skills to build trust with others. So we can engage in honest conversations about mental health.
Each one of us can contribute positively. Let’s start in this safe space to explore how.
Bio:
Irene Anggreeni is a mental health professional, who coach leaders to improve their mental and emotional well-being so they can create high-performing teams and grow their careers. As a former engineer and career expat, she has lived experience of overcoming depression and champions community, mindfulness and creative expression for healing.
Connect with her on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/irenevanjava/
"What comes first: sharing vulnerabilities or building trust?" - Ralu Nistor-Lustermans
Description:
An African proverb says: “If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.” and to go together with others on our personal and professional journeys involves relying on others, and others relying on us, building trust. When we share a journey, we share good and less good moments, we share vulnerabilities, and we share strengths; and often we might ask ourselves do we trust them/do they trust us to share our/their vulnerabilities? Or should we share vulnerabilities to build trust? What comes first?
Joining this workshop will give you some food for thought and challenge your perspective on:
- where vulnerabilities are a sign of weakness or a sign of courage and
- what comes first: building trust or sharing vulnerabilities.
The rules for attending this workshop:
- dare being vulnerable, and
- respect others’ vulnerabilities
- confidentiality and trust: what’s shared in the workshop room, stays in the workshop room!
Bio:
Ralu Nistor-Lustermans, is the founder of @ERNL, a stepmom, a mom, a wife, and a curious learner. She is an organizational transformation coach, a board advisor and a diversity, equity and inclusion and mental health advocate. Ralu spent the last two decades working for international organizations as an Internal Auditor and in parallel to this role she was also a business coach. She lived and worked in 6 different countries in Europe (Italy, Ireland, France, the UK, now the Netherlands, she was born in Romania), experience which brought her various cultural challenges and at the same time many opportunities, and led her to start a portfolio career, working now as an organizational culture transformation advisor, leadership, and team effectiveness coach.
Ralu made her mission to help create nurturing, inclusive and diverse environments where every individual can reach for their own starts and contribute to a bigger purpose!
More about Ralu on www.er-nl.com/about
"Get to the Point!" - Chris Fenning
Description:
How do you communicate at work? Do you quickly get to the point, avoid rambling, and speak clearly?
In this workshop you will learn a simple but powerful method for starting any work conversation, meeting, or email. You’ll leave with a framework you can immediately apply so that you’ll always be clear and concise.
Bio:
Chris Fenning is an award-winning business communication instructor and the author of multiple best-selling books. He has trained teams at some of the largest organisations in the world like Google, Pepsi, and of course, here at Toastmasters.
"Dare to be feminine on stage. A LAB for women" - Ilona Ruitenberg & Jessica Breitenfeld
Description:
Do you struggle as a female speaker with the concept of powerful and feminine? Do you sometimes feel that you are not taken seriously when you speak? Should you copy how men speak on stage? In this unique workshop- exclusively for women- you will experience 5 exercises that connect you with your voice and power. Jessica and Ilona team up to show you how you can speak and present yourself in an impactful, authentic, natural style without having to take up space with the 1980s approach of wearing shoulder pads, speaking in a low voice or grey ‘professional’ wearing trousers.
Bios:
With a background in litigation Ilona Ruitenberg is a successful law advisor. As an introvert, she worked hard to make herself seen and heard in her own way. Since 2012 she is a licensed teacher in “The Art of Feminine Presence” and gives speaker training. In her training, she combines simple public speaking skills with personal development. Her specialty lies in speaking from the core.
Jessica is a successful therapist in Gestalt Psychotherapy specializing in #boundaries. She is a Motivational Humorist and Team Trainer. With an energetic presence and a unique LAB approach, she is called the “Devilish Advocate”- giving you a space to get out of your comfort zone and get the skills to speak so your ideas get heard. Jessica Breitenfeld won the 2022 District 107 (Spain, Portugal) International Speech Contest.
"Unleashing Mentoring Potential" - Shelley Mulon & Prashant Kadam
The interactive workshop will help minimise the risk of burnout and maximise growth for you and your clubs!
Description:
We believe that strong trained VP Mentorships are the way forward for Toastmasters. It will play a key role in retaining members, increasing the education level, and growing the depth of their networks. We have been collecting data at club/Area / Division and District levels via workshops and speeches.
Vision: Generating awareness and consensus for having a VP Mentoring/Mentorship on ExCom at every Toastmasters club and trained annually at TLI/COT.
We are ambassadors for this change. Please join us for part of the journey.
We are sharing and continuing to grow together using our complementary skills.
Goals:
- Gather data
- Analyse results
- Communicate with Toastmasters globally (articles/workshops)
We have completed workshops and education sessions at the division and district level in District 59. We facilitated the discussion, collected data and educated members about Toastmasters’ built-in mentoring potential. Furthermore, we are working towards convincing TMI in 2023 to consider the VP Mentoring/Mentorship as an ExCom role. Ensuring growth for you and your club!
Bios:
Shelley Mulon, DTM, is a qualified coach/trainer in personal and professional development and author. Shelley has held many positions in Toastmasters, including trainings and promotion of the VP Mentorship role since 2019. She is a member of TM Paris La Défense, past Area Director (A4, District 59).
Shelley is a Parisian-qualified coach in personal and professional development and leadership skills. After working ten years as a specialized nurse in hospitals in her native Scotland, England and France, she turned to coaching as a way to apply what she had learned about stress management and intercultural relations to the business environment.
Native and non-native speakers appreciate the tool kits for learning, teaching, and public speaking. Shelley is a conference speaker for the Association Francophone pour Vaincre les Douleurs, AFVD, working with hospitals, laboratories, and patients in Europe to “Beat Pain.” She recently published her first book “Simplifying English for Non-Native Speakers.” Toastmasters describe the book as: “Inspiring, useful, filled with great stories, mindset tips, and intercultural communication skills.”
For more information: Shelley’s website: http://www.intercom-formation.com
Prashant Kadam, PhD, is a seasoned Toastmaster with four years of experience. He serves as Area Director (B1) in District 59 and Vice President of Mentoring at the Brussels Toastmasters Club (Belgium). With previous roles as VP of Education and Sergeant at Arms, he’s proven his dedication to the organization. Prashant has also made impressive strides in his personal Toastmasters journey, completing the Effective Coaching path, Pathways Mentoring program and Visionary Communication path (level 4).
As a veterinarian and research scientist, he brings experience of collecting, analyzing and interpreting the data to the mentoring project. Toastmasters has become a crucial aspect of his day-to-day life, perfectly complementing his personal and professional development.
Prashant knows firsthand the power of mentorship and believes it is crucial to actively seek it out at every stage of life. If you want to become the best version of yourself, Prashant believes that Toastmasters, coupled with mentoring, can take you there.
For more information: Prashant’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prashant-vet/
"Emotional Intelligence: A must-have skill in the age of AI" - Sudhanya Mallick

Bio:
Sudhanya loves to nurture the meta side of people and data. She is a computer science engineer with an MBA in Information Technology. She worked for major technology consulting companies for 16 years. Currently she is serving ASML, a world leader in micro-chip making, as a Data & Analytics leader.
Driven by purpose to inspire balance between our hearts and minds, she also gives keynotes and workshops on emotional intelligence, especially for corporates as she can relate with the mental and practical lifestyle challenges.
In her me-time, she loves to dance, write poetry, read, learn and connect with nature and loved ones.
Thought leadership: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sudhanyamallick/
Her poetry book ‘Knocks from my Soul’:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Knocks-my-soul-Sudhanya/dp/1714336115
Poem films: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0yU2HmlMKJpM0kzKhRz9244-hxa8U88y
Her podcast ‘Real talk with Sudhanya’:
Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/@sudhanyamallick
Anchor: https://anchor.fm/sudhanya-mallick
Toastmaster D59 conference 2022 second place winning speech: https://youtu.be/XW7F0n43Bew
More creative endeavours: https://www.instagram.com/sudhanya2.0/
NEDERLANDSTALIGE WORKSHOPS
"Hoe blijf ik gelukkig in een imperfecte wereld?" - Vishnu Rampadarath
Beschrijving:
In werk en privé komen we dagelijks in aanraking met imperfectie, met het vergankelijke en het onvolmaakte. Hoe kan ik toch het hier en nu waarderen? Wat heeft impact op mijn werk geluk? En wat zegt dat over mij en wat ik belangrijk vind?
In deze workshop ga je aan de slag met je vraag en stel je realistische en praktische geluksdoelen.
Bio:
Vishnu Rampadarath is een systeemcoach die schoonheid ziet in imperfectie en het onvolmaakt zijn vanuit de Vedische filosofie. Hoe kan je toch geluk ervaren en leren in het moment te blijven? Niet wat anderen vinden is de maatstaf, maar alleen je eigen persoonlijke verlangen doet ertoe. Hij leert mensen met zelfvertrouwen staan door zichzelf goed te presenteren vanuit eigen unieke eigenschappen en vaardigheden. Hij coacht ook teams en leiders om meer werkgeluk te ervaren
"Schrijf de speech van je leven!" - Saskia van de Riet
Description:
The speech of your life!
- How would you feel if every speech you give is one that people truly want to listen to?
- How happy would you be to know that your speech is always unique and authentic?
- What if you would know the secret formula to ensure your audience is listening to your every word?
If this appeals to you, then this workshop is definitely for you. During this interactive workshop you will:
- learn the most magical power of questions
- apply your imagination effortlessly
- create your most authentic speech in the shortest possible time
- always be true to yourself
- discover how to naturally engage your audience
Let’s do this. Discover how you, too, can write the speech of your life, every single time!
Bio:
Saskia is a TEDx speaker and Writing Coach for image thinkers who wish to write their own book.
"When should I climax? En andere filosofische vragen" - Peter Zinn
Beschrijving:
De Griekse filosoof Aristoteles legde met zijn Retoriek de basis voor spreken in het openbaar met zijn retoriek.
Aristoteles werd opgeleid door Plato.
Plato werd opgeleid door Socrates.
En Socrates twijfelde aan alles.
Houden de spreekregels die we hebben geleerd in ons Toastmasters-pad stand onder de kritische blik van de Socratische methode?
Met boeiende discussies, levendige debatten en praktische oefeningen proberen we daar achter te komen.
Sterke meningen zijn welkom. Open geesten zijn een must.
Togas zijn niet verplicht.
Description (English):
The Greek philosopher Aristotle laid the foundation of public speaking with his book Rhetoric.
Aristotle was taught by Plato.
Plato was taught by Socrates.
And Socrates doubted everything.
Do the speech rules we’ve learned in our Toastmasters journey hold up to the scrutiny of the Socratic method?
Was Aristotle wrong?
Join us for engaging discussions, spirited debates, and practical exercises to find out.
Strong opinions are welcome, open minds are a must.
Join us to elevate your speech game to unexpected heights.
Togas not obligatory.
Bio:
Peter is not a fruit
Peter is not verified
Peter’s left arm is not on fire
Peter can not predict the past
Peter’s shadow is not made of any material found on Earth
Peter’s reflection in the mirror winks at him every morning
https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterzinn/
ATELIERS FRANÇAIS
"Comment gérer un conflit avec des techniques efficaces et pratiques ?" - Nathalie Damas
Nathalie Damas
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathaliedamas/
Workshop Date: Saturday, May 6, 2023
Time: 13:15 – 14:15
Language: French
Workshop Title:
Comment gérer un conflit avec des techniques efficaces et pratiques ?
Description:
Êtes vous fatigué.e de gérer des conflits dans votre vie ? Cherchez vous des solutions ? Alors cet atelier est fait pour vous !
Peu importe le désaccord à la maison, au travail, dans une organisation, à l’université : le conflit est inexorablement en tout lieu.
Dans cet atelier, nous découvrirons et pratiquerons des outils de gestion de conflits (DESC, écoute active…). Comment ?
Par une méthodologie expérientielle, interactive et participative dans la vie quotidienne.
Pourquoi ? Afin de garder des relations bienveillantes.
Avec quoi je repartirais ?
- Avec des outils pratiques,
- Un changement de comportement,
- Des nouvelles habitudes,
- Une nouvelle prise de conscience
Prêt pour passer à l’action ? Rendez-vous à l’atelier !
Bio:
Nathalie is a dynamic polyglot TM member since 14 years in France and also a past (Division A Director, president of TM Expressions club, co-founder of TM Club du Lac club, Pathway Ambassador, part of YLP, 3rd place at the division A contest in 2022…)
She worked more than a decade for IQVIA as Regulatory Affairs specialist for international clinical trials and drugs.
Now she wears many hats as Communication and leadership coach, trainer, MC for TEDX Vincennes, speaker, facilitator for Pitch, English Workshops…
My favorite quote from B. Franklin is “Tell me and I forget, Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” Nathalie wishes you now to take care of you and share your knowledge with the Toastmasters of District 59.
"S’adapter pour impacter !" - Jean-Christian RIVET
Vous avez probablement vécu cette situation : avoir préparé une conférence avec minutie mais faire un flop devant votre public.
C’est d’autant plus décevant que vous aviez appliqué à la lettre les 2 principaux conseils que l’on donne toujours.
CLE 1 : PREPARER
Rédiger votre structure, votre contenu, vos messages forts, vos histoires inspirantes pour emporter votre public.
CLE 2 : REPETER
Affiner votre présence en public, votre attitude, vos gestes, tout ce qui va rendre votre intervention passionnante.
Et pourtant. Malgré tout ce travail, parfois, vous ne vous êtes pas vraiment senti en phase. Comme on dit, il « manquait quelque chose ».
Et Cette CLE N°3, c’est : SAVOIR S’ADAPTER
Adapter le contenu
Une multitude de situations peuvent se présenter qui risquent de rendre votre préparation, en partie, obsolète.
– Le contexte de l’organisation,
– Le type de public, sa culture, son niveau de connaissances du sujet,
– Les conditions matérielles de l’événement
– L’actualité du moment
– Etc.
Beaucoup de ces éléments peuvent être anticipés et vous amener à adapter votre conférence. Adapter son discours
Face au public, vous avez besoin d’être agile. C’est un moment de vérité qui vous permet d’exprimer tout votre savoir-faire de speaker.
– Tenant compte de votre état émotionnel
– Selon la réaction du public
Vous gardez votre cap tout en mobilisant toute votre empathie.
DANS CET ATELIER
Je vous propose d’explorer toutes les facettes de cette adaptation.
Nous imaginerons ensemble les possibilités que nous offre l’agilité tout en restant fidèle au discours que l’on a préparé.
Jean-Christian RIVET est conférencier professionnel depuis plus de 20 ans, spécialisé dans la stratégie des réseaux professionnels et numériques.
Il accompagne des dirigeants, des professionnels et des élus dans leurs prises de parole en public. Les thématiques de ses interventions sont réunies dans son livre « Le Bonheur est dans le Réseau ».
Il est membre du conseil d’administration de l’Association Français des Conférenciers Professionnels en charge de la communication.
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