Last week the annual MaxiCon conference of Toastmasters District 74, with delegates from eight Southern African countries, was held in Johannesburg.

The highlight of the conference is always the International Speech Contest, which starts at club level, moves on to area, then division, and finally at MaxiCon a winner is chosen from the district to represent us against the rest of the Toastmasters world at the World Championship of Public Speaking.

Many of you will remember Christof Appel, who joined Ernst & Young Toastmasters in 2004 and did his first four speeches at our club. Then he moved up to Joburg and attended four different club meetings before choosing to join the club that most reminded him of his experience with us – Sandton Toastmasters Club.

On Saturday afternoon Christof, by now a CTM and the youngest by far in a field of seven finalists, blew everyone away with his mature, polished and witty speech about facing fear and taking the plunge, bungee-style, to change your life.

In August District 74 will fly our winner Christof to the international convention in Washington DC in the United States, where his next challenge is to face the winners of all districts outside of the US. The person who comes first in that round represents ‘the rest of the world’ in the final against winners of all the North American districts.

Ernst & Young Toastmasters Club in Cape Town is enormously proud of Christof’s achievement so far. We hope that our stimulating and supportive environment has given birth to a super-nova public speaker.