The Area 22 Toastmasters Annual Speech Contest was held to judge the contestants' abilities in the field of verbal communication (in English), leadership skills, public speaking and personality development skills. Omer Al-Hussaini, a Saudi Electrical and Computer Engineer won the contest with an excellent performance and set an example for others by coming across as a competent speaker and leader at the Toastmasters Club. He won first place in two of the four events at the contest held by the Area 22 Toastmasters club (Division A, District 79) in Riyadh recently. Interestingly, his competitors included senior Toastmasters from various nationalities. The contest took place with four categorie: Speech Evaluation, where one senior Toastmaster (Target Speaker) delivers the speech and contestants have to evaluate his speech with positive and negative points; Humorous Speech, where the participants have to make members of the audience laugh; Table Topics, where a topic is given on the spot and participants have to deliver a speech on it accordingly and International Speech, which evaluates the contestants for their suitability to international competitions. The chairman of the contest and Area Governor Toastmaster, Syed Zia ur Rahman, said that having “an eternal vision” was one of the best qualities of Toastmasters in Area 22; a vision to be successful as a speaker, professional, leader of an organization and even as a member of the global community. He said that a review of the activities of Area 22 shows that the program year (2010-2011), was commendable with Toastmasters being able to accomplish several notable achievements. He highlighted various activities and programs conducted by the club during the year. Zia reminded the Toastmasters about their responsibility to inform other people about the benefits of joining this international organization. “The communication and leadership skills we have gained become our strength in leading others,” he remarked. The most appealing aspect of the event was the Contest Masters. The platform impressively displayed how leadership and networking skills are groomed in children at the Kohinoor Gavel Club. Gavelier Anoop Joseph was the Contest Master for the Speech Evaluation contest, Gavelier Sulaiman Shah was the Contest Master for the Humorous Speech contest, Gavelier Shaima Ashraf was the Contest Master for Table Topics contest and Gavelier Husna Rahman was the Contest Master for the International Speech contest. Toastmaster Ayesha Aijaz conducted the banner parade at the start of the event. A panel of 16 judges – led by Toastmaster Nestor Galang – evaluated the various skills of the participants. Apart from Omer Al-Hussaini – who won first place in the International Speech and Humorous Speech contests, Sunila Chaku, who participated in three contests and topped the Speech Evaluation contest, came second place in the Table Topics contest. Delfin Federico won first place in Table Topics contest while Arsenio R. Corres grabbed second position in the Speech Evaluation and Humorous Speech contests. Atif Abdulrahman and Abdul Latheef Kiliyanni won second and third positions respectively in the International Speech contest and Arem Araja came third in the Table Topics contest. In the Humorous Speech contest, meanwhile, Arsenio R. Corres and Shariq Mustaqeem came second and third place respectively while Sivadas Warrie came third in the Speech Evaluation contest. After the initial contests at the club level, Toastmasters compete at the Area and Division level then to become eligible for entry to the District level contests. Successful participants get the opportunity to participate in international contests.
