Toastmasters reverberate in Mumbai

Toastmasters International – District 82 comprising Toastmasters’ clubs in India and Sri Lanka held their semiannual conference – ‘Reverberation 2010’ – recently at The Retreat, a five-star resort hotel in Mumbai.

Over 500 delegates rejoiced, rejuvenated and reverberated at the event, including a delegation of over 125 Toastmasters from Sri Lanka.  

The three-day conference found to be educational and entertaining. During the conference, the district level humorous speech and the evaluation contests where held attended by participants from all 14 divisions of Toastmasters District 82.

Sri Lanka was proud to have two participants who got qualified for the finals of humorous speech contest, namely Toastmaster Sudath Fernando from Division J and Toastmaster Sonia Vitarana from Division A, who was privileged to be the only female contestant.

In the evaluation contest too Sri Lanka had two finalists namely Toastmaster Alroy Mascrenghe from Division A and Toastmaster Bhathiya Hettiarachchi from Division H.

The highlight of the conference was the finals which took place on the third and the last day of the conference, packed to full capacity in the main ballroom of The Retreat. There were 6 finalists each in the humorous speech contest and evaluation contest.

Sri Lanka was fortunate to have two winners in the evaluation contest namely Toastmaster Bhathiya Hettiarachchi who came first and Toastmaster Alroy Mascrenghe who came third. The humorous speech contest was taken over by the Indians without leaving an opportunity for a Sri Lankan to make it amongst the top three.

Reverberations 2010 was indeed a valuable and most memorable experience to all those who attended the conference. Apart from the humorous and evaluation contests there were several educational sessions by senior toastmasters that added to the overall experience of the participants.

Among the high profile attendees from India and Sri Lanka were District 82 – Treasurer DTM Arunasalam Balraj, Lt. Governor Education and Training – District 82 (S) DTM M. Z. Saleem and council members from various divisions and area governors from all the 14 toastmasters divisions in India and Sri Lanka.

Toastmasters is a non-profit organisation dedicated towards helping individuals hone their communication and leadership skills. There are over 260,000 members in over 113 countries who have benefited from the Toastmasters programme. India and Sri Lanka together form Toastmasters District 82.

Out of the 14 Divisions that fall under the purview of District 82, Divisions A, H and J are based in Sri Lanka. The Toastmasters movement has achieved unprecedented growth in Sri Lanka during the last few years bringing the total number of Toastmasters clubs in the country to 55 by the end of September 2010.