Published: Monday August 20, 2012 MYT 8:21:00 PM

M’sian emerges runner-up in world public speaking championship

KUALA LUMPUR: Palaniappa Subramaniam, an engineering manager from Air Itam, Penang, has emerged runner-up in the 2012 World Championship of Public Speaking held by Toastmasters International in Orlando, Florida over the weekend.

The Malaysian had progressed through a six-month process of elimination in the world's largest speech contest, and became one of the top nine finalists from a pool of more than 30,000 contestants.

Speaking on "Finding the Right Shoes," he described his obsession with buying the right shoes and exploring the real need for them.

In emphasising his point, he wore two different types of shoes on his feet in the finals, according to a video posting on the Toastmasters International website (www.toastmasters.org).

A panel of 14 Toastmasters judges evaluated the finalists on a range of criteria, including speech content, organisation, voice quality and gestures.

Toastmasters International, founded in 1924, is a non-profit educational organisation that teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network of 13,500 clubs with more than 280,000 members in 116 countries.

Palaniappa is a member of the Oracle and Silterra Toastmasters clubs in Penang and Kedah respectively.

They are both part of Toastmasters District 51 in Peninsula Malaysia, one of 88 districts around the world, which is comprised of more than 260 corporate and community clubs in Malaysia.

American Ryan Avery of Portland, Oregon who spoke on "Trust is a must" won this year's competition while third spot went to another American, Stuart Pink of Massachusetts, speaking on "A crash course in creativity". - Bernama

More News