The Olympics of Oratory: World Championship of Public Speaking
One of these 10 people will be crowned the new World Champion of Public Speaking on August 16th, 2008 at the Toastmasters International convention in Calgary, Alberta.
Each year, over 230,000 members in over 11,000 clubs in 92 countries around the world have the opportunity to participate in this contest where competitors deliver 7-minute speeches judged on core message, speech development, language, and delivery techniques.
The club contest is the first of six stages which culminate in the World Championship of Public Speaking contest. The 10 speakers left standing have each out-spoken and out-inspired fellow competitors at five previous contests. [Back in May, I bowed out in the quarter-finals.]
Here are the 2008 finalists for the World Championship of Public Speaking. As you can plainly see, there is no single “speaker mold”: they bridge four countries, both genders, numerous ages, and diverse backgrounds.
2008 World Championship of Public Speaking Finalists
Region 1: Rich Hopkins (Provo, Utah)
- Bio and Personal Links
- Rich took 3rd place at the 2006 World Championship of Public Speaking.
- It Takes a Village to Build a Champion: Rich’s blog where he is chronicling his journey to the World Championships. (It is featured in the Public Speaking Blogs list.)
- Speech Videos
- Glorious Victory (Youtube video)
- In the News
- Provo Man is toast of Toastmasters (Deseret News, June 13, 2008)
- Home club: unknown
Region 2: Robert MacKenzie (Santa Monica, California)
- Speech Videos
- My Alter Ego (Region 2, 2008) (Review of this speech by Bob Freels)
- Time (District 1, 2008)
- Home club: Westside Toastmasters (638), District 1
Region 3: LaShunda Rundles (Dallas, Texas)
- Interview with LaShunda Rundles about her Toastmasters World Championship victory
- Region-winning speech title: Dirty Little Secrets
- Home club: Town North Trendsetters (4533), District 50
Region 4: Martin Presse (Wetaskiwin, Alberta)
- In the News
- Presse competes in speech contest (The Camrose Canadian, August 14, 2008)
- Camrose man off to ‘olympics of oratory’ (Edmonton Journal, August 10, 2008)
- Region-winning speech title: I Believe in You
- District-winning speech title: Commit to Your Swing
- Home club: Camrose Toastmasters Club (1432), District 42
Region 5: Colin William (West Lafayette, Indiana)
- Home club: Hanna Center Toastmasters (5212), District 11
Region 6: Charlie Wilson (State College, Pennsylvania)
- In the News
- Local Toastmaster Competes in World Championship (KDKA Video, July 15, 2008) – Charlie is interviewed by Kristine Sorensen and discusses his district, region, and world championship speeches.
- The Power of Speech (Centre Daily Times, August 9, 2008)
- Home club: ARL/Penn State Pingers (7132), District 13
Region 7: Katherine Morrison (Massachusetts)
- In the News
- Curry College Professor Recognized as the Best Public Speaker on the Eastern Seaboard (Curry College website, July 15, 2008)
- Region-winning speech title: Stand Up Again
- District-winning speech title: The Challenge
- Home club: Boston West Toastmasters (4735), District 31
Region 8: Henry Flowers IV (Chapin, South Carolina)
- Region-winning speech title: My First Time
- Home club: Richland (2500), District 58
Outside Regions – A: K. Loghandran (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
- Tough Love: Advice from K Loghandran on speech contest success
- Home club: Speakers’ Dream (220), District 51
Outside Regions – B: Jock Elliot (West End, Queensland, Australia)
- Bio and Personal Links
- Jock has reached the World Championship of Public Speaking on four previous occasions, placing 3rd in 1994.
- Argent Star Profile for Jock Elliott
- In the News
- He’s the talk of the town (City South News, July 23, 2008)
- Home club: unknown
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Sherri Raftery, M. Ed. — Aug 20th, 2008
Congrats to ALL the contestants – It takes a thick skin to get up there and give it all you got – YOU ALL did that!
Great to see BOTH LaShunda and Kathy ROCK the stage!!
Sherri Raftery
http://www.findyourplatform.com
Shannon — Aug 22nd, 2008
I checked the TI site to see who’d won and could find nothing. I Googled and found an article in Dallas about the winner (LaShunda) and your site. Thanks for the info. I particularly like your links to Youtube speeches.
Andrew Dlugan — Aug 22nd, 2008
Shannon:
I, too, have been disappointed by the slow response time of news being posted on the TI site. That’s one of the reasons I decided to post information on the finalists and winners on my site.
Adrienne Zurub — Aug 23rd, 2008
Congratulations World Champion, LaShunda Rundles on your victory and awesome speech!
All Toastmasters are proud and excited about your stunning accomplishment(s).
My warmest regards to all of the participants in the 2008 World Championship of Public Speaking competition.
Adrienne Zurub
http://adriennezurub.typepad.com
EastSide Toastmasters
Club 6500
Shaker Heights, Ohio
SL Liew — Oct 3rd, 2008
Wow… great to see the write up of each of the finalist. I have been to 4 WCPS but never really got to know the background more about each contestant except during the interview. Then one can forget. Here you have written down for all to see and admire and be inspired. Thanks.
Fred Miller @norwood2dc — May 15th, 2009
check this out: http://bit.ly/op53g
Fred Miller @norwood2dc — May 15th, 2009
@sincere703 check this out: http://bit.ly/op53g
A New World Champion « POWER — Aug 16th, 2008
[...] placed second, and and Region VII’s Katherine Morrison placed third. Check out the blog Six Minutes for pictures and profiles of all the [...]
A New World Champion « Brinker Toastmasters — Aug 18th, 2008
[...] Malaysia placed second, and Region VII’s Katherine Morrison placed third. Check out the blog Six Minutes for pictures and profiles of all the [...]
The Public Speaking Blog » Blog Archive » Women Speakers Just Made Public Speaking History (LaShunda Rundles, You Are Amazing!) — Aug 19th, 2008
[...] The winner this year beat over 2500 speakers from all over the world… and she is not even a professional speaker. Her good name is LaShunda Rundles. What’s even more outstanding is this – LaShunda is the first woman to win the contest in more than 20 years! (She’s only the 4th woman to win since the contest began in 1938 – though Toastmasters was a “male only” organization for many years, as quoted from Darren La Croix) To see the other finalists, click here. [...]
Spoken Gems » Rich Hopkins: Glorious Victory: Remarkable Speeches, Rhetorical Masterpieces, Impressive Monologues — Aug 20th, 2008
[...] information about the finalists can be found at SixMinutes Darren LaCroix: Anyone can do [...]
Presentation skills ~ tellingpeople — Sep 26th, 2008
Public speaking competitions…
Why?
I really mean that – why bother with competitions. I honestly and genuinely can’t see the point. I don’t want to be rude to people who are entering (and doing will in such things – see here, for example) but to me it seems to be akin…
Swarna Reddy’s Comments on Speech Contest Experience « Speak Easy Toastmasters Club Blog — Jan 5th, 2010
[...] The Six Minutes to Public Speaking web site has the 2008 finalists for the world championship. [...]