Why?
I really mean that - why bother with competitions. I honestly and genuinely can’t see the point. I don’t want to be rude to people who are entering (and doing will in such things - see here, for example) but to me it seems to be akin to such things as
- competitive ironing;
- combat yoga.
You see, to me, a competition in public speaking and/or presenting seems to defeat the whole point of speaking in public - you’re not (or at least you shouldn’t be!) doing it for yourself. If you’re doing it for anyone at all, it should be for the audience. That said, personally I think you should be speaking for the sake of your subject. “Don’t speak unless you can’t not” would be a good Yoda-like mantra, wouldn’t it?
If you’re speaking to compete, almost by definition you’re doing it to see if you can do it better than the other people there - and that’s just plain ol’ ego, isn’t it? Well not entirely, but I’m sure you see what I’m getting at, even if I am overstating my case. You’re certainly speaking to speak, not speaking to say something. You’re even being marked on things like technique!
Now don’t get me wrong, I believe in good technique - good techniques makes it easier to give a good presentation - but it’s not an end in itself… it’s a means to an end. You can deliver damned good presentations with only mediocre technique, sometimes.
Seriously, I can see that there’s a use to “low-level” competitions - they’re a bit of fun and they give some focus to improvements and so on (they’re also a harmless hobby, of course!) but when it comes to things like a World Championship I’m a bit lost.
Quite apart from the innate pointlessness of it all, it gets worse because of the necessity of imposing rules (such as a seven minute time limit). That’s arbitrary. By all means speak for seven minutes if that’s how long it takes to say what you’ve got to say but if it takes four, take four. If it needs nine, take nine.
Add to that the self-referential elements of it (quite a few of the presentations are simply about making presentations 
) fact that the “world championship” only involves Americans and it really does start to sound like not my cup of tea.
{ 5 } Comments
Simon,
I understand your point. However, as someone who has competed and even won the Toastmasters District 38 contest this year, I feel the contests are important, because it forces you to master the basics of public speaking. By the way a part of the basics of public speaking is giving the audience something they need. Contestants who don’t give the audience something they can use in there everyday lives rarely ever win.
First things first - congratulations on your win!
Actually I *can* see the point of what I called “low level” competitions for the very reasons you outline. I think what I’m ranting about (yes, I know it’s a rant, not a reasoned article!
) is the people who see the competitions as an end in themselves, not people - like you - who use them as a *means* rather than the *end*.
Glad to have your comments!
S
I love this post. I totally agree that contest speeches don’t lead to great professional speakers. But it ain’t a bad place to start. : )
For what it is worth, I have never been in toastmasters.
Cheers. Nice blog. Keep up the nice work.
Brad
“quite a few of the presentations are simply about making presentations” — perhaps things are different in different areas of the world, but I have not seen a single contest speech at any level that was about making a presentation. The vast majority of themes are message-centric and story-based, and tend to be motivational in nature.
“the ‘world championship’ only involves Americans” — Not true. The World Championship of Public Speaking finals featured 7 Americans, one Canadian, one Australian, and one Malaysian speaker. The contest ratios are drawn from membership in the Toastmasters organization, and will be tipping more towards non-Americans as the member demographics shift.
“You can deliver damned good presentations with only mediocre technique, sometimes.” — This is very rare. If what you mean to say is ‘you can deliver good content with mediocre technique’, then I agree. However, effectively delivering a message to an audience in a way that is memorable and long-lasting requires knowledge (and execution) of delivery techniques.
Finally, why compete? Check out my article: Lessons Learned from Toastmasters Speech Contests or an Interview with the 2008 World Champion, LaShunda Rundles.
Hi Andrew.
About your first point: I was simply basing that suggestion on looking at the Toastmaster’s site. If I got the wrong impression from that I apologise.
Your second point: hmmm…. 70% American. I think, given the flavour of my post being slightly tonge-in-cheek I’m tempted to stand by my original assertion: how many contries compete in the Baseball World Series?
Last point - well, we’re just going to have to disagree here. I’ve seen plenty of presentations when the technique wasn’t anything better than mediocre but the overall effect was simply stunning. Usually it’s due to having amazing content and annate personal charisma. I did say “sometimes” - don’t infer that I thought it was common! Effectively delivering a message doesn’t REQUIRE knowldge and execute of delivery techniques… as sure as eggs are eggs it helps, of course, but all I’m saying is that sometimes things transcend our mere techniques.
Personally, I’d say that Ms Rundles interview (thank you for the link to your own site) makes this point for me in a way: “also learned about putting filters in place. I actually had someone evaluate me and slam my gestures, my voice, my enunciation, and me referencing my ethnicity. After the tears dried up, I realized that some people just have evil intentions. Your speech can be perfect and some people will find something wrong just to have something to say. I decided to follow my heart and I knew that even if I lost, I was true to what I had to say. Needless to say, my heart won.”
Or see this post: the presentation isn’t perfect - far from it. Bits of it are poorly delivered in fact, but it’s still a great, great presentation.
Cheers….. Simon
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