International Speech Contest - Tips to organize it

A month ago I organized an International Speech Contest for Area D25. This contest enabled toastmaster members to compete in two categories, International Speech, and Evalutions.

Volunteers and participants

It was quite similar to the fall contest that I wrote about. It was definitely “easier” to run it though, as all of us had more experience under our belt.

Guests and participants

I found the biggest challenge to be - everyone being a volunteer. People are always busy with their lives, everyone has different schedules, and even hardcore toastmasters sometimes cannot help.

But, all volunteers who helped definitely enabled this event to happen, and everything that was accomplished was another example that the biggest power is power of people. I would never be able to organize such an event without help of others.

Our multiple winner

The contest was a success, and more than that, it was a fun event in which all of us offered our time to each other.

Similar to my post about Fall Contest, I want to share some things that might help in the future organization of similar events:

1. Start planning early, late January, early February.
1. I had the contest as an agenda item on our Area Council Meeting that was held on February 4th.
2. Book the meeting location even earlier. Leverage the same location that was used for previous contests.
1. I asked Rob to help us with the booking, and he was super effective with it.
3. Make decision about the contest date and place early as well. Consult about it with couple of closest club presidents.
4. On the area council meeting, “design” details for the contest. Assign each club with contest tasks. This is of course done in collaborative way with the clubs. By doing this, all necessary items and tasks will be covered, and everyone will know who is accountable and responsible for what.
5. Example of contest tasks list
6. Everyone who is helping with the contest updates the list
7. Task each club to provide a judge.
1. This helped tremendously as I remember that judges recruitment was quite a nightmare.
2. This meant that clubs were responsible for that
3. Let the clubs know that a member can be a judge if he/she has completed 3 speeches. In our case, one of judges didn’t have this requirement, and couldn’t judge the contest
8. Recruit a chief judge
1. I asked one and only Mr.Wang Yip to help us out. This was quite exciting as this was going to be his first contest to be a chief judge
2. I also should’ve recruit a chief judge backup
3. I wanted to have someone who would be doing it for the first time, so that they can have more benefit
9. Recruit a test speaker early. Sometimes the test speaker is called “model speaker”.
10. Recruit actually 2 test speakers, so that you have a backup.
1. That’s exactly what I should have done. I only got 1 test speaker who cancelled 2 days before the contest. I was lucky enough to find a replacement very quickly.
11. Visit clubs before the contest and during the visit propagate the contest and talk about it. Encourage the club members to help and to participate. The key here is to visit before the contest, so timing is essential here.
12. Get an agenda template from your club archive, as clubs have similar contest, so their agendas can be reusable
13. Have 2 people print the agenda, so there is a backup
14. Have 2 people get snacks and water
15. Have “Thank You” cards for judges (instead of gift cards that were always given in the past)
1. We changed this at the area council meeting as the cost was getting higher
16. Bend the rules so that you can have a better contest
17. I won’t say how I bent the rules, but let me assure you it was harmless, and elevated quality of our contest
18. Have name labels prepared so that it is easier to prepare certificates (you only have to attach it). This was also a “new item” that we came up on the area council meeting
19. Be ready for a location (room) change - and that includes some impromptu work (suddenly things are different)
1. Rob told me that we would have to change the room on the day of contest. Nothing really happened, but this (location) was now different from information we shared with everyone. This could have been mitigated by an e-mail sent to the participants.
20. Once you have everything in place, just go and have fun