UBC Sauder Public Speaking Competition

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 2024 competition

In the 2024 competition, each finalist was asked to prepare a six minute presentation on the one of three topics, 'Jeff Bezos says "Success is just an extreme tolerance for failure," Why should we learn to fail?', 'Is it wrong to tell students to pursue academic disciplines that they enjoy instead of those that have more promising career options?' or 'What is the best time period and genre of music?' They were then tasked with giving a two to three minute impromptu address in response to the question, 'IS Tiktok a waste of time?' The 2024 finalists included BComs Gisele Dang, Ben Werner, Ellen You, Pranjal Chadda, and William Semmens.