Dananjaya makes history

Toastmasters International Hall of Fame Inductee Dananjaya Hettiarachchi made history by becoming the first Sri Lankan to represent India and Sri Lanka at the highly celebrated Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking.

The contest is a highlight of Toastmasters’ 2011 International Convention, scheduled to be held during 17-20 August in Las Vegas, Nevada, at Bally’s Las Vegas Hotel. The semi-finals take place on 18 August, where nine finalists will emerge to compete again two days later for the title of Toastmasters World Champion of Public Speaking

The Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking is the world’s biggest series of public speaking, the Olympics of oratory, the final bout for the heavyweight title of ‘World Champion of Public Speaking’.

Each year, this speech contest culminates at Toastmasters International’s four-day International Convention. A panel of experienced Toastmasters judges evaluate nine contestants from different parts of the world, who have advanced to the finals following a year-long process of elimination at club, area, district level competitions. The District 82 contestant, Dananjaya earned his spot from a pool of 30,000 participants from 116 countries.

Toastmasters International is the world leader in public speaking, communications and leadership training which serves over 260,000 members in 12,500-plus clubs in 113 countries. Since its founding in October 1924, the organisation has helped more than 4 million men and women to become confident individuals through its communication and leadership programme. Sri Lanka and South India together form District 82 of Toastmasters.

Speaking of the contest, Toastmasters 2010-2011 International President Pat Johnson said: “The globally diverse talent pool in the International Speech Contest creates a challenging and inspiring atmosphere. The contest gives members the opportunity to realise their full speaking potential. It cultivates their confidence by helping them build on the skills they have already learned in the club.”

A member of Smedley Toastmasters Club Sri Lanka, Dananjaya made this remarkable achievement having won the District level contest held during ‘Ovation 2011,’ which is the annual district conference for India and Sri Lanka. Giving the performance of his life, Dananjaya emerged as the district level International Speech Contest winner with his captivating speech – ‘The Moon Walk’.

The stage wasn’t new to Dananjaya at the time he won the district level contest. He was a seasoned orator who had won many accolades in his Toastmaster career. In 2007 and 2009 he became the runner up at the Toastmasters District 82 speech contest. In the same year, Dananjaya won the ‘All Island Best Speaker Contest’ for his best known speech, ‘Chasing Butterflies’.

Dananjaya also holds the prestigious title of being the only Sri Lankan speaker to win the International Taped Speech Contest in the year 2006 for his speech ‘Humanity, is there Hope?’ For this great accomplishment, he was inducted into the Toastmasters International Hall of Fame.

Apart from competing in international contests, Dananjaya like many Toastmasters has helped others to find their feet on stage as confident individuals. He helped nurture two of the leading Toastmasters clubs in Sri Lanka and was the President of Smedley Toastmasters club (2007) and the Vice President of Ralph Toastmasters club (2007), two Presidents’ Distinguished Toastmasters clubs which are at the forefront of spearheading the Toastmasters’ message.

As a professional he is both a trainer and an HRD specialist. Currently much of Dananjaya’s work centres on national HRD infrastructure and policy development reflected through his work with the Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration.

Dananjaya is currently reading for his Msc. in HRD and Performance Management from a tier 1 UK University. He is an MBA holder of a prestigious Australian University; a Bachelors Degree holder with a double major in Marketing and Management. He is also a Sri Lankan prize winner of CIM (UK) and is part qualified in CIMA (UK).

To put the icing on the cake, he is also a gold medal dancer and champion ballroom dancer. He was the winner in the ballroom category at the International Dance Sport Competition 2007; who also competed at the crystal dance sport championships in Malaysia in 2010.