Toastmasters gear up for key contest in Dammam

Toastmasters International’s District 79 will hold a 3-day speech contest beginning Wednesday. The event is being used to pick a representative for the World Champion of Public Speaking contest in Cincinnati, United States, in August.
The categories include an international speech, prepared speech and humorous speech, all of five to seven minutes. Contestants are also required to deliver an impromptu speech of one to two minutes on an unknown topic. There will also be an evaluation contest, which involves a speech of two to three minutes.
The conference is being organized by a team led by conference chairman Syed Waheed Lateef. A press conference will be held at 11 a.m. on April 13 with Toastmasters International President John Lau and District Gov. Nazeer Gazaq Qasem.
Prominent Toastmaster, Abdulrazzak Ali Al-Turki, hosted a draw for dividing the participating 11 divisions into two groups for the run-off competition. During the draw, division governors including Qasem, Lt. Gov. Education and Training Ben Guerra, LGM Joey Villanueva, Division Gov. Mohammed Khalfan, Division Gov. Javeed Ansari and many distinguished Toastmasters were present.
Three contestants out of each group will qualify for the final competitions, and the winner in the Saudi District (79) will represent the Kingdom at the international speech competition.
Khaled Al-Matlagaitu, the first district governor of District 79 and Toastmasters International director candidate, said: “This is the second district conference of Saudi Arabia since district 79 was formed. The first conference was held in Jeddah last year. However, this is the first to be held in the Eastern Province, which has the majority of Toastmaster clubs.”
“We expect over 600 delegates including numerous high-ranking executives and professionals from different industries and representatives from leading companies including Saudi Aramco, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation and Saudi Electricity Company. A number of business professionals will also attend this mega event,” said Guerra.
Six workshops will be held by personalities from all over the Kingdom and the United States. The president of Toastmasters International, USA, will be one of the keynote speakers.
Currently, over 280,000 members are improving their speaking and leadership skills by attending one or more of the 13,500 clubs in 116 countries.