Darren Tay Wen Jie, a 27-year-old lawyer took the top spot at the World Championship of Public Speaking in Washington, DC, on 20 Aug 2016. The championship has been held by Toastmasters International since 1938, with a two-year break during World War II. 30,000 competitors from the global network of clubs promoting public speaking competed at their local levels before 90 best speakers were selected to compete in the US semi-finals. These were later filtered down to 10 finalists delivering speeches of between 5-7 mins.
Tay is the best-selling author of the book, Express to Impress, and also trains others at his Public Speaking Academy.
