Another evening of contests awaited us, this time it was the Area Contest. Nicola Lutterotti welcomed guests and fellow toastmasters, many of whom had travelled far to attend this evening. Kevin Boomsma lead us through an evening of exciting speeches, evaluations and fierce but friendly competition.
Vaclav Matousek started out the speech contest with “More tourists, please”. Vaclav told us how he wants to fulfill his lifelong dream of opening a perfume museum in his home town in Bohemia, Czech Republic. Combining his artistic interests and his love for chemistry, this museum would include many interactive elements. For example a 4D movie theater where the sense of smell is added to the 3D experience. We all shuddered imagining the smells associated with a Dracula movie.
Mie Hanson was the second contestant and encouraged us to “Face your fears”. She told us how, out of fear, she missed an early opportunity in life. This experience, and witnessing a friend overcome her fear of swimming, encouraged Mie to face her own fears. Joining Toastmaster helped her to face her biggest fear; public speaking. The friendly faces in the audience encouraged her, and we got to enjoy her great speech because she overcame her fears.
Our third contestant of the evening was Mark Alder with his speech entitled: “Some dreams come true”. As a child, Mark could not believe that planes could fly, but the cards from his deck of cards did not fly. In an animated speech he illustrated why some dreams come true and others don’t. A clearly defined goal is necessary, but not sufficient. He convinced us that not only do we need to believe in our dream, we also need to make others around us believe. The bigger the dream, the bigger the team of believers to make the dream come true.
After these three riveting speeches, the judges cast their votes and while the vote counters determined the winner, Kevin interviewed the speakers and shed more light on the ideas behind the speeches.
The ranking of the speech contest was: 3rd: Vaclav Matousek, 2nd Mie Hanson, Mark Alder took the first place.
After a somewhat delayed dinner, Oscar Swine from the Mosquito Hill Toastmaster Club gave the target speech for the evaluation contest. In a speech that was easy to relate to, he dissected the pros and cons of his hometown of Brighton and his current home of Zürich. The weather, the people, opportunities for growth and also the consideration of finding a woman were factors in his assessment.
Anna Bot, Ben Nordemann and Katja Töttler evaluated the speech, pointed out it’s strengths and made suggestions for improvement. The judges for this part of the contest decided that Ben Nordemann had the best evaluation, followed by Anna Bot and Katja Töttler.
This concluded the regional speech and evaluation contest. It was a great success and the winners can go on to compete in the Division Contest on the 3rd of May in Bern. All others are invited to support their competing club members and to enjoy the speeches of all the area contest winners.
It was a great contest and we are excited to see you on April 15th for a regular TM evening!