UBC Sauder Public Speaking Competition 2019W

Each year, UBC Sauder's best undergraduate orators compete for $2,500 in scholarships and the title of Public Speaking Champion.

The UBC Sauder Public Speaking Competition is an annual invitational event for which COMM 395 Business Communications instructors nominate their most capable students from the past 12 months. Selected participants compete in a preliminary knockout round by recording and submitting speeches for the judging committee. Short-listed finalists are then invited to compete in front of an audience, delivering both prepared and impromptu presentations.

The 2019 competition

In the 2019 competition, each finalist was asked to prepare a six minute presentation on the topic What’s the most sensible thing you’ve ever heard someone say? They were then tasked with giving a two to three minute impromptu address in response to the question Who or what do you love and what are you doing about it? The 2019 finalists included BComs Nicole Eastman, Gaby Fekete, Mitchell Guthrie, Simran Mander, and Olivia Su.

Simran Mander

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What’s the most sensible thing you’ve ever heard someone say?

Nicole Eastman

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What’s the most sensible thing you’ve ever heard someone say?

Gaby Fekete

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What’s the most sensible thing you’ve ever heard someone say?

Mitchell Guthrie

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What’s the most sensible thing you’ve ever heard someone say?

Olivia Su

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What’s the most sensible thing you’ve ever heard someone say?

Simran Mander

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Who or what do you love and what are you doing about it?

Nicole Eastman

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Who or what do you love and what are you doing about it?

Gaby Fekete

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Who or what do you love and what are you doing about it?

Mitchell Guthrie

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Who or what do you love and what are you doing about it?

Olivia Su

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Who or what do you love and what are you doing about it?

Previous competitions

2018W

Watch our 2018 competitors deliver talks on what university has and hasn't taught them and which foods remind them of home and which they could do without.

Watch now

2017W

Watch our 2017 competitors deliver talks on whether smartphones are making us stupid, narcissistic, and destroying our sense of empathy and the most amazing place they've ever visited.

Watch now

And the 2019 Public Speaking Champion...

Mitchell Guthrie took top honours and a $1,500 scholarship, followed by runner-up Simran Mander who was awarded a $1,000 scholarship. Think you have what it takes to be the next Public Speaking Champion? Ask your COMM 395 instructor about the next competition!


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