Young voices to the fore at ‘Speak to Lead’
“If you can communicate, you can go far in whatever career path you choose,” says Amalka Perera, a public speaking and leadership coach. She founded her organization, Talking Titans, to help young leaders master communication skills and forge a path for themselves through public speaking. This month, her students will take to the stage at Speak to Lead 2023, a public speaking forum to showcase their sharpened skills and engage in a dialogue with industry professionals.
Amalka Perera
Amalka started out as an elocution teacher at 17. Looking back at her three decades long journey with Talking Titans, she says that she always believed her students needed more opportunities to utilize what they learn and carry forward those skills into their professional lives. Looking to expand the scope beyond exams and competitions, Amalka wanted to create an opportunity for her students to display their prowess as they advance from school and undergraduate studies to becoming corporate employees.
Speak to Lead was first launched in 2018 with the aim of making this transition for the emerging youth. The forthcoming event on August 29 will have co-founder of Spa Ceylon, Shalin Balasuriya as a guest speaker and be attended by corporate elites, academics and heads of non-government organizations. After the speeches, the audience will have a chance for a question-and-answer session with the young speakers. Most being degree holders, this platform gives her students a chance to gain some much-needed exposure, Amalka feels.
The ten young speakers are: Nethara Gamage, Sasheen De Silva, Shakya Wanniarachchi, Minesh Nissanka, Lisari Kahandage, Tavinya Gamage, Shenuk de Mel, Deneth Sugathadasa, Thari Perera and Shane De Silva.
Advanced Level student Minesh Nissanka who will be speaking at this event for the first time says, “Public speaking is a very powerful tool that people need to learn to utilize – it has a lot of carry over into your future lives and it’s also enjoyable when you get the hang of it.”
Many of Amalka’s students have found their public speaking skills to be an asset in their academic lives like Tavinya Gamage, a business analytics undergraduate; “I often use this tool because we have presentations to handle and group discussions with other students and I believe my ability to speak well has been very helpful in this part of my life.”
Law graduate, Shakya Wanniarachchi who spoke at Speak to Lead for the first time in 2020 has been a pupil of Amalka’s for the past 15 years and says that her training has assisted her immensely in her career. “Public speaking has been one of the main reasons for helping me to pursue law – it has given me the confidence to choose it and I absolutely love it.”
The speakers will discuss a range of topics. A’L student, Nethara Gamage’s speech titled ‘Are we hiding?’ will see her sharing her viewpoint on some of the falsehoods perpetuated through social media in how people present themselves online. She says, “When you look around it seems as if everyone is hiding behind their screens – when you go through Instagram and TikTok you can see that a lot of it is fake.”
A’ Level student Shane de Silva’s speech titled ‘We are not who we are but who we become’ focuses on the theme of personal autonomy. “It’s about how parents make decisions for us in our lives. My speech is about the importance of freedom of choice and how that power can help us to become who we are.”
A first-time speaker at Speak to Lead, Shane adds, “It’s not every day that we get to see young people like ourselves get a platform like this – we have things which we want society to know and we want things to change and we want that discussion to start with the audience.”
Speak to Lead is at the BMICH on August 29 at 5 p.m.
Tickets are priced at Rs. 2500 and Rs. 3500.
Pls call 0772204028 for further information.
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