Toastmasters District 53 Spring Conference
— Breaking Barriers! —
May 10-11, 2024 • SOuthbury, CT
Heritage Conference Center
With keynote and workshop from Sheryl Roush
For enhancing global communication and leadership, Toastmasters International honored Sheryl with their 2009 Presidential Citation, selected from over 260,000 members.
In 1993, Sheryl was the youngest in the world to be honored by Toastmasters with their elite Accredited Speaker designation for “outstanding platform professional speaking” (scored in six categories). Only 90 have earned the award in 146 countries since 1981.
Sheryl has presented throughout the U.S., as well as Australia, the Bahamas, Baja California, Canada, England, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Mexico, Northern Ireland, Puerto Rico, Qatar, and Singapore. She has addressed seven Middle Eastern nations at annual conferences hosted in Doha, Qatar and in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Conference Schedule
View a more complete Conference Schedule here.
Friday, 10 May 2024
- 7:00-8:30 pm – Evaluation Contest
Saturday, 11 May 2024
- 8:00 – Opening Session
- 8:30 – “Heart of a Toastmaster: Breaking Barriers” – Sheryl Roush
- 9:30 – Workshop Session 1
- 11:00 – Workshop Session 2
- 12:00 – Communication & Leadership Award Luncheon
- 1:30 – Afternoon Keynote “Sparkle when you speak! Breaking Barriers to Brilliant Communications!”
- 2:30 – District Officers Installation
- 3:30 – International Speech Contest
- 5:00 – Closing Session
- 6:00 to ~8:00 – Post Conference Celebration
And Breakout Sessions led by…
Bring 3 from your club and get 10% off each ticket! Remember to select the ticket with the After Conference Celebration!
When you sign up… you’ll be asked to pick which breakout sessions you want to attend. Read the complete descriptions and presenter biographies here, before you choose!
- Breakout Session 1 at 9:30 am
- Breakout Session 2 at 11:00 am
- Learn about this year’s tickets
Click Here to REGISTER
Book a Room!
Room Rate ends 3/25/2024
Group Overnight Rate at the Heritage Conference Center are SOLD OUT (as of 2/27/2024), but regular rooms are available at their regular price.
A nearby hotel, the Wyndham, is also available; rates are comparable.
Sponsor!
Know a business that would be a great sponsor or exhibitor? Would your business want to be present on our conference sales floor? Let them know!
Advertise!
Advertise in our Program!
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About the Annual District Conference
Each year, District 53 Toastmasters hosts a conference for the members and member clubs of Toastmasters International, somewhere in the District — it usually rotates between Divisions, passing through cities like Poughkeepsie, Albany, Hartford/Springfield, Stamford, and New London/New Haven as the epicenters of our District.
The conference usually centers around the District’s mission-critical activities — the Annual Business Meeting of District 53, the two contests our District sponsors, presentations by a keynote speaker, the annual presentation of the Communication and Leadership Award, the Hall of Fame presentation of awards to members, and the Installation of Elected Officers. We also have a number of workshops and social occasions throughout the day.
Prior to 2016, the District hosted two conferences a year. In coming months, we’ll be able to include elements of our prior history of conferences on this page, so you can see and catch the excitement for the future!
Stay tuned to this space for the news about District 53’s Conference in May 2024!
Conference Contacts:
Conference Chairs: confchair@d53tm.org
Conference Education Chair:
confeduchair @ d53tm.org
Previous Conferences
- 2024 —
- Southbury, CT —
- Sheryl Roush, keynote speaker
- Evaluation Speech Contest (Friday Night)
- International Speech Contest (Saturday)
- 2023 — SPRINGBoard To Success
- Springfield, Massachusetts —
- Joe Grondin, Keynote Speaker
- Find the archive of materials here.
- 2022 — Online (Zoom)
- 2021 — Online (Zoom)
- 2020 — No conference due to the pandemic
- 2019 — Amherst, Massachusetts —
- Mark Hunter, Keynote Speaker
- 2018 — Colonie, New York —
- 2017 —
- 2016 —
- 2015 — Mystic, Connecticut
- 2014 —
- 2013 —
* N.B., prior to 2016 there were two Conferences per year, one in the fall and one in the spring.