Dear Club Presidents, EVPs and District Leaders,

District 85 successfully held our fall conference in Beijing in the past weekend. One highlight of the conference is the speech contests. The overall quality of speeches was very high and here goes the winners.

District Level International Speech Contest (English)

Champion: CHEN Zhang, "Without Any Trace", Intel PD No.1 TMC, Area 32, Division C

1^st Runner Up: Hubert LIN, "Prison Break", China Capital TMC, Area 21, Division B

2^nd Runner Up: Nancy WANG, "Flip a Coin", Beijing #1 TMC, Area 11, Division A

District Level Mandarin Speech Showcase (全国中文演讲表演赛）

冠军(Champion):  姚翰啸(Jessica YAO), "征服自己“, Shanghai People's Square TMC, Area 41, Division D

亚军(1^st Runner Up): 王家俊(James WANG), "传奇", 1st Zhangjiang Bilingual TMC, Area 31, Division C

季军(2^nd Runner Up): 沈绍炜 (Shao Wei SHEN), "成长的幽默", Shenzhen Mandarin TMC, Area 53, Division E

This time, the English Speech Contest Champion, CHEN Zhang, will be the first ever contestant to represent District 85 to go to Toastmasters International Annual Convention and compete in the Interdistrict Speech Contest on August 11th in Mashantucket, Connecticut USA. He will compete with speakers from districts outside North America for final two spots in Saturday’s 2009 World Championship of Public Speaking. More about the International Convention and Speech Contest, please click here: http://www.toastmasters.org/Members/MemberExperience/Conferences/Convention/2009Convention.aspx

Let us congratulate all the winners and give our uttermost support to CHEN Zhang. We look forward to hearing good news from him in August.

Cheers,