Every year clubs take part in contests, with the international speech contest going to the world championship.
What? When?
The type of contests that take place is decided by the district, and are typically:
- Humourous speech
- Tabletopics
- Evaluations
- International Speech
They take place:
- September-November
- February-May
Is this for you?
Speech contests are a great way to challenge yourself and gain confidence in your public speaking. Hamwic club winners will go on to compete at the Area competition, and the Area winner will compete at the District level. Following that, the winner will go on to compete for the world championship.
Interested in competing?
Fantastic! We can’t wait to support you!
We need functionaries too!
To make the contests run smoothly we need additional support:
- Contest Chair
- Contest Judge
- other functionaries
- judges
- ballot counters
- time keepers
- Sergeant at Arms
Insights from past contestants
A learning experience
A dedicated and experienced toastmaster, Anne entered the contest because although she has facilitated contests before (as judge, chief judge and counter), she had “never seen the process from the other side.” She chose to compete in Table Topics because she’s not so fond of preparing speeches, and Table Topics allowed her to take part without a lot of prior preparation (editor’s note – she’s also great at it)!
Robin, who very recently joined Hamwic Speakers from another Toastmasters club, entered the Humorous contest because he saw it as a fun way to try out comedic writing. With a speech titled, “Affairs of the Heart,” Robin sure did make us laugh at the Hamwic Speakers and Area contest… and he won first place!
Tips from our contestants
Anne’s tip for Table Topics is… practice! She recommends trying with different topics masters and getting feedback from the group. She says “with some people [she] does really well with their questions, but with other people [she can] fall a little flat – so getting lots of practice with different people setting the questions is key.”
Interested in polishing up your impromptu speaking skills? Why not volunteer for table topics at your next meeting!
Robin explains that you can learn a lot from entering a speech contest. He says “you get a chance to experience fellow contestants successes and as the contest progresses, the quality of the speeches also improves substantially.” From competing in this contest, Robin learnt the power of a strong speech opening and “trying to engage an audience from the first few sentences – rather than building slowly from a more descriptive stance.”
Would they recommend it?
Anne feels “it’s a great way to give yourself a new experience,” and Robin says that he “would always encourage anybody to give a speech contest a go. There is nothing to lose. It’s another chance to get out in front of an audience and speak. You can see what works and what could be improved.”
The bottom line?
In Robin’s words: “the bottom line is its fun, if not slightly nerve wrecking!”
Interested in competing in the speech contests? Why not give it a go?!