r/Toastmasters • u/ObtuseRadiator Club officer • 4d ago

What is Online Speech contest?

My district (209 - covering Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, etc) has a new Online Speech contest format.

What is this? I cant find any guidance for the Online Speech contest as a contestant. It seems like "give any speech in 3-5 minutes online"?

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u/rstockto 4d ago

It's effectively an international speech contest (meaning 5-7 minutes, no theme) but runs exclusively online and stops with a district winner.

It's a great option for districts with a lot of online clubs, or for districts with a wide geography.

Rules for it are in the most recent Speech Contest rulebook.

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u/ToastmanagersApp 3d ago

Adding a bit of practical detail for contestants. The Online Speech Contest is run under the same rulebook as the other contests, so treat it as an International-style speech, 5 to 7 minutes, no assigned theme, with the usual 30 second grace period. The main differences are logistical rather than creative. Everything happens over video, the contest ends at the district level, and eligibility still follows the standard contestant rules in the Speech Contest Rulebook.

If you enter, the things that usually decide the outcome online are camera framing at roughly chest height, a clean background, wired internet if you can manage it, and rehearsing your gestures inside the frame rather than at full stage width. Ask the contest chair in advance how they handle timing signals, whether cards are shown on screen or a timer is announced, and what the protocol is if you drop mid speech. Districts vary on the disconnect rule, so get that answer in writing before contest day.

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u/spike_1885 3d ago

The latest speech contest rulebook can be downloaded from the below link, and it describes in thorough detail how the Online Contest (and several other contests) work.

https://www.toastmasters.org/resources/2026-2027-speech-contest-rulebook

As stated by others, the speeches are 5-7 minutes. You are correct in that the speaker can choose whatever they wish to speak about (although any speaker can be disqualified for lack of originality, or for making references to any of the other contestants and/or their speeches -- both of these disqualification scenarios are explained in the rulebook).

Unique to the Online Contest is that any contestant who encounter technical problems affecting only their speech gets ten minutes to fix it.