Dilip Abayasekara: Topics - Here are three criteria I have found useful in selecting topics for the International Speech Contest:
(1) About what can I speak with great passion to my expected audience?
(2) Will this topic allow me to show my unique self as well as showcase my speaking talents?
(3) Knowing the nature of my audience - Club, Area, Division, District, or Regional or International – will this topic and its substance be of interest to my audience? Or will I have to overcome disinterest or negative feelings about it?

Reasons: #1 & #2 allow you to shine as only you can shine with your unique self, talents, and passion. The audience does not want to see another "me too" speaker. They want to see, hear and feel the real you!

#3: Why waste your precious time and energy trying to flog life into a topic that any significant portion of your audience may not be interested in? Or worse yet, they may have negative feelings about it. You have ONLY 7 minutes on stage. So make it easy on yourself by presenting a topic that will allow you to fly right from the start. You may want to be a hero for a certain viewpoint and take on a controversial topic, but usually that is not what the audience wants to hear. They get plenty of that from their politicians who have more than 7 minutes to speak about their point of view. Give the audience a break!

NOTE: The book of Proverbs says: "There is nothing new under the sun..." This certainly seems to be true when it comes to speech topics. The key is how you package the topic and give it your own personal twist.

David Brooks: In selecting your speech contest topic, remember "That which is most personal is most universal." Therefore, pick a topic that matters to you personally. There's a good chance it will be important to most of your audience, as well.

Topics to stay away from are 1) those that others are likely to use, and 2) those that polarize. By topics that polarize, I mean we all have strong opinions on any number of hot-button topics. You can expect that about half of your audience will hold opinions contrary to yours. Human nature as it is will make it much more difficult for a judge to reward your performance if he or she strongly disagrees with your position. No, it shouldn't matter whether a judge agrees with you, but my experience shows it does. It's hard to set aside a lifetime of biases and beliefs in a mere seven minutes.

Mark Brown: Personally, I would avoid the following:
1. "Tear-Jerkers" – guaranteed to make you cry because somebody died
2. "Up From The Ashes of Despair" – Life was so bad but I prevailed
3. "You Can Do It If You Believe In Yourself"

I would recommend something universal in nature, thought provoking, yer entertaining. I realize that that seems a bit paradoxical because speakers tend to use universal themes like love, courage, and happiness. Politics, religion & sex may not play well to the largely conservative Toastmasters audience, but times are changing.

David Nottage: In order to speak from the heart, thereby making sure you have conviction and emotion, I suggest that you always base your speech on personal experience. You need to create a state change of emotions, don't try to be funny all the way through, nor should you try to be sad all the way through. Taboo topics would be dwelling on negatives, as well as sex politics and religion.

Brett Rutledge: As a general rule topics need to be uplifting in nature with a positive, simple message that can be easily digested within the time frame allowed. In my experience speeches which address serious moral or weighty issues, while undoubtedly of great value and audience interest, don't tend to score well with judges - I'm not sure why.

V.J. Smith: You must be comfortable with the subject matter. It is my observation that the topic needs to have a motivational theme; get people to act. I don't know if there are taboo subjects, but people should stay away from sex and downer topics.

Bruce Trippet: Motivational, inspirational, with personal stories (or stories from the heart) and humor.

Dilip Abayasekara: My experience and understanding is that the audience generally wants to: (1) hear something significant; (2) however does not want to have to think too deeply about what is being said (no rocket science, please!); (3) be entertained; (4) be touched by/ see your unique self; (5) receive something of value from you ("I am glad that I heard your speech because ...."). This "value" will probably be different for different people, but great speakers leave the members of their audience feeling a sense of transformation to some degree.

One truth about communication is that, in terms of the effect on the listeners, HOW you say something usually has more weight than the exact words you use. I don't think that there is any "ideal" mix as you ask above. Each speaker will have to discover what works best for themselves and their specific audience. I usually strive for a significant but not "heavy" message, wrapped in my own unique stories, sprinkled with touches of humor, touching the heart with vivid word pictures to evoke and involve the imagination of the audience.

I believe that it is a mistake for a speaker who is not "naturally" funny to try to force him/herself to be humorous for the sake of having "humor" in their speech. By speaking and receiving feedback, they will discover what type and style of humor works for them and then can polish that aspect without sacrificing their unique presentation style.

David Brooks: I've heard this more than once from a variety of judges who should know better "If a speech doesn't make me laugh and it doesn't make me cry, I can't vote for it as a winner." Of course, the ballot dictates nothing of the sort, but that is a recurring misconception that you should be aware of. I suggest your message is by far the most important, balanced with enough appropriate humor to make it memorable and enjoyable. In percentages, I would target "the significance of your message" no less than 75%, with humor and drama rounding out the package.

Mark Brown: Message has always been most important to me. Humor and drama help to sell the message, and , depending on the weight of the message, make it easier to digest. I prefer at least 70% of the content to be my message. A review of my 1995 performance will support that. However, there has been an increase in the percentage of the humor in winning speeches since then. Review 1996, '97 & '98 and you’ll see what I mean.

David Nottage: Humour = 30%, drama = 20% message = 50%

Brett Rutledge: I don't believe there is such a thing as an ideal mix for the speech contest beyond delivering as genuine and natural a presentation as possible. Indeed the danger in being well rehearsed is in appearing well rehearsed and many contestants seem to focus far too heavily on technique causing them to compartmentalise their speech and lose speech structure, flow and audience impact. It is our idiosyncracies that make us what we are and when we suppress them too forcefully we sometimes lose that essence of ourselves.

V.J. Smith: 5% humor; 95% message with as much dramatics (not contrived) as you can possibly stand.

Bruce Trippet: A strong, simple message is important. Use humor and perhaps a little drama to get your point across. Personal stories work the best.

Dilip Abayasekara: I strongly recommend that the speaker look for feedback from groups outside his/her inner circle. The higher one climbs in the competition ladder, the more one will be speaking to those outside one's club and Area. I visited clubs throughout my District as well as a Club outside my District. I also designed special evaluation forms for my Regional and World Championship contest speeches that I asked listeners in every Club I visited to record their thoughts and observations, so that I would be able to get feedback from many Toastmasters with varied backgrounds.

However, here is a WARNING: I found that only about 10% of the advice I received was of value to me. But I was always grateful to those who cared enough to give me their suggestions for improvement, because I had to go through the 100% of recommendations to find the 10% of value. The other thing to keep in mind is that if you have weak stomach for criticism, then getting all this advice will probably be a negative experience for you. In that case, you can skip the personal growth awaiting you by speech evaluations. It is when you know who you are, and what your personal style of speaking is, that you can best listen to all the advice with a smile, use what can help you, and thank everyone for their kind support and help.

David Brooks: A proverb says "The Pope and a peasant know more than The Pope alone." Thus, no matter how good or experienced you are, you can still learn from others who have lesser skills. One of the best suggestions I received as I prepared for the finals came from a new Toastmaster. Similarly, some of the worst advice came from long-time Toastmasters. When it comes to practicing before others, remember that as much as 99% of the suggestions you receive may be great for the giver, but not right for you. Search for what works for you, then filter the rest.

Mark Brown: From my article "A Second Chance" (Toastmaster Magazine, July, 1996, pages 20 & 21):
"Speak to as many different groups of people as possible… when you speak to various audiences, you are guaranteed to get diverse evaluations. Find a mentor – someone who will… sift through the maze of well-intentioned suggestions to find the ones that will aid your growth as a speaker."

David Nottage: I think it can be very important so long as the contestant has enough faith in themselves do be able to dismiss or accept all the advice and recommendations from a wide range of people. Let's face it, someone told me I was too fast and another told me I was too slow??? You do have to maintain a certain amount of faith in what you believe is right.

Brett Rutledge: I believe it is important to speak to groups from outside of Toastmasters and gain feedback. Perhaps a key component in being able to perform well in a speech contest is to recognise that the speech must be one which has a general appeal outside of Toastmasters. In following the Toastmasters formula to improve our speaking skills we sometimes forget that it is all too easy to become a little robotic in our delivery. Exposure to an audience that is simply there to be entertained by the speaker is often far more illuminating feedback than the most erstwhile evaluation. A simple rule that I always follow is "If the audience likes it, then it's good...with room for improvement. If the audience doesn't like it... then it's rubbish and what I think doesn't matter." It is a fundamental mistake to believe that because we happen to be a better speaker than most of our audience we are a better judge of what that audience likes.

V.J. Smith: Mixed feeling about this question. Always seek opinions of the people you trust. Stay away from strangers.

Bruce Trippet: All feedback is good feedback. It's up to the contestant whether or not to use the feedback that they get.

Dilip Abayasekara: My recommendation is to always be preparing yourself. Early in my Toastmaster career, I started keeping files of ideas and clippings for speech topics. As soon as you decide to compete, then begin to hone in on a speech topic that fulfills the three criteria that I mentioned above in question #1. While that speech is in the preparation stage, look for two more speech topics because you need three significantly original speeches to "arrive" at the World Championship of Public Speaking.

Both years that I was a finalist at the WCPS, I began to prepare in December of the year prior to the commencement of the contest. Each speech was practiced hundreds of times with many revisions.

I prepared as described above. In addition, I sought the advice and feedback of three former World Champions, a former Chief Judge of a World Championship, tried out my speeches in front of many Toastmaster audiences, got my speeches videotaped and audio taped and studied them, got a speech therapist to listen to me and help me "correct" my pronunciation, practiced my speeches in front of my family to get my wife's feedback as well that of my children (I have great faith in my wife's insights and also felt that if my children couldn't understand the points I was making, then the speech wasn't clear enough), lived and breathed my speeches.

David Brooks: For the finals, I worked on my speech in my head for six weeks. Then, exactly one month before the contest, I put the concepts that were now clear in my head on paper. One month of polishing and practicing later, I was ready. I estimate that I practiced the speech about ten times a day, totaling approximately 300 times.

Mark Brown: Can’t Say.

Club, Area, Division – had an idea, put some main points together, presented it. Got lucky.

District – did more research, consulted with my mentor, wrote a script and presented it/ Did OK.

Region – had an idea. Prayed. Consulted with my mentor. Worked and rehearsed I don’t know how many times in 3 weeks. Hit a brick wall. Prayed. Got divinely inspired. Put the finishing touches on during the last week. Gave 1 of the best speeches of my life. That was God’s work, not mine.

David Nottage: The more prep you do the better you will be. I practiced the speech for club through to district lots, hundreds of times so that I knew it backwards. For the regional I had 2 months to write it and prepare for it so I would have practiced it for 1-2 hours a day. I gave it at as many clubs as possible and handed out judging forms for them to complete. I did try to practice the World Championship speech as well but I found that very hard to do both so I wrote the World Championship speech and then but it in my back pocket and invested the time into the regional so that I could win that. The short answer to your question is this, "The more you practice, the luckier you become".

Brett Rutledge: Every speaker is different both in terms of the way they prepare as well as the method of preparation. Consequently, I don't know what a minimum preparation time would be. What I can say is that the minimum time is whatever time is required for you to know your material inside out and back to front. It is not enough to memorise a speech. You must know the material so well that you are able to change pace, content and structure if required, while still maintaining the central message and flow of ideas. In the World Final last year, while the audience were laughing at Darth Vader I was thinking of what I would say next because I knew I was running behind time. Prepare so that you can respond to your audiences reaction and therefore have the greatest of impact.

V.J. Smith: Commit two hours a day for at least one month. This does not include writing time. You must be so well prepared that you have full confidence in your delivery.

Bruce Trippet: There is no magic amount of time. I spent about two months before each level of competition (district, region, world)

Dilip Abayasekara: The more I competed in speech contests, the more I adopted certain rituals to "center" me. I don't want to spell them out. I believe that these become a private practice for each contestant. There were rituals I followed when writing the speech; when rehearsing it; when dressing for the contest; just prior to leaving my home or my hotel room for the contest; and just prior to being introduced. One I will mention is that prior to leaving my home or hotel room for the contest, I would pray for God's help to let His love shine from me and for me to be a blessing to my audience.

I principally psyched myself for the contests by meditation involving all my senses (multi-channel imagery). If anyone wants to know more about this, I will be glad to send a copy of an article I wrote on the topic.

David Brooks: No rituals, except that I always excused myself from all conference functions before the contest. I entered the room only when the contest began. I did not want to be distracted from the task at hand.

Mark Brown: Prayer

David Nottage: I like being alone and out of sight, I'm a religious man so I pray. I see my self winning and or do well (if not a contest). I get rid of excess energy by walking around and doing exercises.

Brett Rutledge: Regretfully I don't. As I said at the World Championship I'm very boring in real life. Can anyone suggest any so I look more windswept and interesting? Immediately prior to a contest I do tend to spend time on my own mentally rehearsing my presentation - but that's just me.

V.J. Smith: Stay away from negative thinkers.

Bruce Trippet: Be in great physical and mental shape before each contestant. I worked out, ate right, and focused on the message. I told myself before each contest that I had a great speech, the audience wanted to hear it and there was no place in the world that I wanted to be right then than right there at that time giving that speech to that audience!