TOCA 2018, highlights

More than a month ago Astana hosted TOCA 2018 – first in history Central Asia speech contest. Organizing committee and all the participants did really great job and in this review I want to share highlights of the event. ✨

The event took place in the building of Forte Bank – one of the sponsors of the event. This place is fabulous.🤩😍

I was impressed from the very beginning when I saw a lift without buttons. The event itself was in the cozy meeting room: soft seats and dark lights created a friendly atmosphere. I was sitting in the first row to be closer to the speakers, but I couldn’t really see judges and their reaction as they were sitting right behind me. 🤷🏽‍♀️

The judges committee was very experienced, when they were presented by the Madam Contest chair – Aigerim I was really shocked. There were five judges: Mr. Michael Adams - a director from PWC, Mr. Lorenz Metzger – a teacher of public Speaking at Nazarbayev University, a representative of US embassy – Mrs. Heather Priest, a representative from Vienna Toastmasters with huge judging experience – Mrs. Valentina Boroda and TEDX ambassador in Kazakhstan – Mrs. Larissa Pak. I think that this was really hard to find such judges and unite them in one event. 😱✅

There were six amazing speakers: Nursultan Sulaimanov, Asset Omirzhanov, Valeriya Nabatova, Sergey Saprykin, Vladislav Son and Rizwana Buch. ✊🏼👍🏼

Nursultan from Bishkek toastmasters was privileged to open the contest and he did this really great. I have never expected to hear a speech that praises a woman from a man born in Asian country. But Nursultan did this in a very touching and sincere way. His story about Kirgiz governess and her commitment to her nation was outstanding. Nursultan supported his story with very well prepared body language.👏🏼

The second speaker was Asset who represented Astana Toastmasters Club. He is the winner of ATC speech contest and Astana city contest. Over 3 years of his Toastmasters journey he has earned CC, CL, ACB, ALB, ACS and on his way to DTM.Asset is one the most creative and interesting speakers that I have ever heard. He told a story about the founder of toastmasters Ralph Smedley in another way. His story included real experience and various jokes. I loved that he organized the speech really well. Even though I knew how the story ended it was interesting to listen to it.

Thanks to speaker number three – Valeriya we were able to travel in the Australian desert. Valeriya was representing Atyrau Open Toastmasters club and she did great job. In this speech I saw extremely smooth and natural use of visual aids. During the speech of Valeriya I felt as if I were sitting in front of the fire and was listening to the camp story. In her speech there was drama, strength of will and humor. I really believe that her speech was underestimated.🙈

Next speaker Sergey came to Astana from Moscow Toastmasters Club - World Surfers. He showed the audience totally new approach to storytelling. His speech was about virtual reality glasses that could change toastmasters meetings forever. Although I didn’t understand the whole conception I realized that every single moment in his speech was well thought out. Sergey demonstrated outstanding vocal variety and advanced body language. But he exceeded time the limit for several minutes what probably affected the judges’ decision.👓🖖🏻

I didn’t expect a lot from the speech with title “Hi, my name is Vlad”. But this simple title covered a story about complicated life. Vladislav shared a very personal story about life of his family. But his story was not only about him or his family, he told a story about true humanity, compassion and sharing of the same tragedy. He was speaking about dramatic things, but he added very convenient jokes that relieved the tension. Vocal variety, body language, visual aids – everything was on the highest level. Vlad presented Almaty Toastmasters in the best way.❤️

The last but not the least speaker came from Dubai. Rizwana holds dual membership of two Dubai clubs - Burj Toastmasters club and Desert Voices Toastmasters club. Moreover, she is current Vice President of Education of her club. In the past she was serving as the Secretary of the club. Rizwana's notable accomplishments are Outstanding Toastmaster 2016-2017, Triple Crown 2017-2018. Rizwana was one of the most experienced participants of the contest and her story was very philosophic for me. There were a lot of vivid descriptions, but they weren’t boring at all. Her story was truthful and touching. Rizwana delivered her story demonstrating interesting vocal variety and fluent body language. 👍🏼

In addition to the judges decision, the audience had a chance to choose the speaker that they liked the most. The voting was made online and was accessible for everyone.

When all speakers delivered their speeches we were able to go to the coffee break and share our emotions with each other. People were spending a great time discussing the speakers and trying to guess who was going to win. ☕️

I believe that the fact the audience choice and choice of the jury is wonderful. After this no one could say that the judges were biased or unfair. 💁🏽‍♀️

Just a reminder:

1st place and choice of the audience - outstanding Vladislav Son from Almaty Toastmasters 🥇

2nd place - eloquent Asset Omirzhanov from Astana Toastmasters 🥈

3rd place - amazing Rizwana Buch🥉

Organizing commitee prepared wonderful presents for winners and all the participants of the contest. These wonderful souvenirs will remind about TOCA 2018 and Kazakhstan.

Room for improvement.

As I heard there were many people who wanted to come to the contest but number of seats was limited. In the contest day I saw that there were people who even came to the contest but they couldn't come in. Also there were people who registred to the contest and didn't come. I think that it is important to find a bigger place so that more people could come to such events.

Another thing that can make the atmosphere more vivid is Table Topic Session. Table Topic Session can increase engagement of the audience. When I was at Astana city Contest 2016 there was Table Topic and this was really great. Visitors could have expressed their opinions and got the reaction.

During the event there was live provided by VP PR of Astana Toastmasters Club - Ainur Kartayeva. It was great, but I felt that the amount of work was really huge for one person. Next time I belive that there should be a team of people (apart from organizing commitee) who will help to take photos, videos, etc.

Overall, there were some weaknesses but the level of the speakers and judges made this event amazing.

I hope that TOCA 2018 was the beginning and in future Astana will unite toastmasters from all over the world.