To all the Toastmasters who are interested to be judges/will be playing the role of judges in the upcoming International Speech Contest, I would like to share with you about the Winning Speech Forum that will be organised by Division W on 6th February 2010 (Saturday).

The decision of a judge is very important and it would affect the outcome of a contest. When one decides to play the role as a judge, he would need to make sure that his decision is just and he has clear conscience that he does his very best to choose the best speaker during the contest as the winner. And by doing so, he provides the chance for the best speaker in the contest to compete at the next level.

How exactly are we going to make sure that we pick the contestants with the best performance based on the criteria set by Toastmasters International, as a judge during a contest?

This is exactly how this forum would help:

The Winning Speech Forum will be facilitated by DTM Dr Arul and DTM Loghandran. Presentations on how a speech is judged in a contest (based on the judging form) will be presented by DTM Dr Arul (on speech development, effectiveness and speech value) and DTM Loghandran (on Delivery and Language).

After the presentation, 4 videos for the past International Speech Winners would be played. Each of them would be scrutinised and dissected by DTM LeAnn Tang, DTM Dominic Joseph, DTM Geoff Andrew and DTM Ramdas Nayar according to the judging form used in a contest. They would give the scores to the speakers and provide the reason why and how did the scores come about.

I personally have attended a few judging workshop but I always find them to be very theoretical. In this forum, it is very practical to all of us because we will be shown how judging is done in real time and why a certain scores is given and what exactly are the judging criteria listed in Speech Development, Effectiveness, Speech value, Delivery and Language in the judging form is all about. With this forum, we now have the rare opportunity to get the more experienced judges in our community in the central region to show us how it is done. The details of the forum are as follows.

Date : 6 Feb 2010 (Saturday)
Time : 1.30pm – 5.30pm
Venue: Uptown Conference Centre, Level 12, Tower A, Uptown 5, Petaling Jaya

Single ticket is sold at RM 25 (including lunch). For now (up to 16th January 2010), Division W is offering a group package of RM 20 per ticket for any group with 6 people or more (RM 120 for six tickets). Not to worry though, if you could not gather 6 people or more in your club. Please inform me of the numbers and I will match you up with other Toastmasters so that you will still benefit from the group price. Tickets will be a fix price of RM 25 each after 16th January 2010.

The last day to book the tickets for the group package expires on 16th January 2010. So book your tickets from Loh Chia Hur, Tan Lay Theng or Cheong Kuok Sum before the time runs out for the group package price. Please make your booking with us and we will instruct you on how to make the payment. We will pass the tickets to you once the payment is made. You can contact us at:

Organising Chair
Name: Loh Chia Hur
Email: chiahur@gmail.com
Phone Number: +6016 650 0856

Asst. Organizing Chair
Name: Cheong Kuok Sum
Email: kuoksum@gmail.com
Phone Number: +6012 689 3511

Marketing Director
Name: Tan Lay Theng
Email: laytheng@gmail.com
Phone Number: +6012 254 5095

Name: Janice Lee
Email: janice_ladycanary@hotmail.com
Phone Number: +6012 668 3291

Name: Lee Soo Ling
Email: sooling.lee@ireka.com.my
Phone Number: +6012 216 3868

Name: Angeline Lee
Email: angeline.lee@thetasp.com
Phone Number: +6016 660 0342


Contributed by Tan Lay Theng, Area Governor W7