Berlin resident is Europe's first ever finalist in Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking

Olivia Schofield rises above a pool of 30,000 contestants to reach top nine

Olivia Schofield of Berlin is Europe's first Toastmaster finalist in its 85 year history. 30,000 Toastmasters from 116 countries competed  to become the World Champion of Public Speaking. 81 semi-finalist competed in Las Vegas. Olivia Schofield, the only woman to make it through to the finals, finished as one of the top 9 speakers in the world.

The speech contest marked the highlight of the four-day Toastmasters International Convention and drew a capacity audience of more than 2,000 people from around the world.  This marked a year long process of elimination through club, area and district competitions. Olivia Schofield a member of the First Berlin Toastmasters in District 59, gave an inspiring speech best paraphrased by John Zimmer of “Manner of Speaking.”"Olivia gave a terrific speech about her efforts to overcome a speech impediment when she was younger. It was poignant, funny, moving and inspirational. Her message? Don't let your limitations make you believe that you are a failure. The speech left people in tears and cheering ... In fact, the only thing wrong with Olivia's speech … was that it ran 15 seconds overtime and she was disqualified! "

A panel of 14 Toastmasters judges evaluated the finalists on a range of criteria, including speech content, organization, voice quality and gestures. The speeches could cover any topic and had to last between five and seven minutes.  When Olivia was asked on stage what advice she had to encourage other women to participate in public speaking competitions she acknowledged the difficulties women have when they need to juggle all their competing roles and still find the energy to excel.

At the end of the competition, Jock Elliott of Bongaree, Queensland, Australia was crowned the 2011 World Champion of Public Speaking.

To learn more about Toastmasters District 59, please visit: www.district59.org

Kontakt:
Adlershof Toastmasters
Phone: 0163/313 73 77
E-Mail:    info(at)adlershof-toastmasters.de
Internet:    www.adlershof-toastmasters.de