The best way to prepare for the Speak Off is to practice. Prepare a 3-minute version of your signature talk following the story braid framework. Practice the presentation so you are comfortable and aren’t worried about remembering the words. Pay attention to your movement, pacing and tone of voice. Give your presentation to others and listen to their feedback. We know it is difficult to give a full presentation in just 3 minutes, so preparation is the key to success!

Speak Off Registration will happen during rehearsal, on April 22.

Speak Off Orientation starts at 7am PT | 8am MT | 9am CT | 10am ET - Attendance is required

Starting at 8am PT | 9am MT | 10am CT | 11am ET, participants get coached on your 3-minute talk by our expert Signature Talk coaches. You will be assigned a time slot for your coaching time, and are required to show up at least 15 minutes before your coaching time for a tech check with the concierge. We highly recommend staying to watch other contestants coaching times.

3) What to Expect
You will be put into breakout rooms with your coach. More information to follow, as we will be going through finer details in a VIP Speak Off rehearsal on April 22.

After the coaching round, we move on to the first round of live judging, the preliminary round, 

held Wednesday, April 29th.

11:30am PT | 12:30pm MT | 1:30pm CT | 2:30 ET: The first judging round where you’ll present your 3 minute speech live in front of a panel of judges. You will be emailed your specific time slot beforehand. Of the 100 participants in this round, 30 will be selected to move on to the semi-finals.

2) What to Expect:
You will be put into breakout rooms with your coach. More details are to follow, as we will be going through finer details in a VIP Speak Off rehearsal on April 22. 

4pm PT | 5pm MT | 6pm CT | 7pm ET: In the second judging round you will present your 3 minute speech live in front of a panel of judges. The semi-final round participants and schedule will be posted at 3:30 p.m. and begin at 4:00 p.m. If you are late for your time slot, you will forfeit the competition

2) Making the Finals: 

You will be notified on whether or not you qualified to move on to the Final Round of the Speak Off (and be in front of the entire conference audience and dozens of meeting planners) via email no later than the morning of Thursday, April 30th by 9am PT | 12pm ET. Ten (10) contestants will advance and they will receive 5 minutes in the final round on Friday evening at 6:30pm PT | 7:30pm MT | 8:30pm CT | 9:30pm ET. 

Please log on for the final round by 4pm PT | 7pm ET. Please adhere to this schedule (or any change provided by our staff) to help us stay on schedule.

2) Prepare:
The final round allows you 5 minutes, so you may wish to add things to your talk but this is not required. Most contestants make minor adjustments or additions to their preliminary round talk for the finals. Remember, you already have a winning talk… don’t change too much! You are NOT preparing two separate talks. Rather, you are adjusting your original presentation using the Story Braid technique.

3) Visual Aids: 

Props that you can hold in your hand and bring on stage if you feel it is an essential contribution to your talk are allowed. We DO NOT ALLOW the following in our Speak Off contest: Powerpoint/Keynote presentations, music, non-essential props, or lead collecting or offers of any kind. We feel that these items can interfere with the Story Braid framework within the time we have allotted.  

The Winner will be announced after we take a short break to tally scores from the judges.

*NOTE: Specific times are subject to change.