Thanks all - even my wife agrees (I should I always really just ask her since she is way smarter than I am!) so there it is: http://www.amazingcompanyevents.com/

I ended up putting it in the sidebar that appears on every page. Why? Well, why not haha. Seems to fit nice and it looks good to have a big trophy (he MUST be a big deal - he has a trophy!). Overkill?

Even if I don't win the next stage of the competition, I think quarter finalist in the world championships sounds nice. If I win I'll update this to semi-finalist but, hey, I don't want to get too ahead of myself.

Scott, it looks great on your website. Let us know how you get on in the quarter finals. What an achievement it would be to get to Florida.

I used the text "Quarter Finalist in the World Championships of Public Speaking – Scott Burton" on my web site.

It was suggested to me that I change this to "2012 Finalist in the World Championships of Public Speaking - Scott Burton". I like the suggestion but my main concern is the removal of the word "quarter". Would a change like this be inappropriately misleading? To me, this specifically means that I was in the finals (the final finals!). Or am I still being honest even if prospects start to ask out of interest since I have it prominently displayed?

Scott, you are currently a finalist, hopefully you will soon change it to WINNER, but in the mean time you’re a finalist in the contest.

I have never seen anyone advertise Quarter Finalist,

Scott, if you advertise you are a finalist, a google search will quickly throw up the truth. And where is your credibility then?

Wait - you are one win away from world semi-finalist. And once you get to the semis, you are competing at the convention where the world championships are held. You are part of the world championships then. You can say you competed in the 2012 world championship of public speaking. But don't say it until it happens.

I didn't mean to say that I would lie. I wasn't sure if "finalist" would include being a "quarter finalist". My initial thought was to put the "quarter" in there as I think that sounds pretty good and it's 100% accurate. Just confirming what terminology to use. Tony, you are confirming my original thought.

Scott, I know what you were aiming at (and none of us thought you would lie). But I also know how it can be differently interpreted from what you intend. Glad you can see that. Hopefully you will be putting finalist there later in the summer!

The fact that you have advance this far says something about you, and you can be proud. I wish you the best with this, Scott. You are a winner no matter if you reach the top or not. Keep plugging and doing your best. Glenn

Thanks for the support guys. I don't think I'm world champion quality level this year (future...who knows?!) but I'll just keep trying and see how far I'll get

Even if I don't win the next stage, I'm pretty happy with where I've gotten.

Scott, picture yourself winning it. Don't talk yourself down.

Scott,

Congratulations. That is quite an accomplishment. I agree on using "Quarter". As Tony said, if even a few see it as an attempt at deceit, it could be a hard rap to overcome. And with the rest of your qualifications, I don't think putting Quarter in diminishes your accomplishment at all.

- B.H.

Just thinking out loud but, I'm thinking a professional copywriter would probably tell you not to say quarter in the headline, but rather explain it in the text below it talking about the contest.

Either way it looks good.

Well done.


Tom

I copied this from another thread; it sounds legit to me, no one would scam you from a church; Scott you should reply LOL

Blessings to you from Thornton Heath Evangelical Church, I am Elder Peter Dunn, presiding Minister of Thornton Heath Evangelical Church, Surrey, United Kingdom. We are pleased to inform you that we would like to engage you for a speaking event here in Surrey at the Church conference coming up on the 23rd, 24th & 25th of June 2012. The conference is tagged: 'Big things: How to start small'.

Please we would like you to convey to us your availability for one of the dates as it can fit in your schedule.
Also, please we would as well appreciate if you get back in-touch with us in ample time so we can start corresponding the details.
Thank you and expecting to hear from you soon.

Remain Blessed.

--
Elder Peter Dunn
+44 7031873786

Thornton Heath Evangelical Church
Road (A23)
Malvern Road in Thornton Heath,
Croydon,
Surrey, CR7 7LH
United Kingdom
http://www.the-church.org.uk/

Hi Scott -

In addition to the comments above, the photo and award would make a great blog post.
I like how you've incorporated a significant number of clips throughout your site.

By the way, I have a colleague of mine that does motivational speaking and leverage social media a lot to freely promote his ideas.
I'd be happy to connect the two of you. PM me if interested.

Andy

I'm really not that bright sometimes you know! I was doing some pre-contest research and I found my name was in the media (along with the 5 others) as being in the World Championships quarter finals. Radio and online mostly it seems. For example: http://www.cjob.com/News/Local/Story.aspx?ID=1698255

If only I sent out releases and perhaps got an interview and took advantage of the interest!

Well...tomorrows the "big" day. I aim to do my best speech performance ever! If I happen to come out on top, well that will be a great bonus too.

After concentrating so much on how to create a really GREAT 7 minute speech, I've actually learned a TON about how to make my keynotes great as well. My standards for myself have certainly been raised. So, I guess you could say I'm already a winner

I'll keep you posted!

Fingers crossed for you.

I did everything I knew how to do but could not top the competition this year at the quarter final level. While I was hopeful, I am not that disappointed as I accomplished two things: (1) I pushed myself, held myself at a higher standard, and accomplished what is likely my best speech to date and (2) I learned so much about this craft that I'll be applying my lessons to my "work" keynotes and making them better than ever!
The best is yet to come!!!!!
Thanks to all for your support!

All you can do is all you can do, but all you can do is enough!

Congratulations Scott on a job well done.

Now you can move on to the 'real' contest.

Tom