District 80 Evaluation Contest 2008

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. -- proverb.

The District 80 Evaluation Contest was held on Saturday, 22 Nov 2008, two days before my exams (I'm currently doing a part-time course in Traditional Chinese Medicine). I had considered not going to concentrate on my exams but this could be my only chance to take part in a district contest. In the end, I decided to gain some contest experience and learn from the other contestants.

There were 8 contestants, 4 males & 4 females. I was the first contestant, not very ideal as that meant I only had 5 minutes to prepare my evaluation speech. On the other hand, the plus point was I could get to hear all the other contestants.

The test speaker Poh Kim Siong is not only a Distinguished Toastmaster, but also the International Director, a well-known figure in the Toastmaster circle. He delivered a speech entitled "Courage to Conquer". Good start, I thought, alliterative title. Unfortunately, the rest of the speech did not match the quality of the title. The speech had no structure, no focus and no impact.

During the 5 minutes of preparation time, I frantically plotted my gameplan - 3 positives and 3 negatives. However I could not think of a suitable acronym for the 3 negatives so in the end I went for 4 negatives. Turned out to be a bad move because there was too much content and I probably went overtime.

The acronyms I used were ACE for Audience participation, Confidence and Energy; and ACME for Animated, Craft your speech, Memorable conclusion and Emotions. Once I stepped off the stage, I knew I had blown it. I had made two major mistakes: (1) I had too much content (& probably went overtime) and (2) I insulted the speaker. I said something like 'Your conclusion was so forgettable that I can't even remember what you said." I could hear the audience gasp at the sheer audacity of my statement.

The winner from Hong Kong kept her evaluation short and sweet with two plus points and two minus points. She also cleverly used abbreviations related to the speaker. She used ID (which stands for International Director) for commendations -- Interesting and Dynamic; and TI (which stands for Toastmasters International) for recommendations -- Timing & Itemize.

After thinking long and hard about my lacklustre performance, I thought of an alternative to the recommendations I could have used.

Use 3Ps instead of ACME:
1. Plan an attention-grabbing introduction
Use of the questioning technique when overdone loses its effectiveness.
Reduce the numerous questions in the introduction to just three.
Craft the questions so that they are relevant to the speech and easy for the audience to understand and respond to.

2. Polish your language
Craft your speech to avoid basic grammatical mistakes and awkward sentence structures.
Use rhetorical devices and vivid words that appeal to the senses of the audience.
Deliberate every word you use so that you can achieve the greatest impact with your words.

3. Present with Passion
As a leader, you are in the position to influence and inspire the people you lead.
If you want to persuade them to share your values, you must present with passion.
I want to see the fire in your eyes and hear the conviction in your voice.
You spoke with sincerity but sincerity alone is not enough.
To persuade with power, passion is a vital ingredient.

Now, isn't that better?