Seven leaders play whippet with relish

What a night!  Two contests, 8 great speeches and a clean sweep from one CCTM member.  But who took it out?  You’ll have to read on to find out …

First up was the Evaluation Contest, chaired by Ellie.  Evaluating a near immaculate speech by Carl Olkott, “Seven great words”, the four contestants were in for a massive challenge to fault it at all!  But everyone rose to the occasion with high quality evaluations leaving our guest speaker with oodles of great feedback.

Following supper was the International Speech Contest, this time with four keen speakers, chaired by Tim.  First out of the blocks was Ade, who immediately made her presence known by unveiling a large display with several photos of Whippet dogs.  “Whippet Good” was a fantastic speech based on Keira & Picalo, two Whippet breed dogs who were adopted into the Brierley family at four year of age, despite Ade swearing that she would never own another pet!

Following in Ade’s footprints was Gary with his very clever speech “Where leaders are made”.  It was clever because after introducing the title and relating the tag-line back to toastmasters, Gary proceeded to dismantle this rather asserting statement, to the point where it became where managers are made.  Instead, Gary assembled the convincing argument that leaders were visionary, doers and not afraid to stand out!

The title “Burn & Relish” had us all wondering what to expect, especially when a speech from JP is concerned!  But “Burn & Relish” was an incredible tale of braveness & self discipline, as JP so animatedly told the story of how he “burned the boats” of his old life and now “relishes” every new opportunity, right from getting up in the morning to turning the steering wheel on his 1990 ute!  “The foe who is without retreat is twice as strong” – incredible words that have clearly transformed our Jonathan for the better.

Then to wrap up the evening we had Dave Young with “Push Play”.  This speech had a little bit of everything –highs and lows, plenty of body language & the use of a prop, a good hearty laugh or two and something deeper to think about.  Based on the DVD remote, Dave moved through the speech one parallel at a time – what would you fast forward in your life?  What would you pause?  What would you rewind?  Great stuff.

And here were the results –

 International Speech

1^st Dave Young

2^nd Jonathan Pederson

 Speech evaluation

1^st Dave Young

2^nd Tim Schurr

Congratulations to all the contestants, the judges, our timer, sergent-at-arms and the event organisers who brought it all together so well.