On Monday evening Bloomsbury Speakers held its very first international speech and evaluation contest, not bad going for a club that chartered less than a year ago!
Five club members battled it out for the best speaker title and eight contestants locked horns for the best evaluator award. The visiting judges – many of whom had come from far and wide – had their work cut out from the start and several remarked that the standard was exceptionally high for such a young club.
It was a great evening that really showcased Bloomsbury’s members, with Glen Long kicking off the contest with a thought provoking speech about receiving a hypothetical balance sheet of our good and bad deeds in life.
Next Raj Jain delivered a masterful performance in a speech about overcoming his stammer and his shyness in his youth.
Raj was followed by Ratan Lele who told us an emotional story about the influence his grandmother had on his life as a young boy.
Giving the fourth speech of the night, Femi Asaolu in his own uniquely engaging style brought his love of the Victoria Line to life with words, singing and even poetry!
Finally, Guy Smith – a very game last minute entrant to the contest – gave an amusing and ironic speech on the art of phone conversation, telling us why all of us – but particularly men! – need to reconnect with friends by cultivating the skills for quick and engaging phone calls.
After the break it was time for the evaluation contest and the mystery speaker (that all contestants would be required to assess) was revealed as Atul Patel.
Atul treated us to a masterful display of story telling skills with a speech entitled Manifesting My Dream. The was a wide range of experience levels amongst the eight evaluators – including one who was evaluating for the very first time – so very well done to all of them for stepping up to the challenge!
When all the judges’ votes had been counted, the results were announced.
Best speech went to Raj Jain, with second and third places going to Ratan Lele and Glen Long respectively. In the evaluation category, Glen came first, followed by Henry Playfoot and then Femi Asaolu.
Raj and Glen will go on to represent the club in the Area Finals on Thursday 24th March at London Business School.
Many thanks to the functionaries without whom we could not have run such a successful contest: contest chair Liz Hobbs and chief judge Ewan Wong (both from Tube Talk); the judges: Kedar Godbole of Trojan Speakers, Andreas Voniatis and Petra Jakubekova of Riverside Speakers, James Goddard and Graeme Conn (from Holborn Speakers) and Mike Young of Berkeley Square Speakers; our timekeepers Terry Freedman and Adam Horne; and finally our official counters Swarajit Das and Dave Longley.
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