World Champions of Public Speaking Corner
This page has stories and photos of recent World Champions of Public Speaking, along with photos and links.
2011 - Jock Elliott
Read about this year's World Champion of Public Speaking, Jock Elliott, from District 69, Australia.
You can view photos and a video of the winning speech, and highlights of past years on links from the World Champions page.
New Zealand's Kingi Biddle was a finalist in the 2011 World Championship contest.
2010 - David Henderson
Congratulations to the 2010 World Champion of Public Speaking, David Henderson from District 55, San Antonio, Texas, USA. David was awarded the title from his speech, "The Aviators."
Second place was awarded to Robert MacKenzie from District 1, Los Angeles, California, USA with his speech "My Alter Ego" and third place was awarded to, Linus Chang from District 73, Canterbury, Victoria, Australia.
From left: Linus Chung (3rd), David Henderson (World Champion) and Robert MacKenzie (2nd).
Photo from Toastmasters International website.
You can also read the press release about David's Speech on the Toastmasters International website.
Read "A Death-Defying Flight to Victory" - an article in the November 2010 Toastmaster Magazine, describing David's journey to the top.
View video highlights of previous World Champions from the link on the home page.
New Zealander Robin Grieve from the Whangarei Club was one of the nine finalists in the World Championship Contest.
Robin Grieve holding trophy and certificate with District 72 supporters at Palm Desert
From left: Jann Meehan, Steve Bullock, Denis McCord, and Joan Hook.
2009 - Mark Hunter, Australia
2009 World Champion of Public Speaking Mark Hunter (seated)
with the District 72 team at the rear : Frank Meyer,
Chrissy Meyer, Denis McCord and Steve Bullock
Mark Hunter of Albany Creek, Queensland, Australia, claimed the title of World Champion of Public Speaking with his speech titled, "A Sink Full of Green Tomatoes." Second and Third place went to Mary Cheyne of Somerville, Massachusetts, for "Nelly" and Erick Rainey of Portland, Oregon, for "Feed the Right Dog." The contest took place at the Toastmasters International Convention, which took place at Mashantucket, Connecticut, on August 15, 2009.
2008 - Lashunda Rundles, Texas
Lashunda Rundles, a Toastmaster and motivational speaker in Dallas, Texas, emerged victorious and claimed the title of 2008 World Champion of Public Speaking. Her speech, "Speak!", encouraged people to use their voices to change the world. Rundles is excited about being the first African-American woman – and only the fourth woman, ever – to win this prestigious competition. She plans to continue changing the world and hopes to become the national spokesperson for the Lupus Foundation of America. As a lupus survivor, she says she feels particularly qualified to speak on behalf of other patients.
Growing up in a small Texas town created unique challenges and opportunities for Rundles. Her parents were both educators, and when her mother discovered that her precocious daughter was reading at age three – and misbehaving out of boredom – she challenged the little girl to memorize 25 children’s books. Reciting these led to public speaking, and Rundles gave her first solo presentation in front of a convention at age five. Her winning speech in the World Championship competition discussed her mother’s strong guidance through this early juncture in her life.
Second- and third-place winners in the World Championship of Public Speaking were Loghandran Krishnasamy of Puchong, Malaysia, with his speech "Finding the Rythm" and Katherine Morrison of West Roxbury, Massachusetts, with her speech "Baby, Don’t Believe Them."
For more information, visit Toastmasters International. Story and photo taken from TMI website.
2007 - Vikas Jhingran
World Champion: Vikas Jhingran
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Second Place: Rory Vaden
Nashville, Tennessee
Third Place: Mark Hunter
Albany Creek, Queensland, Australia
News from MIT website
An MIT doctoral candidate in mechanical and ocean engineering from India has won first place in the Toastmasters International World Championship of Public Speaking with a speech about finding himself through meditation - and about getting into MIT, the graduate school of his dreams.
Vikas Jhingran, 34, presented "The Swami's Question" to an audience of 2,000 at the Marriott Desert Ridge Resort in Phoenix, Arizona, on August 18th.
A native of Morabadad, India, Jhingran is a specialist in offshore drilling and oil and gas production; he came to MIT in 2004. Since then, he has been steadily involved with leadership and communication programs, and he is an advocate of establishing communications courses as part of the MIT engineering curriculum.
Read the full story on the MIT website and look on the Talking Toastmasters website for the podcast. Also read Angie Flinn's blog and personal description of the 10 World Championship speeches for some background, plus a photo of the champion.
2006 - Edward Hearn
Edward Hearn, a Toastmaster from Chicago, Illinois, emerged victorious and claimed the title of 2006 World Champion of Public Speaking. His speech, "Bouncing Back," dealt with the importance of resiliency. He explained, "In life, all of us will have circumstances where life treats us like the toy punching bag I had as a child. It will knock you down. The question is, how will you bounce back?"
Hearn is a lawyer and minister who enjoyed speech and debate classes in high school and moot court in law school. Until now, he considered public speaking a hobby. Winning the speech contest was the step he needed to reach his goal of becoming a professional public speaker.
Hearn's theme of "failure is not final" was based on personal experience: It took him seven attempts to pass the bar exam, and he eventually became a successful criminal defense attorney.
Visit Ed Hearn's website to learn more about Ed and his life.
2005 - Lance Miller
Lance Miller, a 13-year veteran Toastmaster from Glendale, California, won the coveted title of 2005 World Champion of Public Speaking. His speech, "The Ultimate Question," dealt with the importance of validating others with sincere compliments, repeatedly using the phrase "cha-chink" to drive home the notion of validation. Miller is a veteran contestant in local Toastmasters speech contests, but this was his first time competing as a finalist in the World Championship. "Competing pushes you outside your comfort zone," he says. "You get to feel uncomfortable in many different speaking situations."
Miller is president of The Way to Happiness Foundation in Glendale and former vice president of the International Foundation for Human Rights and Tolerance. Winning the speech contest was the step he needed to reach his goal of becoming a professional public speaker.
Second and third-place winners in the World Championship of Public Speaking were Angela Louie of New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada, and Erick Rainey of Edinburgh, Scotland.
2004 - Randy Harvey
2004 World Champion of Public Speaking
Randy Harvey with his speech, "Lessons from Fat Dad."
Randy is from Sherwood, Oregon, in Region I.
Second Place
Doug Kruger with his speech, "Hold My Hand."
Doug is from Strubens Valley, Roodepoort Gauteng, South Africa
Third Place
James Webb with his speech, "The Ride of Life."
James is from Casselberry, Florida, in Region VIII.
2003 - Jim Key
It was the Olympics of oratory, the final bout for the heavyweight title of "World Champion of Public Speaking." Who would win? A crowd of 1,300 Toastmasters from around the world gathered in Atlanta, Georgia, in August 2003 to cheer for their favourite speaker at the Toastmasters International Speech Contest.
Jim Key, a 4-year veteran of Toastmasters from Rowlett, Texas, emerged victorious and claimed the title of 2003 World Champion of Public Speaking. His speech, "Never Too Late," described how it's never too late to follow our dreams, regardless of the difficulty, heartache and disappointment we face in life. He spoke from experience: this was Key's third attempt at winning the World Championship. He's been one of the nine finalists for the last three years, coming in second in 2001 and 2002. During his emotional acceptance speech, there wasn't a dry eye in the house.
Jim, a father of three, is a computer systems analyst with Lennox International, Inc. Winning the speech contest brought him one step closer to reaching his goal of becoming a full-time professional public speaker.
Jim Key tells us how he did it!
My journey to become the 2003 World Champion of Public Speaking was a tremendous growing experience. I first reached the Championship in 2001. While I was absolutely delighted to be there, I also wanted very badly to win the title. I did finish as the 1st Runner-Up, and decided immediately to try again the following year. In 2002, I again reached the championship, only to received the 1st Runner-Up's trophy once more. While this was an unprecedented achievement (being the 1st Runner-Up twice), it was hard to celebrate fully, because I had still come short of my goal.
To say that I was sorely disappointed would be a colossal understatement. Consequently, my decision to try a third time took much greater consideration. I knew all too well exactly how difficult the process would be, and didn't relish starting all over again. In the end, my desire to become the Champion, to feel the personal satisfaction of knowing that I had absolutely given my best, and the need to be an example of a "never give up" attitude to my children, helped me make the decision to try yet again.
In 2003, I again made it back to the Championship. (To my knowledge, no other World Championship contestant has competed three years running.) When the results were announced, I had prevailed and was named the 2003 World Champion of Public Speaking.
How did I do it? I had a carefully planned approach to the contests, and I now can freely offer that advice to other Toastmasters. It is as follows:
1. Pay particular attention to your writing. (In my case, I sought writing advice from someone whose writing I respected, which was 1990 World Champion David Brooks.)
2. Solicit particular advice on your performance. Have many meaningful practices at other clubs. By "meaningful" I mean with audiences that will give you quality feedback. Look at the feedback you receive objectively, and take to heart the advice which resonates with you. If you get some advice that you don't feel is right for you (after carefully considering it), don't be afraid to discard it. It is, after all, YOUR speech.
3. Use staging to your advantage. Instead of dividing the stage into thirds, and making sure to walk to each area and make a point, I look for creative ways to use the stage to bring my stories to life, so that the audience could not only hear about them, they could experience them. This is another area in which you should seek out the advice of someone whose expertise in it (staging) you respect.
4. Video tape your practices (both with other clubs and practices by yourself). This helped me to see and hear how all of the parts of my speech worked, and how the audience would see and hear it.
5. Understand that your 5 to 7 minutes is a great opportunity to do something valuable for the audience. All of the performance elements in delivering your speech are important, and it's necessary that you do them well. Ultimately, however, it's not about you; it's about them (the audience). Your message can make a difference for someone, and that is just as rewarding as being named the contest winner.
All of these things are important, but I made sure that each time I worked on items #1 through #4, I kept item #5 in mind. As I told the New Zealand 2002 Public Speaking Champion (Ivan Moss) last year, there are three measures of success in speech contests:
1. Accolades/adulation (winning the contest falls under this one)
2. Personal growth and learning
3. Doing something meaningful/valuable for the audience
While most people focus on winning, the other two are just as valuable.
Lastly, I would say, remember to enjoy yourself. Failing to win a contest is not the end of the world! Instead, it can be the beginning of a future success, if you learn from it, and never lose your desire to improve. Believe me, I know!
Perhaps the best part of winning the Championship is tied to the rule that makes me ineligible to compete in any more speech contests: I am now able to teach what I have learned through this process, to new Toastmaster friends around the world. Who knows, maybe I'll even be able to visit your great District one day!
For more information visit Jim Key's website: www.jimkey.com where you can download and print the staging script for Jim's winning speech, view photographs and other Toastmasters articles, and email Jim at jim@jimkey.com.
