Division E Humorous and Table Topics Contest

Division E contest of Humorous and Table Topic speeches took place on 22nd of November. Our club was well represented: Michelle and Hicham were competing in the Humorous contest while Margherita was competing in the Table Topics contest. This was not the easiest Division contest, as English-speaking competition consisted of 8-9 participants in each category while many of participants had significant contest experience.

We can all be proud of our Zuriberg contestants, as they have improved significantly from the Area level and were totally committed to give their best performance on the Division stage.

Now regarding the results. We have one Zuriberg member who was placed among the three contest winners. Hicham with his humorous speech “The unofficial guide to getting married” became the WINNER OF DIVISION E HUMOROUS CONTEST. His speech was evaluated to be the best among the other eight speeches and he will therefore continue his journey by giving his winning speech during the District 59 Fall Conference in Madrid taking place 11-13 of November.

Please join me in congratulating Michelle, Margherita and Hicham on their achievements!

Area E4 Contest October 11th – what a great evening!

Dear Zuriberg Toastmatsers.

What a great evening it was last Tuesday !

As the chief judge for the English contest, I arrived at 18:00. The room was still empty apart from tables and chairs. Within minutes people started arriving and the room was quickly filling up. What an excitement and what a buzz! There were people from many other clubs, some participating as speakers, others supporting their speakers or as guests. I counted 43 people, with 5 or 6 other clubs present.

The vibration increased in the room as everyone said to old and new friends. As the Judges, contestants, timers etc were being briefed and visitors welcomed.
What an energy in the room.

We enjoyed such wonderful speeches, three in English and one in German. All amazingly well delivered, funny and full of energy.

What followed was the table topics contest. How well this was done by every participant! Just imagine impromptu speaking in a contest.
And the winners of the Humorous speech contest are….. # 1 Hicham and #2 Michelle of our Zuriberg club !

Let me tell you, because if you were not there you surely missed something. Michelle delivered the speech that she first tried-out in the workshop several weeks ago. So great to see how her story had progressed from just a few ideas then into a wonderful speech. Thank you Michelle.

And the winner? Our Hicham! How proud he can be for the speech he delivered. What progress Hicham has made since he joined our club. So well delivered this story funny and sad at the same time.

Congratulations to Margherita for winning the table topics. So good to see how she fearlessly approached the table topic contest and delivered her speech in her own natural way.

Special thanks go to Stefano, the contest chair. The weeks before the contest he had been preparing diligently, making sure everyone knew what was expected of him/her. And on Tuesday night he guided us through the evening with his Italian flair and energy that made this evening for everyone a success.

Best Regards
Ben Nordemann