Many years ago I was a contestant at a public speaking contest. Tomorrow I’ll be hosting this same Toastmasters contest in Tallinn, with fantastic speakers from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland 🔥🔥🔥

For the contest speech, you spend from 5 to 7 minutes on stage. As the master of ceremonies tomorrow, I’ll be on stage from 11:35am until 6pm. It already feels like running a marathon.

They say the shorter you need to make a speech, the more preparation it takes. The contestants have done a huge amount of preparation for their speeches and they deserve all the respect from the audience. 

Hosting an event is hard work, too, and requires careful planning and practice. Tomorrow there’s a minute-by-minute schedule of what will happen on stage between the opening words at 11:20am until the closing words at 6pm. 

And something always goes wrong 😃 You need to be prepared for that, too. 

The best thing is that you always learn something. And you improve your routine. And it’s fun.

May the contest begin! 💥