Toastmasters International District 82 “Reverberations 2016” Mid Year Conference – a grand success
Toastmasters in Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu belonging to District 82 of Toastmasters International, held their Semi Annual Conference “Reverberation 2016” at the VIT University, Vellore, India over three days from 04th to 06th November.
More than 400 Toastmasters representing 12 Divisions of District 82 participated in this conference, where more than 150 Sri Lankan Toastmasters from 6 of those Divisions, were present to cheer and encourage their members who took part in the Humorous Speech Contest and Speech Evaluation Contest to pick the best from the District.
Sri Lanka has a total of 103 clubs, belonging to 6 Divisions and each of these Divisions were represented by the winners of their Humorous Speech and Speech Evaluation Contests and they competed with the winners of 6 other Divisions from Tamil Nadu, for top honours.
Toastmasters Garvin Murray of Ralph Toastmasters (Division A), Shamen Sameera of Serendib Toastmasters (Division C), Jagath Lal Wickramasekara of IESL Toastmasters (Division E), Usman Jauffer of Expolanka Toastmasters (Division F), Sudath Fernando from FTZ Toastmasters (Division H) and Kavishka Perera of PLC Toastmasters (Division J) competed with the winners of the six Divisions in Tamil Nadu in the Humorous Speech Contest category.
In the Speech Evaluation contest, where one Test speech is evaluated by all contestants, for the judges to pick the best among them, it was Toastmasters Arshad Mohideen from CIM Toastmasters (Division A), Mario Wickramarachchi of Braybrooke Toastmasters (Division C), Sandun Fernando of Smedley Toastmasters (Division E) Hisham Yasir of Expolanka Toastmasters (Division F), Farweez Imamudeen of Kandy Toastmasters (Division H) and Michelle de Silva of HNB Toastmasters (Division J) from Sri Lanka who competed with the 6 Division Contest winners from Tamil Nadu.
With 12 contestants in the fray for each category, the District Contest was worked out with two Semi Finals on Saturday 05th November to pick the best 6 for the finals the next day.
Toastmaster Rosanne Ranasinghe from Singer Sri Lanka Toastmasters Club and Toastmaster TM Sai Sachin from IIT Madras Toastmasters Club, presented the two Test Speeches which were evaluated by the contestants of the two Semi Finals.
Toastmaster Sandun Fernando emerged as the winner of the Speech Evaluation Contest of District 82 having competed with the other 5 finalists from Clubs representing Tamil Nadu all of whom evaluated the Test Speech that was presented by Toastmaster Devan Gunasingham from Panadura Toastmasters Club. The second placed and third placed in this contest were Toastmaster A. Shyamraj and Toastmaster Hemamalini, both from Tamil Nadu.
The Humorous Speech Contest of District 82 was won by Toastmaster Karthik Mohandas of CAT-EDCI Toastmasters Club Chennai, while Toastmaster Alen Ephrem of TCS Maitree Champions Toastmasters Club and Toastmaster Sudath Fernando (FTZ Toastmasters Club) emerged as the runner up and 2nd runner up respectively.
In addition to some very interesting speeches and inspiring evaluations, the participants at the conference were also enriched with some valuable presentations by eminent speakers throughout the three days.
International Vice President of Toastmasters International DTM Nagaraj Rao made an interesting presentation on leadership traits while Ms Anu George an Indian Human Rights activist attached to the International Justice Mission made a heart-warming delivery of her plea for action against forced labour.
Second Runner up of the World Championship of Public Speaking in 2015, TM Manoj Vasudevan made a thought provoking presentation on mastering leadership and the conference ended with an interactive education session on how anyone can be a star by Mr Prakash Rohera a highly accomplished International Trainer leading corporate trainer of repute.