Adnan Niyas

The Saudi Arabian Toastmasters Annual Conference (SATAC) 2014 was held in Riyadh recently. The event also featured the Gaveliers’ International Speech Contest in which Adnan Niyas, a 10th grader at Jeddah’s Sri Lankan International School bagged the first prize.

“The main objective of including a Gaveliers’ competition at SATAC 2014 was to enhance and promote the public speaking talents of youngsters for school gavel clubs,” said Mohan Kumar, a toastmaster and a member of SATAC.

“It was a fantastic presentation,” said Kumar, commenting on Adnan’s achievement.
“Starting from club level, he managed to pass through division level and successfully reached district level-which is the final stage in the Kingdom and I congratulate him on his success.”

“SATAC 2014 has been nothing short of an opportune canvas to the public speaking artistry of Gaveliers; one that I am passionate about,” said Adnan. “It is an accomplishment that has been the harvest of persistent effort through guidance and support from the management of SLISJ along with my family and friends. It has been my utmost pride to represent such a passionate community.”

Adnan extended his gratitude to the officials of District 79 for making such an event possible. “I owe special thanks to Toastmasters Lakshman Sockalingam, Mohamed Fawzi and Sri Lankan School Chairman Mohammed Ilyas for their inspirational mentoring.”

He said that the convention has opened up doors for networking, allowing him to learn invaluable lessons from great minds, noting that every contestant had delivered a downright dynamic oration, leaving the judges in a challenging predicament. “Rising as champion from such a tense battle was truly electrifying,” he said.