First Contest Win for Graham Dungan

Despite the easing of restrictions, online was the venue of the DSTM International Speech contest for the second year running. It was the final “Contest Night” and the club was treated to a fantastic show. Two experienced Toastmasters, Colette Ainscough and Chris Werner served as Contest Chair and Chief Judge respectively.  For the international speech contest, widely considered to be the most prestigious contest, five members battled it out for what is essentially the “speech of the year”.

Garvan Gallagher (President),  Graham Dungan (Vice President for Education), Stephen Harper (Vice President of Membership), Derek O’Brien and Shantha Perera were the competitors and the members were in for a great show. The International Speech contest is unique as all those competing need at least a Level 2 to compete. When all was said and done, in a nail-biting vote, Graham Dungan went on to win his first club contest after years of trying.

We caught up with him following his victory.

How does it feel to finally have a speech contest win under your belt?

Winning the contest feels great. It is the first thing that I have won so what is rare is wonderful.

What extra measures did you take and feedback did you get to prepare for this speech?

I was asked to do the evaluation speech for another club and started this speech about 2 days before the day and it went fairly well. I got some feedback at this contest and made a few changes in the week before our own competition. I practiced it on a lot more occasions than normal and also got a bit of feedback from my daughter Emma, who is one of the stars of the speech!

You hosted a panel as part of your Level 4 in Innovative Planning. Did you learn anything from the panelists that you used in your speech?

I cannot say that I was aware, but everything adds to the overall experience. Hosting a panel of 4 excellent Toastmasters was a great experience for me and hopefully for the group lucky enough to be at the meeting. There were a wide range of snippets from speech tips to evaluation, table topics and meeting roles, all given by previous proven winners.

How did you come up with the topic and develop it into the speech we heard?

The topic came from a recent holiday trip, seeing the experience of that trip, listening to the comments made and then adding a bit of poetic license.

Do you have any tips for preparation, or ideas for someone wishing to do this contest next year?

I have attended all the recent Area finals (mainly to support club members) and have learned fo much from the successes at these competitions with three people in mind. One was Chris Werner (DTM) and Colette Ainscough from our own club and Mary Burnham from Dun Laoghaire Toastmasters, who beat Chris in the Division Humorous Speech Division Final in 2021. That latter speech resonated as I brought a repeated action into this speech which really helped.

Graham was very unfortunate to narrowly miss out on a trip to the Division contest following a tightly fought Area 54 final. Despite this, reaching the Area finals is always an experience to remember and Graham has learned so much from taking part in contests. Hopefully those reading this will end up in a similar contest in the coming years!