So, and welcome everyone to our workshop on Be a Brand Champion. I am Distinguished Toastmaster Priscilla Diaz, member of Quay Challengers Toastmasters Club, the one and only, in District 20. I can proudly say, or brag about it, that I am the first place champion of the Quay Challengers Beach Contest of District 20. And that's about me.  And at the end of this 60 minutes that we have scheduled for this workshop, it is our goal to ensure that we will all go back with a renewed vigor to be Toastmasters brand champions. And what better way than to do it today, the first day of our new Toastmaster year, to pledge to ourselves and to work on promoting Toastmasters through its brand image and of course, making ourselves the proud Toastmasters brand champions. But first, what is a brand? We need to know what is a brand. The definition of brand is a product service or concept that is publicly distinguished from other products, services or concepts, so that it can be easily communicated and usually marketed. Branding is also the first thing and disseminating the brand name, its qualities and personality. So now that what brand is, two eminent personalities from the Toastmasters fraternity, who have invested a significant amount of their time to create brand champions, they themselves are brand champions and they have created brand champions within their respective districts and beyond. Now I will introduce them in a while, you know them also, but before we go to that, I would like to introduce Zoom Tech Moderator Toastmaster Thok and Toastmaster Thok is the Area 30 Director of District 20. He was simply awarded and he can brag about this. The Toastmaster of the Year Award for 2020-22 at District 20, Toastmasters annual conference held May 23. Now if we are all here today and for those who will join, we have a huge seating here right now. And for that, hi Distinguished Toastmaster Rajesh, the immediate past district director of District 116 for providing us with his Zoom account so that we can accommodate so many to conduct this event. Another thing, this session is to be interactive, so please address your queries directly to me in the chat Priscilla Dias, just send your queries to me and I will ensure that these queries are taken up with our experts when it's time to address these comments. Now also our event is currently being live streamed on YouTube, so please feel free to share the link with those who are not able to attend the session today and to benefit from this knowledge that is being shared here. To begin with, let me invite the newly elected public relations Distinguished Toastmaster Gadgeton Barreto to begin with this workshop. Thank you Distinguished Toastmaster Priscilla for that introduction. I want you all to imagine that I am the VPPR. My first day at the job, I don't know anything about PR, I have been elected against my will and I have received a call from the Toastmaster of the day and he wants me to create a poster for the meeting that is coming up on 3rd July. I don't know anything about branding, I don't know what posters are supposed to be made for the club but I know there is a product called Canva. So I am going to see if I can make a poster in Canva. Somebody told me there is something called a brand manual but I don't have enough time to read about the brand manual. The Toastmaster of the day said, as told me, I want a theme and the theme is rainy days. I responded to him, rainy days, you know we are in Kuwait, right? You know that the temperature is 50 degrees Celsius. Yeah, yeah, but we are all Indians, it's raining in India so it's rainy days as a theme. But it's 50 degrees, that's I think 122 degrees Fahrenheit for those who use the imperial system. You can literally fry an egg on the road in Kuwait and you want a rainy day theme, okay you will get a rainy day theme. Let me see what I can do in Canva. So I will quickly open up my Canva, give me a second and I just got an account in Canva so I am going to say I want to create a poster. Remember, please keep in mind this is not a session on Canva, I am just showing you as a new VPPR who hasn't understood what is branding, what am I supposed to do? I will say create a design, let's make a Facebook post because that's where I will be posting this and I have been told that the whole meeting is about rainy days. So let me see in the themes if I can find something called rainy days. So I know that in Canva we have a lot of these themes available. So here I can see something on rain. So let me just click on it and this looks like a rainy day. So I am going to use this theme. I don't know whether this is right or wrong but I am going to use it. In fact, I just realized looking at this theme that I might have found the word of the day, pluvio file. What does it mean? Word of rain and whole theme is about rain. So I am going to use this theme. What else do I need to do? Somebody told me I should be putting a logo of the Toastmasters. Let me see if I have some logo with me. I think I had uploaded some time back a logo. There it is. I have another one. This looks better. And let me put this logo here. This is fine. I will put my club name. So I will make it, let's say something fun rain. So let me go with the green color because I think green represents rain. So I will put here. What shall I put? I will put my club name which is smart Toastmasters club. Let's make it very interesting. Select a nice looking font, perhaps this one. And then I'll put some more details, maybe the meeting ID and the password. And I think I'm done. I'm very happy with what I have done. I think this will attract our Toastmaster of the day. What else can I do? I'm new at this job. So let's publish this on the Facebook on wherever social media and I'm done. What do you think? Over to you, master of ceremonies, Priscilla. I hope you like my poster. It took me only five minutes. That's a post. Just let me look at it once again. Can you just put it up? I can't see what you're, I mean just for me to have a look at it once again. Are you going to publish this poster? Well, I spent a lot of time on it. It looks very creative. It will attract a lot of people and it has a theme. The theme is rainy day. I can't see anything in it. I can only see droplets. Anyway, audience, what do you think? Check what the poster is all about and how possibly we can make it brand compliant. Don't you agree that it is not brand compliant right now? Come, I just want to run a poll and then we will see how we can better see the poll. I think she's having a little difficulty in connections, but can we run the poll? Can you? Oh, it says fail to launch poll. Well, okay, there you go. Can you see the poll now? You have just told me that no, it is not brand compliant. Okay, let me end the poll and let's find out what is wrong with this according to our... So this is the results. There are some two people who actually think this is brand compliant. I don't know whether they're just having fun at a cost, but that is what the poll says. I am sure they're having fun. Okay, let me run the second poll myself, Priscilla, because there are some... Stop sharing and close back. The second poll is what do you think is a problem with this? Wow, interesting. So let me end the poll and these are the results, Priscilla. There are three people who think there are no errors at all. Wow. Well, we shall see. Can we stop sharing the poll? So we see that... Okay, just a second. The colors are wrong, 90% and I 100% agree with that. Fonts are wrong, logo is not placed correctly. The image is not brand compliant. I agree with all of you. This is not a brand compliant poster. So what are we here for? Complete waste of time. Toastmaster, distinguished Toastmaster Kajit and wasted our time. You agree? But don't leave. We are here to learn and to be brand champions. So let me bring our next expert, Toastmaster Bindu Pillay. She is the brand specialist and has been with the PR team of District 116 for the last three years. So there is a pool of knowledge there which she is going to share with us today. But let me tell you, she's also the proud recipient of the Toastmaster of the Year Award of District 116, which was awarded to her recently at the District 116 Toastmasters Annual Conference in May. Now, today is also her first day as the Area 15 Director of District 116 and she is so excited. But she just doesn't know what her excitement is about because she is a Toastmaster. She is right now in this event, at this workshop, delivering this workshop and at the same time taking pride in being the Area Director in District 116. Please put your hands together for the expert, Toastmaster Bindu Pillay. Thank you, DTM Priscilla. Can you hear me clear? Yes, Bindu. We can hear you loud and clear. Yeah, excellent. A big hello from District 116 Qatar to all the brand ambassadors and enthusiasts who have joined the session tonight with us. Toastmaster Priscilla, I totally understand your frustration and we clearly saw the poll results as well, right? And I'm one of those persons who feel very disheartened when I come across brand violations. Or let's put it as the errors that we make. Thank you to our very new VPPR Distinguished Toastmaster Kajetan for designing this flyer. And I'm sure it must have been a stress as a first timer to put all these elements together based on the theme given by the Toastmaster of the day. And believe me, I have been through this as well. Now, let us analyze what our VPPR could have done better. Today, I will take you through what is branding, the importance of it and how is it relevant for you? Ready? Now, to understand what is branding, there is a very famous code from Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon. He says, your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room. Give us understand that every brand has a story to tell. It is that story that is being communicated through you and me. So we need to be consistent in what we speak and what we do. Now, a brand, is it mere a set of logos or just a business card? No, it is an experience. You are living what is being marketed. The brand is represented by everything that we say and what we do. And by communicating one consistent look, tone and message, people not only know what to expect and they expect what they know. Imagine you are going to a Toastmasters Club in US or in India. You expect to see a club banner, won't you? You expect to see an agenda in place. You expect to see a timer with a timer or cards or a timing machine with red, yellow and green. You expect the members and the club officers to come and greet you. This is the expectation set by the brand. Each club has a unique personality and but still it must be recognized as being connected to the international organization which is the Toastmasters International. And how can clubs achieve this? It is by using the brand colors, the fonts, the logos and the enturing tagline. And what is our tagline? Where leaders are made correct. So every brand has a promise to make. And do you know what the promise is, For Toastmasters? Empowering individuals through personal and professional development. And this promise my friends is expected tangible benefit that members will receive from their Toastmasters experience. Now let us go to what is in it for you as a member or as a leader. As a member what we must understand is every member you and me are part of branding. And I said as I said earlier the brand is represented through everything we do and say. Each member will interact with the brand in a variety of ways. From communicating with the prospective members to building new clubs to the materials used in the club meeting the education modules the conferences etc. Now what is in it as a leader? As a leader you must know that all the materials for use in the club are available in the Toastmasters website, the resources library. TTM Priscilla would you mind please share the link in the chat box for all? Every leader must go through the brand manual located in the brand portal of the resources tab again. It's available in the Toastmasters international website. You don't have to ask anyone for it. The design elements the branded pictures the logos all can be downloaded from the TI website. All are available for use just remember contrast is key. Now the link to the brand portal and to the photo gallery TTM Priscilla can you please paste it in the chat window and again as a leader if you are compelled to design your own certificates trophies ribbons which fall under the non-authorized category. All you need to do do you know is to raise a trademark use request and you attach the design for approval from the trademarks and the branding design branding team sorry and this is also valid for even if you want to have a Toastmasters international logo on the cake or in a cook on or you want to order some cookies doesn't matter whatever it is have the design prepared upload it on the trademark use request and then seek approval from them again and I would like to inform all our new vppr's that there are many flyers readily available for use in the resource library. All you need to do is to key in the club name timings and contact number save it and share it across to all your prospective guests. Now let TTM Priscilla let's come back to the flyer created by our vppr. Now let me ask you what do you think let's go through the elements one by one. TTM Priscilla you are there. Thank you. That's Master Taufik. Yes Toastmaster Bindu. You are asking a question. I have brought in the flyer which was created by DTM Kajetan. Now let's go to the elements one by one and what do you think the very first thing that comes to your mind hmm let me look at it personally I would have not placed that flyer in the corner right down over there because it looks like it's lost though it is big it is lost. Correct although the position of the logo is correct being the bottom right it is essential to have a clear space around the logo why to keep it distinct in the flyer. TI mandates that the logo is an integral piece of the visual identity as part of branding and that it has to be applied correctly and consistently to accelerate engagement raise the organization's credibility and improve awareness for generations to come. So my dear friends the positioning of the logo and the clear space around the logo is very important in a flyer. Next Priscilla anything else? I just have a feeling that this I like smart what is it Toastmaster's claw but I don't I don't get it clear it's it isn't clear to me it looks so gibberish so even meeting number ID it's very difficult to read this font that has been used I think it's the font that is the concern for me it's very difficult to read. Right and you know why the contrast is tricky because on the lighter background you must use the dark colored text and vice versa okay so something else which I noticed let me say where does this club belong to no area division district which is mentioned well there's a meeting ID which is provided as well and how will a prospective guest ever understand you know which online meeting platform to use anything else Priscilla which you see. As you mentioned there's no date time so I don't know when I do want to attend this meeting I would want to put it in my calendar so that I will be able to attend whenever it is put it put in as a reminder but I don't see time date absolutely nothing I don't know where the club belongs to which district which area there's I mean I find the information incomplete so I don't know how am I ever going to make it to this club meeting. Again you know why this flyer was totally created with a meeting theme in mind the rainy days for a prospective guest the date time of the meeting is very important which online platform is important how will they log in and the word the prove your file and its meaning I was really confused if it is the word of the day or even the meeting theme. I certainly cannot gauge and I would I would challenge the new vppr to read through the brand manual at least once and redesign this flyer from a branding perspective don't you think so? Absolutely because I don't find it brand compliant at all and it's really confusing as to whether I am going in for a rain dance or a Toastmasters meeting. True true let's go for a quick recap so the logo keep it distinct right a clear space around the logo the id locations would be the top left or the bottom right doesn't matter but a clear space is very important follow the branding guidelines remember contrast is key use trademark approvals for any non-authorized items like trophies ribbons certificates that you design and finally use the resource library to get access to all the materials and the documentation now to conclude keep in mind that all meeting flyers are intended for the guests that's why we need to eliminate the usage of shortcuts like TMOD GE right WOD we know but the guest wouldn't and include what's in it for a guest what would they benefit from Toastmasters and finally to conclude when in doubt ask so the rule of thumb goes check brand manual if not specified write to brand at Toastmasters.org and share the response with all of us TTM Priscilla please can you share the link brand at Toastmasters.org and believe me any member can ask it's not restricted to the VPPR or the district PR manager any member can ask a question on branding and get it clarified but please make sure that you share with the co-members with all the members of your fraternity finally I conclude with a reminder to all know and protect your brand remember it has a story to tell back to you distinguished Toastmaster Priscilla thank you Toastmaster Bindu for enlightening us on the brand on the brand manual as to say and I'm for letting us know what is the what we should be following we had this poster and you showed us how we can make this poster that was created brand compliant so I knew when in doubt throw it out but today I've learned that when in doubt we need to ask and we need to refer to the brand manual for anything that we are doing with Toastmasters posters or any material that we are creating it should be brand compliant now Toastmaster Bindu has taken you through all the points what we need to do the key things that we need to look into the contrast where the logo should be placed and she's given us a whole run a given us all the links to where we can find all this in the resources and the brand manual the brand portal and how to write to brand at Toastmasters.org or at trademarks at Toastmasters.org to get to answer all your questions all your queries and to make your posters or whatever the material is to make it brand compliant now let's go back to our VPPR the newly appointed VPPR and let's see if he is willing to change that poster that he has made and if he has been inspired by Toastmaster Bindu now we all know who is the first the VPPR but to make this workshop interactive he played the role of VPPR now he thinks that most of the branding issues are because we tend to focus on meeting themes exactly as the way he prepared his poster rather than on the Toastmasters core message having to put in workshops in the meetings is what he would prefer rather than a meeting theme he is our first expert at branding he created these branding initiatives during the Covid period and also created this WhatsApp community through we all are here at this event and I will share the link to the WhatsApp group so that others who would like to join this group can join the group now if you are already part of the group then please share it with others who you think will benefit from this group let me invite The Toastmaster Cajetan to see how he's going to change that poster that he made to brand compliant over to you The Toastmaster Cajetan Thank you DTM Priscilla I wanted to stick to my poster because I love it and I want to argue with a brand expert Bindo but I think she is right you know it is sometimes and it is so common even after so many months as a VPPR I see posters and communication posted even in the International Toastmasters group and I'll share an example where I got my inspiration to make this poster by the way where we focus so much on the themes and our VPPRs try to create everything maybe they are told by their Toastmaster of the day or the president to focus on the theme but is theme really what first of all theme is something that we can always use to make add some interest in the meeting but as Bindo said what's the core message what are we trying to do in Toastmasters and if we can send that message then that is what is important and what I have learned now assuming I'm still the VPPR I'm not but assume I'm the VPPR everything that we want is available so when we say when Priscilla has shared the links in the chat we don't really need links to be frank with you just go to Google or the Toastmasters website but I find Google faster because I'll show you an example what I mean by this so let me share my screen now and we will go through some interactive process of how a VPPR should go about finding what he or she needs I hope my connection is better now so if you want to talk about brand manual you can literally just type Toastmasters brand manual and the first thing you'll get is the brand manual right there on the screen right you don't have to even go to Toastmaster.org resources brand just type brand manual and there it is right and download it and go through it it might take us at the most at the most an hour of good quality time to go through the concepts that are explained in the manual but that's about it if you want more for example resources the whole brand portal is here we can go through the logos and all the logos are available to us so information is there so instead of approaching any design with a theme in mind look at what Toastmasters has available for us so when we talk about resources and we talk about brand portal for example and we have this marketing resources that we can use out of the box right take for example a club meeting invitation assume you are a new VPPR and you don't have time to design or you don't want to make mistakes why don't you just simply download the file and use it you know it's a brand compliant all you have to do is send a personalized invitation to whoever you want to invite for your meeting so you have this ready made template for you you don't have to waste your time making this template similarly if you go through this pages after pages you'll find enough material that is available to you that you can use out of the box so that's the first part that we don't really have to overthink when it comes to the task that we have to do reach out to resources that are available on the Toastmasters website and that is one of the reason by the way I had created this WhatsApp community and now we are more than 450 in the WhatsApp group just to maybe get faster answers because sometimes what happens is you read the brand manual and you have something in mind you want to use something you want to use a trophy you did not find it in the brand manual and your first question is like can i use this and if you did not find it in the brand manual your immediate thought process should be yes i cannot use it rather than can i use it so if you take that approach you know that this this branding is available to come create a singular message and remember again as bindo said we are creating brand communication for non-toastmasters we want to attract them and if we attract them under false pretenses for example my poster rainy days maybe people are coming with umbrellas thinking that that's what Toastmasters is all about that they'll have some information about rain but okay you'll get some information in that meeting but what about the subsequent meetings let's say you create a meeting around mental health great fine but if a member joins your club because of that meeting he will or she will get disappointed because that's not what is going to be covered in the next meeting the only thing that will be covered in any Toastmaster and every Toastmaster meeting is how to speak better how to be a leader other than that we don't have any additional skills that we deliver in Toastmasters right we are only focused on making you a better communicator and a leader by default right so if your messages if you create workshops let's say how to deliver a great impromptu speech yeah focus on that that's your great theme you know you can have a workshop on feedback how to give effective feedback because that's what we do in each and every meeting so you can have themes that are focused on leadership communication but most importantly communicate to your Non-Toastmaster prospects that in every meeting you are going to get three things speeches opportunity to speak impromptu and you will get feedback these three things remain constant throughout any Toastmaster meeting they should remain because I do know there are some advanced clubs who deviate from that but 99 percent of the clubs should be all about developing their members communication skills it should be about giving opportunities to speak on the fit and third to give good feedback so that we improve with that in mind let's see what I could have done in that poster that I originally created and you tell me whether that poster is good enough to be published let me share my screen so I went to the brand manual and I checked what are the fonts I can use what are the colors I can use what kind of images I can use and obviously there was some feedback from my co-trainers that I should have given more details about the meeting the date and the time and whether it was zoom so I took all this feedback and I created this so I have used a specific color in this case I went beyond the standard colors that are available in your brand palette recently about a year back I think they also give us an option to create what we call gradients so there are certain colors that you can combine to give a better effect so I have used a gradient as my background I have used the Toastmaster logo I have given enough space I hope Bindo approves the breathing space given around the logo I've used Montserrat as the font for the body and I have used Source Sans Pro as the font for the rest of the poster I've given my club details I've given the meeting number and I have focused on what people are going to get out of it I had a fight with the Toastmaster of the day because I am not showing anything about the rainy day I am telling them that come to my meeting because you will get powerful prepared speeches you can participate in impromptu speaking and you will receive helpful feedback this is what I want to communicate I went to the brand manual I went to the resources and I believe I have done the right thing and as a VPPR I'm going to fight for this that these are the messages as a club smart Toastmasters this is what I want to focus on I did mention that the Toastmaster of the day will share his thoughts on the rains and months soon fine but it is not the core message that I want to convey to the audience I've given my date and time you may think that this color is not brand compliant it is because if I use a gradient I can use certain colors over the gradients to highlight certain things so in my opinion after reading I could be wrong in my opinion this is fully brand compliant communication that I will share to the outside world and I do want to highlight something very important when it comes to branding versus design for me branding is black and white when I look at something when somebody posts something in the Ti branding WhatsApp group I can say this is brand compliant yes or no there's there's no in between it's a switch right it's either brand compliant or it's not brand compliant and it's very easy to attain brand compliance because the entire brand kit is very straightforward the color codes are specific the fonts are specific the image is specific and the logo is specific so you can create very quickly brand compliant content the problem I see most of the time we face is design and people confuse design with branding they're not design of course there are if you bring an expert designer he will give you good tips on creating the right design to help the viewer follow the instructions in a certain direction let's say English from left to right from top to bottom the rule of third there are certain principles that are natural for designing but as a design as I said is always subjective if I created this design the one which I showed you just now and if I ask all the 115 participants each will have certain suggestions maybe in not this background color why don't use the maroon background color or but that is a design decision not a branding decision right so we have to keep this two elements separate because we have to understand each person has his own preferences right so when you have three photos you want to push somebody will say align them to the left someone will say put them on the right is either one of them right or wrong they are both right neither one is wrong so design part is something that we can always discuss but you cannot say I'm right your picture should be here otherwise it is brand it's not branding issue it's a design issue right so keep these two aspects in mind branding and design branding try to be hundred percent brand compliant design depends upon your artistic perception like I'm not a good designer by the way my Priscilla who is by the way the those who don't know her she is my wife she is sitting in the other room and she is the emcee for today's event she is more passionate when it comes to the design elements she spends more time if I was to ask to create a design I will try to finish it in five minutes beyond that I have other things to do but she would spend maybe 15 minutes or 20 minutes or 30 minutes because that minute design decisions that she takes to make her design attractive is good but it is not the necessity from the branding perspective right so branding stick to the brand guidelines make it yes or no and then slowly try to gain more experience in the design department learn from others so I'll give you some examples of so this was a poster that I saw posted in international toast masters group and that's how I came with my rainy day poster I've removed the name of the club because I don't want to actually I'm not a policeman of branding but this is posted in and similar posters get posted in the in global community right so as you can see this person clearly requires some kind of training in branding what logo is this I don't know the background it's not a brand color the font they're not brand this image is not part of the branding but this is what many clubs do so as a community that we have created I really want to make sure that everyone contributes asks okay you can always ask us and if you are not satisfied with the answers write to branding at toast masters dot org and then proceed so this was the another example I want to show you which was created for our meeting on third and this is done by Priscilla so this is a actual meeting not a fake one that I created earlier this is an actual poster where again there is a theme but nothing in the poster talks about the theme it's all about what we are going to get out of it right the images that convey that if you join toast masters you will become confident you will become a good leader now what I want to do is you know one hour we cannot cover so many things so as a community I want to make sure that we can provide you with focused training I have a poll where I want to know what kind of training you all would be interested in from the branding perspective so I will launch the poll to get a pulse of what kind of training as a community of ti branding and design we should focus on so I have a couple of things in mind like just focus on the brand manual deep dive into it or I'll talk about the brand hub subsequently or you want to canva workshop you want to advance canva workshop you want to work on LinkedIn where a lot of potential toast masters exist so you want to create a LinkedIn page for your club start building community there you want a panel discussion so just give me some feedback so based on what I think is what the audience needs I will create this workshops in the right order oh so you all want all the workshops so there is enough interest in every topic that I have listed so I need to prioritize them that means the one with the highest would probably be the first but I see that a lot of interest is there in advanced canva which is good but obviously the prerequisite is introduction to canva so I will probably do it in that order I see there is a lot of interest in LinkedIn also which is great let me share with you what kind of feedback I have received and this is what you all have to say and based on that we will create focused workshops that deep dive into each aspect of what we have briefly talked today but in general the idea is look at it from brand first perspective go through the brand manual look at all the resources ask the questions either to us in the community or to toast masters at brand dot toast masters dot org we have around eight minutes for a Q&A session so Priscilla did you receive any questions yes let me go through the chat please feel free to post a question or raise your hand so if you want to ask the question directly maybe we can ask we can unmute you all but in general I hope all of you all got some good idea and this virtual background that we prepared sort of highlights the elements that we should be using so you could use this virtual background by the way for toast master Dinesh has a question oh sorry going to Q&A toast master Dinesh has a question how much does the pro account cost the canva pro account I think so one of the things that I could be discussing when we are talking about canva possibly is to show you all or at least to give you all an opportunity to try and apply for a pro account because as toast masters if you hold some responsible post technically you are entitled for a pro account I have a pro account for the last three years which was given to me under the canva for non-profit you all can give it a try even most of the time they reject it but assuming that you get it you will get it for free but if you don't and you want to pay for it maybe for a club or for a division then it is ten dollars per user per month there's a question from Faiza Khazi can you share any resource on making compliant videos for toast masters and what are the requirements for it that are different from posters okay I'll leave that for Bindu to answer because she has the experience in that yeah so this is Faiza Khazi okay now this is all you need to do is to visit the video guidelines in the brand manual so if you would have just gone through the brand manual you will get a list of it but in general what it says is we need to have a disclaimer stating that it is not directly related to toast masters whatever you have created okay there is second thing what you can do is once you create if you're a first time I would suggest you send it for a trademark use approval because then you know what is right and what is wrong third what they say is the last frame should have a copyright stating your club or if it is for the area or the division or the district mention it very clearly and the month of release of the video this is because if the video is being just shared in the social media it is to trace back to the club or to the area or the division and the district where the video has been originated okay hopefully you would have understood if not please go through the brand manual and if you have any further queries please contact us thank you toast master Bindu there is another question coming from district 105 toast master Hari Prasad can be used the non-toast master pictures which are not having any copyright issues the answer is yes in fact I normally recommend people to not even use toast master pictures use your club pictures of course now it's a bit difficult because we are in zoom meetings but when you have a physical meeting maybe even have take pictures of your members speaking those are the best PR pictures because that's what your non-toast masters will see if I come to a toast master club what am I getting I'm getting to get on the stage and speak you know however those are your first level of photos that you you should ideally use if not of course use the toast master branded photos that are available for free if not any non-copyright images in Canva especially if you have a free account I mean pro account you can use a lot of available images they should just follow the same what is mentioned in the brand guidelines the guidelines are very clear it says find a picture which shows people that are engaged that are you know as speaking in a networking those are the things that you should look for and if you create those images or you find those images feel free to use that. There is a distinguished toast master Kajitain and another question from toast master Nasreen what is the best way to merge between the name of club and toast master logo for profile picture. Bindu we want to take it up. Yes now depending on the social media all what you need to do is go to the brand portal and there are if you're using Facebook there's a Facebook cover and a Facebook profile how it should be you just download the PDF key in your club name what was required and then save it as an image upload the same this is one way of doing it or create you know the do's and don'ts in the brand manual right you have seen the logo and a text which says I am saying it so similarly put in your club name under the logo with enough spacing and save it as an image and you can use that as well but I would suggest go to the brand portal download those cover pictures and those profile pictures customize it to your club and please use it. Thank you toast master Bindu. Thank you toast master Bindu as you can see toast master Bindu is reiterating go to the brand portal go to the brand manual this is exactly what this whole workshop is about just directing you towards the brand manual so that you become a brand champion using the brand manual which is there as a reference point of reference for us to create our posters now coming to a question from Fabian can we use clip art on toast masters can work posters no toast master Fabian answer simple no you can refer to brand manual to make sure that this answer is right yes it's very clearly mentioned cartoons illustrations clip arts are not to be used so it's very much highlighted and in bold in the brand manual so yeah again back to the brand manual yes there's a question by toast master Abdul Rehman vppr barin high tea toast masters he says is there any other repository of images other than TMI brand portal so I can share some examples now because this would be interesting so what I will do is let me share my screen now as I said if you have a pro account things are much more easier so if I go to photos for example and if I choose I can search you know and technically all of these photos can be used at least for me as a pro account this photo for example these are photos which are described in the brand manual it should be like this so I can use them obviously if you don't have a pro account your choice is become little limited if you are working with a free account they will ask you I think one dollar per photo that you use which we don't want to we are a non-profit but if you go down in in canva especially if you're using canva there are certain places like I guess pixabay yeah pixels pixabay they also have some images that you can use for free you don't need to pay so if you go to your canva and if you go to the apps there are a couple of sites that they have provided free one is pexabay let me say pixels one is pexabay I think these are the two ones that I have tried and they have millions of photos by the way and I'm sure you'll find something that is not from the Toastmasters website but you can use so let me check for example networking not the computer yeah something like this for example is good right it might not be as good as the pro account that you have but you do get good reasonable images if you want to try just make sure they comply with the guidelines mentioned in the brand manual so those are your resources other than Toastmasters brand images okay thank you Toastmaster Kajatin there is a question is there anything wrong if we use the theme of the meeting in the poster would you clarify again this is from George and Toastmaster George I would like to answer that question if Toastmaster Kajatin can share the poster that I created for our meeting on the 3rd of July well Toastmaster George as you can see the there is a theme here all the way from home because our Toastmaster of the day is an expert at talking on how we can settle in the GCC countries because this is we are in Kuwait and the best strategy to stay to make the Gulf countries your home now this is a theme of course this is what he wants to hear share his knowledge but if you can if you see I made it very clear on the posters the name of two speakers who are going to be the main speakers the prepared speeches are going to be delivered by these and we have an education session which is going to be done by distinguished Toastmaster Kajatin this is to practice your speeches with Yodely if you see I have highlighted or rather I put it in a box where it is visible for everybody to see that there is an education session happening so if your meetings your meeting could be theme based but to generate audience for your meeting to get non-Toastmaster especially and Toastmasters to your meetings this is how I would have designed a poster I know when Toastmaster Dimutu told me that he wants to talk about how to settle in GCC I saw it that we have we are doing hybrid meeting across the globe nobody's interested in settling in GCC except for those who are living in GCC so how do I attract the rest of my audience to come to the meeting I have highlighted education session over there so you have to play with and make sure how you get how you present your poster make it brand compliant and have the essence of Toastmasters to get more members to come to your meeting nobody's thanking me for that great I think we are out of time but officially that's the end of the meeting but we are we can stay back for a few more minutes I will stop the recording but we are free to answer your questions whoever wants please continue the questions at session


Hey folks, it's T Tuesday Sharp-eyed viewers will have noticed like David Kiersey did last month that I did not actually have any goals for this update It didn't even say that I was gonna be here, but here we are The main thing of course was getting the living computation theory of everything video out Here's what I've been thinking about Come on, there we go. So I want to talk about the video a little bit Take a moment to look back on the challenge that's just done And then stick myself with a new one. We'll see how it goes So living computation theory of everything, you know On the negative side, you know, it's still too hard to follow It's still preaching to the choir where the choir consists primarily of me But on the other hand, I've been trying to say this stuff for a while and and this current version is Is is definitely the most coherent one yet and the defined defendant attack where I say things Objections that people might raise and then say how I would respond to them I think it actually helps quite a bit for people to get a handle on Where what I'm saying actually is and one of the things that I kind of like about the way that it all finished up was How it really centers humans humanism and humanity Rather than, you know, the cold world of protons and and and sub-maisons or whatever it is Skip the part about the demo at the moment, but it's both good and bad Okay So the first half of this year was supposed to be this multicellular challenge It didn't start out as a multicellular challenge It started out as a digital replicator And this was our master plan that we looked at a many times the mother Little diamond with some code in it. It would grow bigger or move the code around it would copy the code and eventually it would cut And then we would end up with with two Completely legitimate mothers that would go on to do the same thing and that is the recipe for unicellular life There's nothing saying in this picture saying that these two things are supposed to team up and do something But we actually did get to that So multicellular challenge challenge met zero to multicellular in six months I mean It's not too bad, you know for a small project and you know, there are Many other pieces of work that have been done over the years and decades that have much in similarities To what we did here particularly but in its details, you know, it's it's absolutely really the first of its kind in the world and Okay, that's that's a little bit of something. I personally, you know learned a ton And I thought about all of these things that you know, when you don't have global architectural synchronization You need to have self organizing local synchronization and how you do that There's lots of different choices and the ring oscillators and the gradients and all that stuff But going through the diamond replicators and then the multicellular stuff, you know, really sort of made it Built it in to my thinking it's it's not something that I have to think to apply It's just you know, okay. How big is this thing going to be? So how much delays are we going to be talking about? What kind of scaling do we want to do and you know? It is pretty you know, I've gotten awful used to it, but it is pretty cool to watch on the other hand There's way too much physics and not nearly enough chemistry and biology in the model for my taste You know, there's just enough to make it, you know, non-trivially biological But the bigger problem is that the model itself the whole idea is too thin from its smallest Component to its biggest component is not thick enough You know a single atom an Entire diamond which is meant to be a replicator, you know like a cell or something like that is only a couple of thousand atoms So so that's like three orders of magnitude from the smallest thing to the thing that's supposed to be a replicator Whereas, you know in our actual real physics, you know the absolute teeniest replicators are in billions of atoms and then on up and Because we are so thin because we have so little space Between the out of the elementary particle and the creature There's just no room to store, you know giant sequences of DNA You can do that when you have billions of atoms in a single replicator You can't do it when you have thousands of atoms most of which you're spoken for In addition, there are still lots of fragilities in the code hc3 hard cell 3 the fundamental grid that made all of the mobile Diamond stuff possible still has deadlocks in it and rah rah rah rah if the code is hard to work with it's slow to build it's slow to run and I mean I did work.  I want to do something else. So New challenge I want to start by showing a little clip from living computation theory of everything and use that to set up the new challenge Now How are we doing on our second implementation in fact in my mind in my heart the t2 tile project is Working on a second implementation, but you know How far is the t2 tile project from being able to respond to code like this and do anything It's a zillion miles away. And so, you know, that's why it's an IOU So that's it The t2 tile the MFM has a lot of good stuff, it's spatially distributed it doesn't this presumed determinism so on and so forth It's indefinitely scalable But there's no way anytime soon. We're gonna be able to go from atoms to on up the scale and Get as far as you know us just just no way So one idea is Let's move the model to a different area of space time. Let's regroup And in particular what if the t2 tile matrix the entire matrix However big it is currently 76 tiles and stuff was all meant to be just a little patch of Brain and the body and the connection between the body and the brain is Outside the grid outside the matrix. That's what I want to go for t2 matrix meets world So, you know, I tell people they asked me what's the killer app for this? When am I gonna be able to run an excel on? The t2 tiles and it's like, you know, no time soon in my response it traditionally is Robust system control robust real-time system control is what the t2 matrix style of computation the bottom up Distributed the robust is good for because you really if if the system that's being controlled is The life and death of that system, you know, then you really do need it to be robust you really don't want to be thinking about penny-binging efficiency if the a failure of the system takes out the whole thing so But of course The t2's are so slow and so forth. We can't connect to the real world So the idea is we're gonna have some kind of simulator over here. That's gonna simulate something But we have to figure out how to connect the t2 matrix to that something and we'll be able to crank down the speed On the simulated world to match the incredibly slow speed on the t2 tiles and we'll see what happens So tons of questions that I am mostly am not ready to give good answers to yet But figuring that out is part of the task of the challenge, you know What is the system that's being controlled? What is the world that the system is in how to connect the t2 matrix to the world and how to deal with real time and so forth I'm gonna focus on how to connect t2 matrix to the real world because that's kind of logically prior before we can do anything We have to figure out how we're gonna get IO in and out of the matrix So one possibility is right, you know, so here's a t2 tile this is the West edge of the t2 tile and it's got a an ethernet port Right there and you can only get to the ethernet port if the West edge of the tile isn't covered up by another tile But we could connect to all of the Western tiles We could plug in an ethernet cable put them all into a hub and then network our way to the computer. That's running Whatever the world and the system that's being controlled is and you know, we could do this today At least in a small version. I need to get a bigger switch later on But I'm really not satisfied with it. It's you know one edge Seems very arbitrary Originally, I'd been thinking that you know, we'd have an interface all around the edge of The matrix but when I started thinking about it as being like a patch of brain I really wanted to talk to the whole thing I mean just like we have the spinal cord coming in and hitting Cortex and the surface of the brain and so forth and there is a possibility of how to do that So in addition to the ethernet port there is a serial port You are On each tile that is accessible from the front So even if we have the things all tiled up in principle, we can get at a serial port on each you on each T2 That's what this sketch is drawing here These are serial cables and then we have something magic happens and then all of those serial ports connect to the computer That's running the simulation and so I started figuring out, you know, what the heck could go in here I mean, so like here is four serial ports going into USB and so the idea is like, you know, we can get like You know 30 or 40 of these or something or 25 anyway You get to like a hundred and then we would have to get you USB hubs daisy chain together feeding them together this I cannot I cannot imagine letting myself try to do that Another approach is an actual rack server thing. This thing is got 32 serial ports that it puts them all down onto one ethernet port like that Cost-effective serial concentrator. So it would take like three of these to Get enough serial ports to talk to all of the T2 tops. No, maybe we don't have to talk to all of them But I'd like to And you know, I could go to the hardware dealer people, you know, Mausers one of the ones I'm sort of comfortable and I could have bought to buy it today And they're $2,600 a pop so cost-effective in this land means less than a hundred dollars per port You know if this was really a great solution then, you know, maybe the money would be Tolerable but there are other issues that I have I'm not really super happy about it Well, then there's this thing the AM 3 3 3 5x supports up to six additional you arts. Well, so what who cares? Well, because the AM 3 AM 3 3 5x is what's inside the T2 tiles Now we can't use those you arts on the T2 tiles because the pins are already doing other stuff But if we this is a beagle bone green This is the processor that's inside of every T2 tile underneath this Heat sink here is an AM 3 3 5x So we could maybe do a new little bit of circuitry a new little bit of programming and get a Have one of these that would have six and now it's possible that there could mean have four others and End up actually it says six additional that in principle that could be on top of four So one of these might be able to take ten serial ports again It wouldn't necessarily be able to take them all at super high speed But this is the good thing about this particular task everything is so slow that we don't need to max out the serial port speeds Because everything is going to be so far clocked down to compensate for the slow average event rate of the T2 tiles so A dozen of these maybe Maybe ten could cover the whole thing. I've got that sitting in the stock right now that you know Beagle bone greens that haven't yet been attached to T2 tiles and so forth So this is the idea BBG beagle bone green I wrote it is taking six you arts each so we would have like a dozen of these or something They would each have an ethernet cable that would go to a switch and then would go in the serial port concentrator I'm gonna go for this.  This was the hardest part of the whole thing was to actually pin myself down So we are already right now is matrix brain challenge t-minus six counting down by t Tuesday updates So there is not gonna be a update in November because once again I'm going to do nano nano-remo the national novel writing month in this case It's not even close to trying to write a novel instead. It's gonna be to bring out the collected works of von Joy Manon Which will include the science fiction story search quiet wake that I was trying to sell the other months They're the months and years back And we'll take it from there and we'll cover all this stuff Brightenburg vehicle sensory motor homunculus as we go forward and That's the plan serial port concentrator demo collected works out have a lot of fun Thanks so much for stopping in I hope to see you in December


What up fellas, it's your boy Johnny, and today it is your day to go pick up your weapon, put on your helmet, because we are going to war. War with these fuckboys. Alright, I'm just playing, we aren't doing that. Today, I'm gonna show you guys how to style the cargo pants. So speaking of war, cargo pants were worn by the American military in the 1940s. They're just regular pants with pockets on the sides, usually above the knees, and they were originally designed to hold ammo and gear. And nowadays it has made its way into fashion, going from trendy back to shit, back to trendy again, because of the modern twist. Let's talk about what to look out for. So there are a ton of different types of cargos, personally I like the ones that keep it subtle and have its own touches to the military aesthetic. So there are some with unique drawstrings, straps, different designed pockets, a bunch of zippers in different areas, and much much more. Some of them are cut like skinny jeans, and some of them are baggy but tapered down for a modern look. I like both. My favorite ones are the utility looking cargos. These touch face in both the military aesthetic and the tech wear aesthetic, and it is just fire man. And so now, let's talk about how to rock them. Typically it depends on the cut, but with cargos you want to rock your top with more of an oversized look. It just doesn't look right to me wearing a fitted shirt and some baggy cargos. Now if the cargos are skinny then that's a totally different story.  And rolling with the oversized look, the great thing about it is that with your fit, it gradually tapers down to show off the sneaker. And with the kicks, like I said earlier, cargos are really heavily involved in tech wear, so you're gonna want to roll with runners. Now that's just to keep it safe, because most cargos that I have are joggers. And what looks great with joggers are low top sneakers, typically runners. However, this does not limit your options man. I personally like to wear the Air Jordan ones with my cargos. And I don't know, there's just something about it. Jordan ones and cargos go together like airpods and rich people. Yo David, I told you to follow all those spreadsheets man. Wait, what? I'm sorry, I don't speak broke though. Another great way you can show off your kicks is wearing long socks. This allows you to even more seamlessly transition your fit to where all the ladies look at your kicks. It's my favorite way to do it because you can do a subtle flex by rocking a pair of off-white socks, whatever you're feeling man. But don't ever wear Adidas socks with your Nike kicks. Fuck's wrong with you man. Another thing that you can wear and one of my favorite things that's trending right now are crossbody and sling bags. Again, most cargo pants really give off that military tech wear vibe, that utility look, so you're gonna want to double down on that.   Exactly, crossbody bags man.  I keep all my things in here.  If there was one accessory that goes with cargos, it is definitely the crossbody bag.  You guys already know that color blocking is one of the most important things to compose a fire fit. So just to keep it simple, you really want to focus on contrasting colors and contrasting tones. Contrasting colors refers to opposite sides of the color wheel and contrasting tones basically just means light or dark. And there are other ways like the monochrome look, which is basically all black or all cream. You guys get the point.    Why is this so hard to say? It sounds like I'm saying tints. They have a bunch of tints of green and the opposite of green is red. So I can decide to wear a top with hints of red or I can rock a pair of red kicks like the red ones.  And because of that, I'm going to focus on showing off my kicks. And if I'm not going to do the all black look, I'm just going to rock a simple pair of kicks with a contrasting top. Likewise, with lighter cargos, focus on a contrasting pair of sneakers or top. And I'm sure you guys are wondering where I get my cargos from. I've gotten them from Hyperdanum and the Richie Lee Collection. But most of these come from our sponsor, BlackTaylor.  So I decided to reach out to them and they sent me two more pairs. And they aren't paying me to say this or make this video, but they did send me some pairs, so it's technically sponsored. So BlackTaylor is one of those online stores that focuses on affordable streetwear. And cargos are their thing. I really like their aesthetic. They have unique designs of cargos.  Check them out, link in the description and use my discount code. Alright fellas, I hope this video helps you out. Cargos have been coming back, man. Before they were seen as too baggy because everyone was rocking the skinny jeans. But now there is a modern twist to them. Y'all want to hop on this train. So bro, how about you give this video a like? Follow me on Instagram at isflywithjohnyties. Subscribe to this channel if you haven't already. Leave a comment down below. What kind of cargos do you like? Do you like skinny ones or baggy ones? And until then, stay fly. Check out BlackTaylor, rock some cargos. I'm out. This is peace.


Rice is a staple food for more than half the world's population. Two-thirds of the world's porous depend on it in some way, and it is thus a very important crop. Some rice farmers, however, have to plant rice in unfavorable environments, where drought, flooding, salinity, iron toxicity, and cold significantly reduce the yield of the rice crop. Climate change has made conditions even worse in these rice environments, with flooding and drought becoming more frequent and severe, causing the sea level to rise and making soil more salty in coastal areas. Environmental stresses damage crops, reduce the income of farmers, drive them deeper into debt and poverty, and effect the general quality of life for them. In some places, they are forced to sell farm animals and equipment and forgo some basic needs of their families, including food, education, health care, clothing, and shelter. Farmers need rice varieties that can cope with unfavorable conditions and thrive in areas affected by environmental or abiotic stresses, and they need these urgently. In 2007, a project was started to develop and deliver rice varieties that are tolerant of abiotic stresses to help marginalize farmers cope with unfavorable soil and weather conditions. The project was called the Stress Tolerant Rice for Africa and South Asia, or STRASA. The mission of STRASA is to reduce poverty and hunger and increase food and income security for resource for farm families and rice consumers. The main challenge for us is how can we be able to do this in areas that are less productive because they are affected by drought, by flooding, low temperature, or in areas where the soils are either saline or affected by toxicity, just like iron toxicity as a case in Africa. Recent advances in genetics and breeding have made it possible to develop rice varieties that not only survive, but actually thrive in stressful conditions. Cultivating stress-tolerant rice can greatly help alleviate poverty among rice farmers in unfavorable environments and among poor rice consumers worldwide. For the past seven years, STRASA aimed to increase rice yield by 50% in farmers' fields affected by abiotic stresses. It also aimed to give the farmers access to improved varieties and knowledge on good management practices suitable for these new varieties. In its second phase, the STRASA project aimed to develop stress-tolerant rice varieties and disseminate these to at least 5 million farmers in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. By the end of the second phase of the project in March 2014, STRASA had surpassed its initial target and was able to reach over 10 million farmers in South Asia alone. More than 30 new stress-tolerant varieties were also released. Similar dissemination efforts are underway for Sub-Saharan Africa. From having one agricultural research and extension partner in 2007, STRASA now has more than 550 partners in South Asia and a similar large number in Sub-Saharan Africa. Collaboration with partners from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sub-Saharan Africa have helped STRASA's scientists develop and evaluate stress-tolerant varieties. Over 140,000 tons of high-quality seeds were produced and distributed to farmers. The project helped train thousands of partners including young scientists, extension personnel, and farmers. STRASA also facilitated policy dialogues both at the national and regional levels. In its third phase that began in April 2014, STRASA will continue implementing coordinated research initiatives on improved varieties. Collaboration with Africa Rice, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, the governments of India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and 18 countries in Africa, and other research and extension partners in Asia and Africa will continue as the project aims for delivery of improved varieties on a large scale. The impact of all these initiatives will be analyzed and capacity strengthened in each participating country. STRASA will work harder to facilitate the rapid delivery of helpful information and improve technologies to more farmers, as well as other stakeholders across socio-cultural sectors in marginalized areas. With access to seeds, knowledge, and proper training, farmers were able to adapt their rice farming practices to their respective field conditions. More than just providing a means to survive for a season, STRASA has played a major part in enhancing the lives of millions of people. Once they are food secure, farmers are given opportunities to make meaningful and positive changes in their lives.