Berni Plett World Stage

What is it like to be on the stage of the Toastmasters’ World Championship of Public Speaking Contest?

This past Spring, with a fortunate placement at the District 64 International Speech contest, l became eligible as a contestant for the Region 4 quarterfinals. The new rules for 2019 required District winners to be judged via a video selection, and only one of Region 4’s nine Districts’ representatives would move on to the semifinals of the Toastmasters’ International World Championship of Public Speaking, held in Denver.

My best wishes and congratulations went to Eric Beba from District 24. 

Thus, to answer the above question I will pry open the memory bank and go back to 2012 and 2014, when I was gifted with the incredible experiences in participating in the semifinals of the Toastmasters’ International Championship of Public Speaking (2012 in Orlando Florida, 2014 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia). 

What was it like to be on those stages with an audience of 500 plus?

Every contestant will experience the emotional roller-coaster of speech contests differently, generic descriptions will not suffice. 

For me personally, on both occasions before stepping on that stage, I was reminded of the first time I attended a Toastmasters’ club meeting in 2006. On that evening I was literally shaking, trying without much success to calm my nerves, until I was called for Table Topics, at which moment the triple F response set in (flight, fight and freeze).  I lasted a dozen seconds, froze… silence for an additional dozen seconds, when to my relief a compassionate club member suggested I could sit down, no need to wait until the green light came on. 

A few years later, a contestant chair calls my name, the title of the speech, I am on the semifinals’ world stage, nervousness and excitement balancing in the air, and I get to share a message while family and friends from district 64 are in the audience, well wishes palpable. A question persists; how does one get from being too nervous to deal with a 2 min Table Topic all the way to the semifinals stage? A simple answer; the toastmasters’ program that provides support and encouragement at the club level.

Even though the rules that lead to the semifinals and finals have changed, to experience a touch of the world stage is still available to all members. It starts with entering the speech contest at the club level, that same level that provides the most crucial support which we as Toastmaster members are a part.


Berni Plett, ACG/ALB  – 3 time District 64 International Speech Contest Winner