Public speaking contest, 2024 edition organized by students

A contest that is popular with students

The organization of the public speaking competition at the Arts et Métiers campus Arts et Métiers Cluny was entrusted to two second-year students in the Grande Ecole Program: Paul Bourgès and Robin Ungauer-Piot. Together, they relaunched the competition among their classmates and benefited from the advice of Agnès Bourg, professor of humanities and social sciences at the Arts et Métiers campus Arts et Métiers Cluny. Agnès Bourg organized this competition until the COVID pandemic.

"First, we sought to offer training to students who wanted to participate. Lawyers, journalists, actors and actresses; we contacted many people before finding our two speakers: Hébé Lorenzo - director, actress, theater teacher, and director of the Petit Théâtre de Cluny - and Elisabeth Dounon - stylist of speech and eloquent writing."explains Paul.

After two one-hour sessions, during which around thirty volunteer students took part in building and dismantling their pitches while learning about paralanguage and pitch structure, 15 of them decided to see the competition through to the end. 

With 15 candidates for 10 places, we had to organize a semifinal. To decide between them, we gave them the following topic: "Is shyness the virtue of fools?", says Robin

The ten candidates selected for the final and the big night then had a week and a half to familiarize themselves with their topic, "Growth and Creation."

"This is a familiar topic for us engineering students. With our close ties to the industry of the future, I wanted to explore aspects of growth from a more philosophical perspective and challenge the way we create."

A return to Cluny

"It was important to us that the competition take place once again at the Théâtre des Arts in Cluny, rather than in an amphitheater, so that the residents of Cluny could be part of the audience."

This year, the jury was composed of:

• Michel JAUZEIN, Director of the Arts et Métiers campus,
• Jean-Philippe GUYOT, President of Réseau Entreprendre Bourgogne,
• Hébé Lorenzo, director of the Petit Théâtre de Cluny and public speaking coach, 
• Agnès Bourg, professor at the Cluny campus 
• Marie-Hélène Boitier, Assistant Director of Education, Cluny Town Hall.

Back with Florian Laforest

Florian Laforest won first place for his essay on "Artificial intelligence: death or rebirth of human creativity?"

"I wanted the audience to feel several emotions at once, so I explained my sadness, my joy, my paradoxes, my disappointments, and my wonder at situations that today seem—unfortunately—simple to us. Artificial intelligence does not experience these feelings or the way we experience them."

And when asked why he decided to enter this competition, he replied: 

"It was an opportunity to try my hand at an art form I had never done before, but which was similar to theater, which I had to give up during my preparatory classes. I would occasionally watch videos of public speaking competitions and thought it was a very interesting art form, both in terms of content and form. Here, I had to do both: work on the text and how to deliver it, which was perfect because I often tend to write with a specific tone in mind."

The 2024 podium

1. Florian Laforest
2. Louis Arnault
3. Victor Mourlon