Some of the best public speakers in the southwest of the province will descend on Moose Jaw on March 23 for the Toastmasters in SW Sask. Area Humorous and International contests.
The event will draw speakers from the BLT club that draws people from around the Regina area as well as Swift Current’s Speedy Creek club. Moose Jaw’s Big Country Toastmasters and TAP (Toastmasters at Palliser) Club will also take part. The event will be held at West Park Crossing Retirement Community (1801 Meier Drive) from 1-4 p.m.
“It’s the first time we’ve been there. There are only the four clubs, so Moose Jaw tends to be the centre of the driving distance for the clubs, so we tend to have it three times out of four in Moose Jaw,” said Lorna Arnold, from the Big Country Toastmasters.
The event features two contests — the international and the humourous contest. The winners of each will advance to the division contest in Regina in mid-April. The winners of the district humour contests will advance to the final stage, which is the district contest in Moose Jaw in May.
The speakers attending in Moose Jaw have already been selected from their home clubs to advance to the SW Sask. Area contest.
The best humourous contest asks speakers to blend humour and information in a compelling way.
“It’s a 5-7 minute speech that needs to include humour. It doesn’t need to be roll-in-the-aisles humour, but it’s not to be one-liners,” Arnold said. “You’re to include stories and be a speech rather than just stand-up comedy one-liners.”
The top speakers in the International contest are eligible to advance through the division and district competitions and then move on to compete at the Toastmasters International Convention in August in Denver.
The speeches for the International contest are also of a similar length but feature a different kind of speech.
