Media Release
Abu Dhabi, Apr 14: The division H annual conference held on April 6 drew an enthusiastic crowd of nearly 350 toastmasters and guests who came to listen to top speakers compete for the ‘Best Speaker’ titles in the division. Division H consists of 30 Clubs in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Buraimi.
The conference was held at the grand and impressive venue of Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, which added positive ambiance and vibes to the event. Emirates Foundation/Kafa’at, were the strategic partners supporting the event.
At the colorful opening ceremony, the banner march was presented which introduced on the stage all the leaders from the clubs, areas and division.
The conference chair, Salwa Al Marzouqi in her opening statement welcomed all and stated that each one present will go home enlightened with more knowledge from this wonderful conference.
On behalf of Emirates Foundation Khaled stated that in order to empower young Emiratis in the art of leadership and communication, they are happy to be associated with toastmasters.
New Shifts Services founder and CEO, Zeynep Saka, conducted an educational session titled ‘Define – Experiment Change’.
Dr Sultan Al Hajji, the vice-president and chief strategy officer of Total E&P during his keynote address stated how you will be able to communicate only if you sincerely believe in what you say. It is not what you say; it is how you say it that matters.
Dr B R Shetty, chairman of NMC Healthcare, inspired the attendees by telling us how he achieved success by starting from the bottom and how impossible feats can be accomplished through tiny, yet persistent steps.
Ahmed Shoibi, senior vice-president (Academic and Student services) at Khalifa University stated that he was highly impressed by the toastmasters’ programmes and promised to promote and open toastmaster clubs for their student’s in their university.
Division H director Althaf M S stated that the entire division H team has endeavored to conduct toastmasters’ programme every month and have tried to take this wonderful programme to as many people as possible. Due to this their new membership addition has grown by 80% & new club growth by 10%.
Four categories of speech contests were held, and all the speakers enthralled the audience with their performance. The following are the winners:
Evaluation Speech Contest - Raslyn Rasiah (First), Rumbidzai Madovi (Second) and Katrak Merezban (Third)
Humourous Speech Contest - Sameer Mohamed Al Jaberi (First), Aloris Dias (Second) and Umakanth Devarajan (Third)
Table Topics Speech Contest - Ruddi Barooah (First), Abraham Thomas (Second) and Kawther Madhi (Third)
International Speech Contest - Loyola Pinto (First), Ruddi Barooah (Second) and Peter Karagianakis (Third)
The first place winners will represent division H at the district conference, which will be held in Oman from May 3 to 5, 2018.
The meticulous planning and organization of the division conference was done by the division team comprising TM Althaf M S, division director, TM Salwa Al Marzouqi, programme quality director (Training), TM Judith Serrao, programme quality director, TM Shameema Ahmed, admin manager, TM Ceanlia Vermeulen, club growth director, TM Abdul Nasser, PR manager, and TM Asif Pirzada, finance manager.
They were also supported by the conference support team comprising TM Aby Hans/TM Suresh Kumar (Education Team), TM Shaju Uthuppan (Registration Team), TM Pratima/TM Ijaz (Display Team), and TM Haneef Puttur (Venue Team).
The event was also supported by long time sponsors M/s Learnect & Al Sitara Gulf Construction and support sponsors namely M/s Prestige Engineering, M/s Etihad Airways, Supreme Engineering, Al Hannan Oil field, TM Jayaram Rai, TM Noel Fernandes and also gifts from Sofitel Hotel- Abu Dhabi, Ramee Rose – Abu Dhabi, Grand Millennium Hotel - Abu Dhabi, and Ananthara- Dubai & Steps & Strings.
Anyone interested in learning public speaking skills can contact division H admin manager - TM Shameema Ahmed (Email: shameema_islam@yahoo.co.in)