Make your next speech contest stand out.
If you’re in Toastmasters for any length of time, there is a good chance you are going to have the opportunity to participate in a contest. You may even have the chance to be the Chairperson of said contest, perhaps by default because you’re the division or area governor. I’ve been the Chair of at least three division contests and two area contests (and more than a few club contests), and in this article you’re going benefit from this battle-proven experience to get over twenty five secrets for making your contest AWESOME. Some of these secrets I’ve applied from other leadership experience, and others I’ve learned the hard way. If you use these secrets, your contests will run on time, be much more fun (and thus attract more people), and let you sleep soundly, instead of panicking that something isn’t in place.
You may have noticed that both in the title and in the previous paragraph, I’ve capitalized AWESOME. That’s because it’s more than just hype – it’s an acronym. Let’s go through it.
First, A – for “Anticipate your needs”. This is where your planning skills come into play. I’m going to assume you have a month’s worth of time to get your contest going. Major elements to plan for are:
- People. You need to track contestants, a Toastmaster, a Chief Judge, judges, timers, ballot counters, sergeant at arms, and perhaps special guests.
- Location. You’ll need a big room, chairs, tables, and – very important – accessible climate control. If you don’t know where to get one, check with the person who previously held your position for where they held it. Become friends with the room owner in a hurry so you can communicate updates and needs. Also, know where the bathrooms are.
- Agendas, forms, certificates, scripts, and other paperwork. Also, trophies.
- Tools. Timer flags or lights, stopwatches, Decor. Flags, banners, and other decoration.
- Food and beverage (if allowed). If you’re having a morning contest, water, coffee (plus creamer, sugar, sugar substitute, and stirrers), and orange juice are the norm.
- Extras (see the last E for details).
A good checklist or spreadsheet is a life saver. Also, make sure to make plans to spread out the work, with milestones set per week, or per day in the final week (these milestones are targets such as “send forms to speakers by this date”). This will spare you untold amounts of stress.
Once you get Anticipating your needs down, it’s time to move on to our next letter: W – for “Work with your contestants and role holders early”. Recruiting volunteers is a major source of stress for many chairs. It is not as hard as you think, but it must be done early so that momentum can be built.
For clubs, recruit everyone that can attend – if your club is low in numbers, coordinate with another club that is low in numbers as well and hold a joint contest. Also, invite your area and division governors. A huge hint: When calling for volunteers, make them select a position they would like to take (but do it privately so that judge anonymity is preserved).
For area governors, go to your club contests, and bring a clipboard. Make it a point to get names, numbers, e-mail addresses, Facebook contacts, or whatever works for you, of people willing and able to help. NOTE: Don’t do this at the end of the contest – people will be wanting to leave or talk to the contestants. At the opening or at a break (if applicable) is preferable.
For division governors, go to your area contests with a clipboard as above, and also do an exchange program with your fellow division governors.
Give your contestants the forms they need ahead of time and make it clear to them what they have to bring and who they must give it to. This includes eligibility & originality forms, notification of contest winner forms, and if applicable, video recording permission forms. Note: Contestants need to know where their forms from earlier contests are (that is, if it’s a division contest, they have to have their area and club-level forms), if they don’t have them. Oh, and bring extra forms.
Third, E – for “Expect & avoid SNAFUs”. People are going to cancel at the last moment or simply not show up. You’re going to have a ton of stuff to setup, and something will happen to make you run late. You are going to be blitzed come the day of the contest as what seem like hundreds of people all needing a form, a special stage setup, or asking where the bathroom is. As a result, the clock ticks way past the start time, and more and more people start getting restless. Things can go wrong in a hurry, but you can short-circuit Murphy’s law with the following tips:
Be flexible and have backups. Most any Toastmaster is going to be able and willing to help, so take advantage of this. (Also see the next letter in our acronym)
For your forms: You need a file case. You need colored hanging folders. You need colored filing folders. You need printed labels. Why? You will be swamped with contestants, judges, timers, and ballot counters all asking for forms. By having these sorted and color coded (and therefore super easy to locate and distribute), you’ll save a huge amount of time and frustration.
Similar to the forms box, separate your other materials into their own boxes (e.g. food in one box, napkins, plates, cups, and so on in another box, decor in another) to make it much easier for your assistants to work with them (as opposed to have a little of everything in a few boxes that people have to go back and forth to empty).
Do not try to setup a contest in half an hour – it won’t happen. You need at least an hour, if not an hour and a half. Make sure you can get into the room early and begin preparations.
If you’re planning on getting food and drink, make sure it will be ready when you need it (I once dropped in to a store to get a carafe of coffee and the person there didn’t know how to fill those. Luckily, I had gotten there very early!).
Do a walkthrough of the room you’ve reserved and check how you want it set up prior to your contest.
Especially for contests in the morning, pre-load your car with all the forms, displays, and everything else you’re taking the night before. Have your clothes picked out and ready to go too (sounds silly, but you can make some pretty poor wardrobe decisions in the wee hours).
Related to the third principle is our fourth letter, S – short for “Share the load”. Just like one person trying to judge, time, and collect votes wouldn’t work, neither will trying to get the contest setup by yourself work.
Don’t try to have one person brief everyone – it will take too much time. The Toastmaster can brief the contestants, the Chief Judge can brief the judges, and the Chair(s) can brief the other role holders. The Toastmaster and Chair can then report to the Chief Judge that their people were briefed.
Do not try to setup everything yourself. This will stress you out in the extreme. Most every Toastmaster who attends contests will ask to help you, so if you have “modules” that people can work on (e.g. Distributing agendas, setting up the food table, distributing your color-coded forms folders, etc.), you won’t be overwhelmed.
If you can, assign someone to answer phone calls about where the contest is (call them the “GPS Master”, perhaps!) and how they can get to it. No matter how good your directions are on the events page, you’re bound to get a few calls asking how to find it. As the chair, you’re going to be busy, and having phone calls coming in from stressed out people when you’re stressed out is not going to work out well.
Fifth, O – for “Offer & Promote Sponsorship Opportunities”. Providing food, prizes (see the seventh letter for more), room fees (where applicable), printing agendas, certificates, and more costs money, but there’s nothing saying it has to be your money. While this does take more effort, it can be a way to involve others and offset your costs.
If you’re doing a club contest, you have a treasury to draw from, though you must come up with a budget. You’ll need to make friends with the treasurer to see how much is available and have your budget voted on by the club.
If you’re putting on an area or division contest, while you’re collecting volunteers, include information (with something people can take home, so they remember to contact you) on some sponsorship opportunities. These opportunities could include an ad (perhaps have different price points for different sizes) in your agenda or being able to place flyers on the food table.
As part of your “extras” (see the last E later in the article) you can have a raffle. You just need a double-reel of tickets (the kind where you keep one half and the buyer gets the other), available at most office supply stores. You’ll also want someone to assist you with distributing and drawing tickets. As a bonus, I suggest you give free tickets to club and district officers and role holders, and charge a low fee per ticket otherwise.
Related to A, W, and E, our sixth letter, M, is short for “Make the room work for everyone”. Some of the essentials for a room have been discussed, but I’ll go into more details here.
Climate control is an often overlooked item…until everyone is hot and irritated by it. 70 degrees is a minimum (you may need to go lower), and be sure to check for multiple thermostats. With lots of people in the room, temperatures tend to increase rapidly.
Decor can add a nice touch, especially if it matches a theme. It doesn’t have to be expensive, either – dollar stores often carry party supplies including banners, balloons, and more.
Standard placements for a contest include a sponsor’s table, a timer’s table, a food table, and seats. Make sure there is space for these.
Space for the speaker should be maximized while distractions should be minimized. Move tables, screens, and so on out of the speaking area, and close window blinds or curtains. Adjust lighting to appropriate levels where possible.
If using anything audio-visual (microphones, projectors, etc.), make sure your contestants know about it, and that you test them (thoroughly) prior to the contest. SAAs should be trained to handle the equipment where needed. With microphones, identify any feedback spots. Also, remember the extension cables.
If you can, place signs to point to where the room is.
Our previous letters were all pretty much all for making a contest run smoothly, though without too much else to remember. Our last letter, E, is for “Extras make it more fun”. These are what make your contest a great, fun event for everyone.
Deciding on a theme for a contest is a good first step, as it will guide the design side of your contest. This will include activities, decor, agenda and certificate design. Note that it cannot influence standard procedure, such as introducing speakers and reading their titles, or changing rules.
Decor (see above) can add flavor to a contest. Be sure it is not too distracting, however (for example, noisemakers are a bad idea). This might include a projector that displays the name of the next contestant or the names of those that helped out with other roles (this must be blanked out while the contestants are speaking, of course).
Activities like mini-games can add lots of flavor and fun to your contest. At my most recent contest, which had a theme of “Game Shows”, we had three mini-games: one that recreated The Price is Right’s contestant row, another that was a mini-form of Jeopardy!, and our last one was a mini-version of Deal or No Deal. Maybe you want to host a “casino”-themed contest, where a few people will be picked via random drawing to play a few rounds of Blackjack or some other game. Remember that these activities should be relatively short (five to ten minutes) so they don’t overshadow the main point of the contests, and, of course, have some prizes to be won!
Video recording your contests is a big perk for contestants who would like to view themselves after the fact, but make sure that you have forms for them that let them choose whether or not they want to be recorded, and what can be done with the video [1]. There are other requirements that Toastmasters International imposes, so mind those as well.
Consult with your contestants and role holders on an after-contest lunch or dinner, if possible. This is always great fun.
Yes, there’s a lot to consider if you want to make your contest AWESOME. You should also consult the year’s rulebooks and manual especially if you’re very unfamiliar with the basics. After that, start with the A – anticipating your needs – and work from there. By starting early, planning out what you need, and pacing your work, you will begin making the project of running an excellent contest dramatically easier. Start applying the other secrets from there, and the end result will be hugely appreciated by the attendees.
[1] Need such a form? Ask me!
