Eloquence 2021, the Division B Toastmasters annual conference, was held recently.
The two-day virtual conference witnessed stellar performances by 32 contestants in four categories of speech contests – Evaluation, Humorous, Table Topics and International Speech, a press statement noted.
The conference was conducted under the chairmanship of Anita Samanta and her team of members under the guidance of Division B director Riana Pinto and the entire team of Division B Ex-com members. The event was opened by Pinto, which was followed by the smooth conduct of the three speech contests: Evaluation, Humorous and Table Topics. The second day of the event witnessed a banner parade led by Sudhir Gujar.
Division B comprises 16 clubs under four areas led by area directors Vanessa Pereira, Aparna Ranish, Kumaran C S and Chandrasekhar Dudhe.
The highlight of the two-day virtual conference was a keynote address by Dr Rajdeep Manwani, a motivational speaker and trainer who became visually impaired at the age of 13. He has created a niche for himself with grit and determination. He shared his thoughts on transformational leadership and how to involve and evolve as a leader, including the theory on the "sliding door moments".
Chandrasekhar Angadi bagged the first place in both the Evaluation and Table Topics contests, while Sebastian Mascarenhas was the first-place winner in the Humorous Speech contest and Nufaisa M R in the International Speech contest.
The first-place winners will represent Division B at DTAC 2021 on May 21 and 22. The second and third-place winners are Nufaisa M R and Mamta Babbar (Evaluation), Anju Chacko and Deepika Khattar (Humorous Speech), Mamta Babbar and Sebastian Mascarenhas (Table Topics) and Deepika Khattar and Sebastian Mascarenhas (International Speech).
The contests were conducted by chairs Archana Shetty, Amal Sachith, Christopher Almeida and Tripti Saha, and supervised by chief judges Arvind Iyer, Ravi Kumar, Shyam Sundar and Williams Antony. They were supported by ballot counters and timers.
Masters of Ceremonies Dilba R K, Maria Fatima, Sandra Pais and Manisha Deshpande conducted the proceedings.
Region 11 adviser Sunil Kottarathil, District 116 leaders Thayalan K, Manzoor Moideen, Rajesh V C, immediate past district director Raghavan Menon and past district director Rajeshwar Sundaresan addressed the audience and praised Division B’s achievements.
Division B is one of the seven divisions in District 116, which has been the world’s number one district for two consecutive years, 2019 and 2020.
 
 
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