… Speaker’s Edge event set for Jan. 11-13
OXFORD, Miss. – In the business world, the spoken word can make or break a deal. At the University of Mississippi, students are preparing for those challenges by honing their communication skills in the Speaker’s Edge competition.
Speaker’s Edge is a transformative public speaking competition, co-hosted by the School of Business Administration, the Lott Leadership Institute, Baptist Memorial Healthcare, FedEx Corp., Extreme Arts and Sciences, Chick-Fil-A and Rich Gernart, a UM alumnus and managing director of Iroquois Capital Group. While the program has been a hallmark of the MBA curriculum for several years, the competition has expanded this year to include students in the university’s Center for Manufacturing Excellence.
The ninth annual Speaker’s Edge event for MBA students is set for Jan. 12-13 in the business school, and the CME event is set for Jan. 11-12. Both showcase the secrets of high-impact public speaking. Students can expect to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their own personal speaking style and adapt their messages to different audiences and situations.
The event has received national recognition as a best practice for colleges and universities by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
“The cutting-edge approach to teaching this course, whereby feedback, repeated practice and the pressure of competing in front of business leaders, sets our students and MBA program apart from others,” said Bethany Cooper, director of corporate relations and MBA/MHA services. “The communication skills our students develop in this class will undoubtedly make them more effective leaders in their industries.”
“The business school is getting a reputation of producing ‘the communicators’ in the business world,” said JoAnn Edwards, director of forensics for the Lott Leadership Institute. “No other school in the country has a competition like this. Public speaking is still the No. 1 fear for most people.”
The MBA students receive three hours of credit, and the program is required for graduation. More than 70 students have prepared all fall by meeting with Edwards and other coaches.
“We are really trying to make it a part of the DNA of the university to produce competitive communicators,” Edwards said.
The competition features a six-to-eight-minute informative speech, a six-to-eight-minute marketplace pitch, in which students share their best business ideas with industry leaders, and an “ethical dilemma,” for which they have 30 minutes to prepare a seven-minute speech.
“For the marketplace pitch, two students have actual products with patents, and others have ideas and are seeking investors,” Edwards said. “For the ethical dilemma, they speak without much preparation, using the skills they’ve learned, under the time limit.”
Just as important as the students who are trying to out-talk their peers are the judges who decide if they’ve done a good job from a competitive perspective. Past judges have included Dottie Berry, vice president for Strategy Planning & Analysis at Fed Ex Services; Bill Chiles, president and CEO of Bristow Group Inc.; and Bill Andrews, director of marketing communications at Viking Range Co.
Judges are still needed for the upcoming competition. Anyone interested in judging can fill out an online form.
“I think it’s become a real scouting opportunity for employers who come to judge,” Edwards said.
Including students from the new CME program seemed like a natural fit, Edwards said.
“The CME students are exceptional and they should benefit from it exponentially,” she said.
“We are always looking for opportunities to reinforce important philosophical points and give the opportunity for professional development: problem solving, efficient communication and effective time management,” said Ryan Miller, programs manager and assistant director of the CME.
Miller served as a judge for Speaker’s Edge a few years ago and concluded that it is important for CME to be involved in order to push its students beyond their comfort zone.
“The reason this is exciting is because they will develop these skills in the early stage of their academic career, and it is important to be willing to be in an uncomfortable position for the sake of learning,” Miller said. “This is a tremendous opportunity for the students and they are rising to the occasion.”