“At Saudi Aramco, we have always encouraged our employees and our engineers to join these clubs and that is the reason why we have so many clubs,” said Khaled A. Al-Buraik, vice president of Saudi Aramco Affairs.

“I would like to see other companies duplicating our successful model. We see this as an investment and other companies should see it similarly. I would like to see more companies opening Toastmasters clubs.”

Al-Buraik spoke at the end of the organization’s two-day Annual Division M Conference. He said Saudi Aramco has played “what you’d call the role of a hidden soldier” in the success of these clubs and pointed out that it was Saudi Aramco that helped form the first Toastmasters club nearly 30 years ago.

“The seriousness with which we take Toastmasters can be gauged by the number of executive management people who attended this conference,” he said.

“One cannot help but be impressed by the men and women who walk onto the stage ... they laugh, sing and act. All that is very impressive, and we need these skills in our people,” he said. “There can be nothing better than being an effective communicator.”

Division M exclusively comprises Saudi Aramco employees, and it is rated as one of the organization’s most important groups.

So successful was the conference that the Division M adviser, prominent Eastern Province businessman and a veteran Toastmaster Abdulrazzak Alturki burst into tears.

“These are tears of joy,” Alturki said. “It took us four months to plan for these two days. This was the most successful conference ever, in terms of attendance and the quality of speakers. They were all top notch.”

According to Alturki, the impact of the conference’s success can be gauged by the fact that the country’s education minister has promised to attend it next year.

Also, many companies have come forward to be part of the conference.

“Zamil Group Holding Co. Managing Director Khalid Al-Zamil has already promised that his company will be among the sponsors next year,” he said.

Division M Governor Ali T. Al-Qahtani said the highlight of the conference was the introduction of Arabic contests and workshops. “That decision really drew in a lot of Saudis. This was the segment that knew about Toastmasters but couldn’t participate because of the language barrier. We wanted to encourage them, and it turned out to be smart move. The response was overwhelming by all standards. There were people from Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Riyadh and Qassim ... we can safely call it our most successful conference ever.”

He credited the success of “this humongous conference” to team effort. “We all worked as a team, and we all made new friends during the conference. That is a most gratifying feeling. It was fun to watch Toastmasters aged 20-50 communicating smoothly with no barriers and then sharing with each other the skills of communicating better.”