John Callaghan, Jim Barber, and Krishn Ramchurn were the winners in the Video Speech Contest held March 23, 2020 at Online Presenters. This official Toastmasters speech contest is a variant of the International Speech Contest for undistricted clubs, including online clubs. The video of John Callaghan’s has been forwarded to Toastmasters International, where judges will choose a worldwide winner.
Full Contest:
Winning speech: “Surviving the Storms of Life,” John Callaghan
Professional speakers Mimi Brown and Roger Courville will visit Online Presenters as celebrity guest judges for our webinar contest on April 20. This event is not an official Toastmasters contest, and we’re bending the usual rules on anonymity of judges to give our speakers professional feedback on their online presentation skills. To attend as a guest, register here.
Mimi Brown works with individuals and organizations to amplify their communication and leadership so they can make an influential impact on the world.
With over 10 years of leadership and communication consulting and training experience, Mimi knows how to rock a platform, connect with a crowd, & have people laughing while learning.
She is the author of three books: AMP Up Your Success: 52 Tips Every Leader Should Know, AMP Up Sales: 71 Tips to Skyrocket Your Revenue and Be A Communication Rockstar: 52 Tips To Gain Connection, Skyrocket Confidence, Reduce Conflict.
Mimi’s personal highlights include being recognized as an Elite 40 Under 40, media personality on WDIV’s show Live In the D and contestant on NBC’s, Biggest Loser.
Roger Courville is the first speaker in the world to earn his CSP with a predominantly virtual business model.
Once dubbed “The Michael Jordan of Virtual Presentations,” Roger is a multi-book author, award winning writer, and multi-company entrepreneur.
His work includes working with organizations as diverse as FedEx, Australia Institute of Training and Development, American Management Association, US Bank and, of course, that little company down the street that you’ve never heard about but who does killer virtual presentations. And he loves habaneros.
Roger has been a friend of our club from its inception, when he led a free workshop (replay here) to help us attract our initial set of charter members in 2017.
To learn more about the webinar contest and how it will be conducted, read this blog post.
If you have a password, please sign up for meeting roles below. Guests should complete the RSVP registration form at the bottom of the agenda. (If you have a password, it’s not necessary to also fill out the RSVP form – we would rather get you signed up for a specific role).
Members can find the online meetings details here (password protected).
THIS MEETING WILL BE RECORDED. Stills and excerpts from the video may be used by the club in its public relations and social media outreach.
Members and guests are encouraged to sign in anytime after 7:15 pm U.S. Eastern Time for an informal meet and greet and to allow time for any technical troubleshooting. We also do self introductions during this time. The meeting will officially starts at 7:45 pm.
Online Evaluation Forms can be found here: https://op.toastmost.org/eval-forms
Toastmaster asks for the Timer’s Report & vote for the Best Speaker of the Day
Topics Master asks for the Timer’s Report & vote for the Best Topics Speaker of the Day
General Evaluator asks for the Timer’s Report & vote for the Best Evaluator of the Day
General Evaluator continues with the functionary reports (the Grammarian, the Watcher, the Ah Counter, and the Chat Monitor (1 minute each)).
General Evaluator rounds out this portion of the meeting by giving an overall evaluation, 2-3 minutes. General Evaluator should aim ONLY to add any new insights, not re-evaluate speakers or repeat information covered by others.
General Evaluator asks Vote Counter to reveal the winners of the meeting
Following up from our recent Video Speech contest, Online Presenters is preparing for its April 20 webinar contest (register to attend as a guest).
There are a couple of differences between the Webinar Contest and the Video Speech Contest:
I think of the International Speech Contest (and, by extension, the Video Speech Contest) as a 5-7 minute keynote speech. Winning speeches typically include a mix of humor, storytelling, and inspiration.
The Webinar Contest is a 6-8 minute webinar, which tests the speaker’s ability to use online presentation tools effectively, respond to questions submitted via chat, and close with a strong call to action. Think of it as a miniature webinar designed to sell the audience on a product, cause, or idea. We follow most of the usual Toastmasters contest rules and procedures, but for example have relaxed the traditional anonymity of judges to allow participation from Celebrity Guest Judges Mimi Brown and Roger Courville, who in addition to voting will give some professional feedback to contestants at the end of the event.
The rules, spelled out in a 2018 blog post, include a scoring scheme that starts with the categories from the International Speech Contest but inserts a couple of webinar-specific ones such as audience engagement and call to action.
| Max score | |
| Speech Development | 15 |
| Audience Engagement | 15 |
| Speech Value | 15 |
| Call to Action | 15 |
| Visual | 15 |
| Voice | 10 |
| Manner | 5 |
| Appropriateness/Correctness | 10 |
| Total Possible Score | 100 |
To simulate a common webinar experience, each contestant is challenged to respond (briefly) to questions submitted via chat. Speakers have the option of monitoring the chat themselves or asking for help from the chat monitor, who will read or summarize a couple of questions submitted.
You can check out past webinar contests won by Sunny Fridge and Carol Prahinski for clues about what worked well in the past.
As an unofficial format, the webinar contest is “just for fun” — but perhaps something Toastmasters should consider refining and turning into an official contest format as the online environment becomes increasingly important.
If you have a password, please sign up for meeting roles below. Guests should complete the RSVP registration form at the bottom of the agenda. (If you have a password, it’s not necessary to also fill out the RSVP form – we would rather get you signed up for a specific role).
Members can find the online meetings details here (password protected).
THIS MEETING WILL BE RECORDED. Stills and excerpts from the video may be used by the club in its public relations and social media outreach.
Members and guests are encouraged to sign in anytime after 7:15 pm U.S. Eastern Time for an informal meet and greet and to allow time for any technical troubleshooting. We also do self introductions during this time. The meeting will officially starts at 7:45 pm.
Online Evaluation Forms can be found here: https://op.toastmost.org/eval-forms
Toastmaster asks for the Timer’s Report & vote for the Best Speaker of the Day
Topics Master asks for the Timer’s Report & vote for the Best Topics Speaker of the Day
General Evaluator asks for the Timer’s Report & vote for the Best Evaluator of the Day
General Evaluator continues with the functionary reports (the Grammarian, the Watcher, the Ah Counter, and the Chat Monitor (1 minute each)).
General Evaluator rounds out this portion of the meeting by giving an overall evaluation, 2-3 minutes. General Evaluator should aim ONLY to add any new insights, not re-evaluate speakers or repeat information covered by others.
General Evaluator asks Vote Counter to reveal the winners of the meeting
If you have a password, please sign up for meeting roles below. Guests should complete the RSVP registration form at the bottom of the agenda. (If you have a password, it’s not necessary to also fill out the RSVP form – we would rather get you signed up for a specific role).
Members can find the online meetings details here (password protected).
THIS MEETING WILL BE RECORDED. Stills and excerpts from the video may be used by the club in its public relations and social media outreach.
Members and guests are encouraged to sign in anytime after 7:15 pm U.S. Eastern Time for an informal meet and greet and to allow time for any technical troubleshooting. We also do self introductions during this time. The meeting will officially starts at 7:45 pm.
Online Evaluation Forms can be found here: https://op.toastmost.org/eval-forms
Toastmaster asks for the Timer’s Report & vote for the Best Speaker of the Day
Topics Master asks for the Timer’s Report & vote for the Best Topics Speaker of the Day
General Evaluator asks for the Timer’s Report & vote for the Best Evaluator of the Day
General Evaluator continues with the functionary reports (the Grammarian, the Watcher, the Ah Counter, and the Chat Monitor (1 minute each)).
General Evaluator rounds out this portion of the meeting by giving an overall evaluation, 2-3 minutes. General Evaluator should aim ONLY to add any new insights, not re-evaluate speakers or repeat information covered by others.
General Evaluator asks Vote Counter to reveal the winners of the meeting
If you have a password, please sign up for meeting roles below. Guests should complete the RSVP registration form at the bottom of the agenda. (If you have a password, it’s not necessary to also fill out the RSVP form – we would rather get you signed up for a specific role).
Members can find the online meetings details here (password protected).
THIS MEETING WILL BE RECORDED. Stills and excerpts from the video may be used by the club in its public relations and social media outreach.
Members and guests are encouraged to sign in anytime after 7:15 pm U.S. Eastern Time for an informal meet and greet and to allow time for any technical troubleshooting. We also do self introductions during this time. The meeting will officially starts at 7:45 pm.
Online Evaluation Forms can be found here: https://op.toastmost.org/eval-forms
Toastmaster asks for the Timer’s Report & vote for the Best Speaker of the Day
Topics Master asks for the Timer’s Report & vote for the Best Topics Speaker of the Day
General Evaluator asks for the Timer’s Report & vote for the Best Evaluator of the Day
General Evaluator continues with the functionary reports (the Grammarian, the Watcher, the Ah Counter, and the Chat Monitor (1 minute each)).
General Evaluator rounds out this portion of the meeting by giving an overall evaluation, 2-3 minutes. General Evaluator should aim ONLY to add any new insights, not re-evaluate speakers or repeat information covered by others.
General Evaluator asks Vote Counter to reveal the winners of the meeting
I’ve been sharing this with those wondering how to run a speech contest online, since this basically is the International Speech Contest transposed into an online format. Also worth reviewing for those comparing to compete in Monday’s Video Speech contest.
Online Presenters members presented this workshop for District 47 (South Florida and the Bahamas), where many clubs are having to learn in a hurry how to conduct meetings online.
This workshop was led by club President Lois Margolin, DTM, a District 47 leader. The program included participation from other Online Presenters members from District 47 and throughout the world, giving a mini-meeting demonstration. David Carr, who led Online Presenters to charter in 2017, shared technical how-to tips.
100 people crowded into the Zoom video conference used for the event, while more watched on Facebook Live.
