Last week we welcomed 45 participants from 42 countries across the globe to take part in a week of cultural exchange and public speaking contests here in London, as part of our annual International Public Speaking Competition. All participants were national winners of public speaking competitions run by international ESUs/partner organisations in their own country.
After a tough day of heats, the week culminated in the Grand Final on Friday 12th May at The Royal Institution, where participants from Mexico, Canada, Australia, China, England & Wales, Sri Lanka and Hong King battled it out for the prestigious winner’s trophy.
Finalists wrote and delivered speeches on the theme ‘Peace is not an absence of war’.
This year’s winner was Luke Macaronas from Australia with his speech entitled ‘The Inconvenient Truth’- an emotive speech on drone attacks and the state of modern warfare. The runner-up was Owen David Thomas Torrey from Canada who spoke on the topic ‘To Wage War With Peace’.
We would like to thank all participating countries, the participants, their families, mentors, adjudicators, International ESUs and all those who travelled across the globe to be part of a remarkable week of cultural exchange and friendship.
You can watch last Friday’s final HERE. For more information about the competition please visit our IPSC page.
