Dear membersIt is an absolutely fulfilling trip to Macau to attend District 80 Semi-Annual Convention. We're happy to announce that Singapore bagged all the 6 trophies beating contestants from Hong Kong, Macau and Thailand. We made history!
In the photo above is the District 80 Evaluation Contest Champion - Darren Tay from Punggol Toastmasters Club. Not only is he the youngest contestant, he is a fairly new toastmaster of less than 1 year and his first time participating in the contest.
The day before the contest, the contestants drew their speaking slots and Darren told me that he was the first contestant. So I told him that either he impress all the judges and kill the rest of the contestants or risk the judges not remembering him at all as there were 9 very strong contestants. And indeed, he wowed the audience. The audience was unable to keep silent for one minute after his speech!
And his winning is truly amazing, considering he had only 5 minutes to prepare for his evaluation. If you calculate the time difference, the last contestant had another 36 minutes to organize her thoughts, so Darren's win was truly laudable and we're so proud of him.
I would like to encourage all of you to attend District conventions such as this and you will never regret what you have learnt.
Looking forward to the next convention at Bangkok on 28-30 May 2010. I've already booked my convention ticket at $220. Have you signed up yet? The tickets are running out!
