Each year, more than 25,000 people in 70 countries begin a quest to be the best in an international speech competition sponsored by Toastmasters International, the world's premier organization to help people develop their speaking, listening, and leadership skills.

And each year, only nine people survive a six-month series of speech competitions to earn the right to compete in the World Championship of Public Speaking. In this annual event, nine of the best speakers in the world compete in front of a crowd of more than 2,000 other speakers. The competition is intense.

In the end, one Toastmaster triumphs, standing alone as the World Champion of Public Speaking.

These three contests round out the four major speech contests that are held in District 14 (Georgia). Contestants for each of these contests will compete on the Club, Area, Division and District levels. The purpose of each contest is to encourage development of the specific skill the contest represents. To encourage all of our members to learn and become more proficient at evaluating, at using humor, and at impromptu and/or extemporaneous speaking skills, we recognize the ones who exhibit the best skills from their Toastmasters training.

Although Tall Tales is not one of our major contests at this time, sponsoring a Tall Tales Contest is a fun activity to have at a club meeting or outside of the normal meeting environment. Table Topics Contests encourage development of ones storytelling skills.