Tag Archives: Eventhosting

Is it harder to be a contestant than the master of ceremonies at a speech contest?

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A speech contest trophy from way back when.

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. 

Wearing my “winning shoes” at a speech contest, telling a story about a duck and a couple of other animals.

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! 💥

It’s speech contest time!

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Just for the heck of it, a keynote speech in ten seconds 😀

It’s this time of the year again: the season of the Toastmasters autumn speech contests. All over the world, people are competing in two categories: humorous speeches and improvised speeches. Loads of fun. 

This Saturday, I’ll be hosting this speech contest in Helsinki. It’s called an area contest, with participants from Finland and Estonia.

No one, except me, knows the topic of the improvised speeches. 😃 The contestants will find out the topic 30 seconds before they begin their speech. 😬

In the attached video from exactly a year ago, from the same contest, you’ll see a primer in stage presence and body language in ten seconds 😀

Also, you can find a couple of brief thoughts about hosting an event behind this link.

I’ll publish something more comprehensive on the topic of event hosting later this year. 

For now, come and see a bunch of superb speakers at the event space ”Vapaakaupunki” at the Redi shopping center at Hermannin Rantatie 5 in Helsinki this Saturday, October 25 at 12:00 (doors open). The program starts at 12:15. The language of the contest is English.

You’re warmly welcome!