After attending JCI Barnsley’s Public Speaking training, representing Rotherham I entered the JCI Yorkshire Public Speaking competition. The training gave me a great idea of how to plan to write my speech and what to include… then came the difficult part, finding the right words and remembering it.

After A level drama you think I’d be ready for ‘performing’ but the nerves still got to me, I’m used to talking… in fact most of the time I’m never quiet but I’ve never done a speech about a topic before and ‘performed’ as me.

So there I am, stood in front of the amazing turnout from 6 chambers across the region, with the 3 judges of Lee Slater, President of Yorkshire’s Public Speaking Association, Kate Senter our National President and Katie Ogley our regional group chairman… and I can hear my heartbeat in my ear. The relief when I’d finished is clear if you’ve seen the photo, when I’d just finished.

Unfortunately I went 3^rd out of 5, so I only got to hear 2 of the other speeches, as you can’t hear the speeches of people who go before you, the two I got to hear were amazing, talking passionately about two different topics. It’s this brilliant competition which I was up against which is why I still can’t believe I won, I can’t stop smiling J

The winner of this competition represents the region at National Convention, so the nerves of before will be 10x as worse, but I promise I’ll represent Rotherham and Yorkshire (The best region in the world) as best as I can and hopefully make you proud.

So you’re excited about JCI Yorkshire events now aren’t you? Well you’re in luck, pop the 1^st July at the Bridge Inn in Rotherham in your diary, for the Wharfdale Quiz.

A massive thank you from me to everyone at JCI Rotherham for their support, JCI Barnsley for hosting the training, to the judges for taking the time out and their feedback, JCI Bradford for hosting and everyone for attending and making a great event.

Hope to see you at the next JCI Yorkshire event J