As the sun shied from the earth and sunk into the horizon, guests began arriving at Hotel Africana in Kampala, smartly-clad and in celebratory mood, which could be seen as they jovially shared jokes in conversation.
The occasion was a toast to a decade of Toastmasters International in Uganda and 100 years since the formation of the communication and leadership skills development organisation.
Some of the key activities at the conference, held under the theme: ‘Enhancing Corporate Governance through Effective Communication’, included included speech evaluation, humorous speeches, table topics and international speech contest.
It was real competition as contenders brought out their best. At the end of it all, Daudi Mugabi from Bukoto Toastmasters won the table topics contest, Connie Nshemereirwe from Mbarara Toastmasters scooped the humorous speech contest award and Angela Nsereko won both the evaluation and international speech contests.
The three winners will represent Uganda at the regional Toastmasters Conference in Mombasa on May 10.
There was some wisdom shared by the keynote speaker, George Kihuguru, the president of the Institute of Corporate Governance in Uganda who emphasised that integrity was a key attribute most leaders needed.
Wilson Asiimwe, the country director of Toastmasters highlighted the good in joining the organisation for personal development with networking opportunities in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Burundi, Djibouti and Uganda.
