On 29 February 2020, we had our Area 6 contest for ‘International Speech’ and ‘Table Topics.’
The winners from the Club Level contests qualify to participate at the Area Level contests. The winners from Area move on to Division, then to District Level and eventually to the International Contest, happening this year at Paris, France.
Having two great speakers from my home Club, Tourism Toastmasters, I was very excited to see them face the winners from the other Clubs. One after the other, the contestants were equally confident and professional. The contestants of the Table Topics oozed out confidence and spoke spot on the given impromptu topics, while the participants of the International Speech Contest kept the audience glued. I had taken up the role of Timer, a role which I like, mostly because it is a non-speaking role but an important role and definitely for the best seat in the room. While doing my easy task of timekeeping, my worry was for the judges who had the difficult task of selecting the winners.
A lesson I learned from this contest – make time to attend meetings at other Clubs once in a while. Of course, attending regular meetings at your Club is a priority, but attending meetings outside your comfort zone is like ‘thinking outside the box.’
The winner for the Best Table Topics was awarded to Alexandra Wrigley from Founders Club and the winner for International Speech Contest was Prajwol Sayami from Tourism Toastmasters. The program was smoothly chaired by Chandni Kayastha of Bhaktapur Toastmasters and Roshan Ghimire of Tourism Toastmasters and overall monitored by the Chief Judge of the contest, Area A6 Director, Pankaj Pradhananga.
Radeep Khadga
Tourism Toastmasters Club
Published in Inkspire Issue 3. Click here for the full newsletter.