May 16 - 18, 2014

Keynote speaker, Vikas Jhingran, 2007 World Champion of Public Speaking

Vikas is speaker, author and corporate leader with a strong interest in helping people and teams reach their full potential. Every day, Vikas has the uncommon opportunity of putting his thoughts and ideas, which he shares using his speeches and writing, into practice in a corporate setting where he leads a team. His recent interests have centered around a emotion-based approach to verbal communications. He explores that in his recent book EMOTE Using Emotions to Make Your Message Memorable. An MIT trained engineer and researcher, Vikas suffered from poor speaking skills, due in large part to being an introvert and immigrant. He studied public speaking to improve in this area and eventually won the Toastmasters 2007 World Championship of Public Speaking. He is the first Indian and only the second person of Asian origin to do so. Vikas is an engineer with Shell Oil Company and uses his leadership and communication skills to manage multi-million dollar projects. He also uses his unique, emotion-driven approach to deliver keynotes and conduct workshops that help others become better speakers. He lives with his wife and two sons in Houston, Texas.

Meet Vikas G. Jhingran

While working in the US, he noticed that he was being left behind because of his poor communications skills. Again, Vikas approached this challenge with gusto, joining Toastmasters and eventually winning the world championship of Public Speaking in 2007. Despite having no background in communication, never participating in debates or speaking classes in school and college, he has developed into a sought after speaker. He always is amused that a non-native speaker, an engineer to boot, goes around the world teaching people how to give presentations.

Toastmasters International

Vikas has been a member of Toastmasters International since 2002. He has served in various capacities at the club level including President. In 2007, Vikas won the Toastmaster World Championship of Public Speaking, beating out more than 20,000 other speakers over six months of competition. He continues to attend club meetings and improve his speaking skills. Click here to read more about Vikas Jhingran