All Island Best Speaker celebrates 23rd anniversary

All Island Best Speaker 2012, AIBS 2012, public speaking contest celebrated its 23rd anniversary on the 10 June at the Galadari Hotel, Colombo amidst a 500-strong gathering.

The evening began with President of The Colombo Toastmasters Club Hussain Moosajee,outlining the history of the contest, its present status as one of Sri Lanka’s “national assets”, and the Club’s future vision of transforming the event in to a ‘market place of ideas’ – a forum for national discourse.

Moosajee urged the general public’s assistance and support to draw mature adults to speak on topics of national concern at future Contests. The Guests of Honour were Chairman of Bartleets Group Eraj Wijesinghe, whose company has sponsored the event since its inception in 1989  and Haleem Ghouse, who is a founder member of the Colombo Toastmaster Club.

The contest began with the prepared speech round where each of the five finalists spoke on a topic of their choice for seven minutes each. After the recess, each of the five finalists entertained the audience with their impromptu speaking skills by delivering a speech of two minutes duration on the topic common to all five contestants: ‘Love and War’.

The Chief Guest at the event was the High Commissioner for Great Britain and Northern Ireland John Rankin.

The five finalists:

Haris Omar: Chikin boom



Kavitha Gunesekera: Name your price



Shyara Bastiansz: The steering wheel



Dilara Liyanagama: Dog is a man’s best friend



Sheshadri Kottearachchi: My love story



Winner of AIBS 2012: Sheshadri Kottearachchi



1st runner up: Shyara Bastiansz



2nd runner up: Kavitha Gunasekera

The Colombo Toastmasters Club is affiliated to Toastmasters International, Inc., USA.

The judges:

Viran Corea

Rohini Nanayakkara

Varuni Jayasekera

Lilamani Benson Dias

Feroze Kamaldeen

Chief Judge: Azgi Noordeen