The members of different toastmasters club and guests were enthralled by speaker after speaker who regaled them with their oratory skills and inspirational stories during the annual Area 9 contest held at Marhaba Restaurant in Al Khobar recently. The event began with a colorful banner parade conducted by Sibte Rizvi where the leaders of 6 Toastmasters clubs marched with their club banners amid thunderous applause. The contestants who had moved to Area Level after winning positions at their respective clubs dazzled the audience with their public speaking skills. A total of 35 Toastmasters participated in the contests under four categories, namely; International speeches, Table Topics Speeches, Humorous Speeches and Evaluation Speeches. Ahmed Al Jaroudi was adjudged the first place winner in International Speech contest whereas Omer Farooq Malik and Imran Fakhi won second and third place respectively. Rubab Fatima won first place in Table Topics contest as well as Evaluation Speech contest. Ahmed Al Jaroudi got second place in Table Topics contest and third place in Evaluation speech contest. Omer Farooq Malik won second place in Evaluation speech contest and third place in the Table Topics speech contest. Hassan Al Jabri was adjudged the first place winner in Humorous Speech contest whereas Tahir Jamil got second place. The event was ably anchored by an agile toastmaster, Balasubramanian Vijay Varadharaj who was assisted by four vibrant contest masters, Bandar Al Zunaid, Meiyalagan Kuppuswami, Bader Aboalsaudi and Mohammed Azhar Farooq. Kaleem Ahmed was the chief judge of the contest and was assisted by a panel of judges. Kholood Al Hawasawi, Noor Ahmed Khan, Hessa Al Otaibi, Ponmanikandan, Ammar Al Maatuq, Aisha Al Hawasawi, Shahid Asrar and Alaa H. Ghaith, who were assigned different jobs and roles ensured smooth conduct of the contest. Omer Farooq Muhammed Azhar Farooq, B. Vijay Varadharaj, Suhail Rais Siddiqui and Abdullah Ben Mahfoudh helped the team in designing the contest magazine, certificates, posters and agenda and arranging shields. Syed Noor, the Area 9 Director thanked sponsors: Al–Majdouie Group, Mohammad Majdouie and Al Majdouie Steel industries and McDermon and acknowledged their support and patronage. Toastmasters International is an organization which provides a platform to enhance public speaking skills in a friendly atmosphere. There are more than 292,000 members and over 14,350 Toastmasters clubs in 122 countries. After being declared a separate District, the popularity of Toastmasters is growing in Saudi Arabia.
