2ND PLACE - 2022 Area G2 (District 101) International Speech Contest - Cat Nguyen
Channel: Cat Nguyen, Toastmaster
Date: 11/05/2022

"World's Most Unusual" is my 2nd-place-winning speech in the 2022 Area G2 (in District 101) International Speech Contest (ISC). This was a contest between the winners of three clubs. I lost to the eventual district winner (and also 2020's 2nd-place finisher in the international contest!) so it wasn't a surprise.

BACKGROUND:
This is the...4th contest speech that is a re-do of a past speech! In this case, I revisited the 9th prepared speech that I ever presented in Toastmasters, back in May of 2018 (here's a recording of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6s_3pgCQTk0 ).

Speakers don't normally use slides for this particular contest, but I decided to go all in since my visuals were more powerful and/or funny than verbal descriptions.

Some advanced tricks that are going on are:
- In-slide transitions (to have multiple images appear in sequence)
- Dissolve/fade transitions for the blank slides (gently returns focus to the speaker)
- Using content to contrast/complement what I'm saying
- A speech bubble graphic that appears to be originating from my head
- Sorta matching my sweater to the yellow in the slides

And if you're looking for some basics for using slides, start with my District 101 blog post on the topic: https://d101tm.org/get_on_deck_with_slides/

TECHNICAL SETUP:
Many people ask, but no, I did not create a long video for the slides (I can't deliver a speech with timing that is that precise! Not for lack of trying, though!). I used Google Slides, a Chromecast attached to the TV behind me, and then I cast my slide deck from my phone to the TV. I advanced the slides using my phone which was in my pocket and out-of-frame. That, together with a few in-slide auto-transitions created the seemingly magically timed content.

SELF-CRITIQUE:
- Per the usual, I need to edit this down. I name like 5 different ways to take action. But they're all important. Maybe I should stop cramming giant topics like unconscious bias into 5-7 minute speeches, but, current events make it very difficult not to.

- The execution is very rushed, the emoting isn't really there, in large part because I wanted to make sure I didn't disqualify (and I was up late editing & rehearsing!)

- I got a suggestion to open with how I/others are not represented in media to set the context for the premise. I added this for a later iteration of the speech.

- I did not use OBS Video or other virtual camera apps because I was using a Chromebook (OBS isn't available for ChromeOS), and I didn't have an available PC/Mac laptop. But, this is a great presentation to adapt with a virtual camera app, and I'll be looking into it!