DTAC 2019 - 25th to 27th April

DTAC comes but once a year. It seemed only yesterday that we were hosting DTAC 2018 at Muscat with DTM Gurbindar Punn as DTAC chair. This time it was at Dubai, UAE, at the Le Meridien Hotel near the airport.

Most of the Oman contingent (around 50 in numbers as I counted in a group picture taken at the venue) arrived 24th night, that being a working day. Panna and I, who had travelled from India, arrived 24th mid-day. Some of us had put up at Hotel City Season Towers at Burjuman, with a shuttle to the venue, well-arranged remotely by TM Suryakanth. Others were staying with friends or at Le Meridien itself.

Registration on 25th was a high energy time as usual, with Toastmasters greeting each other like long lost brothers while grabbing their name tags and goody bags. As usual, the events were spread out over the 3 days, with the 4 semifinals in 2 groups scheduled for 25th, Evaluation and Humorous finals on 26th, and Table topics and International finals on 27th. These were interspersed with some external speakers giving addresses, as is usual.

There were a few things to comment on about this DTAC. One was they had a theme called "Communicating Happiness", which all role players kept emphasising throughout the three days. There was even a Happiness Dance that all the audience learnt over time. 

Secondly, the external speakers were not the usual motivational speakers, but of a different flavour - the first being a 10-year old girl who was a motivational speaker, the second was an astronaut who has been chosen as the first 100 people selected for a manned mission to Mars and third was the daughter of Mohd Murad (past International President) who was a parkour trainer. Thought, dream and action - all contributed to the spirit of Toastmastering. 

Thirdly, the food was good and in too much abundance I felt, especially the snacks given in the tea breaks. But no complaints there.

The following were the contestants in the Oman contingent who qualified for the finals:

Evaluation:

Lisa Waite (3rd in finals)

Bipin Kuriakose

Humorous:

Shair Al Balushi (1st in finals)

Pratyusha (2nd in finals)

Nitish Kumar

Table topics:

Rajat Ray (2nd in finals)

International:

Bipin (3rd in finals)

Saiju

Our congratulations to all the finalists, whatever be the results in the finals.

Apart from these 5 awards in English, Oman's Arabic contingent won 6 awards as well. It was a good year for Oman and surely 2020 will be an even better year.

MTM Panna was awarded Vibrant HPL award for an outstanding HPL project.

DTAC is a great occasion to make friends, to increase networking (if you are so minded) and to simply be awestruck at the high levels of speeches that are rolled out there. Do plan to visit a DTAC meet sometimes, if you have not done so. Next year, it is likely to be in Beirut, Lebanon, if all goes well.