Every Speaker Slam® competition brings a new lineup of voices to the stage. On November 28, 2018 at Jane Mallett Theatre, Toronto, 14 speakers competed on the theme of Human Connection, the year-end finals, for the title of Inspirational Speaker of the Year.
Meet the speakers below. See how the night ended in the results.
Jessica Opoku
#1 Inspirational Speaker of the Year, 2018
She's a Public Servant and holds a degree in Health Science and Biology from the University of Western. She is Spokesperson and a founder of Women with Passion and Purpose, an organization created by five influential women with the desire to use passion and purpose to inspire and give back to local communities. As an Inspirational speaker, she has stepped out in faith to impact lives one interaction at a time. Jessica speaks with a dynamic voice; shares her life stories and lessons learned to encourage people, particularly women, to have a voice and to never give up in life.
Sandra Elia
#2 Inspirational Speaker of the Year, 2018
Sandra Elia is one of the world’s first Certified Food Addiction Counselors. She has worked alongside top obesity doctors and addiction doctors to develop a food addiction recovery program that has yielded tremendous success. Patients report weight loss and finding neutrality with food. Sandra is authentic, open-hearted, real and raw; not to mention she’s lost over 100 pounds herself, and has kept it off for over 13 years! She uses her own invaluable life experiences to bring the theory and facts to life.
Gina Hatzis
#3 Inspirational Speaker of the Year, 2018
A recovering CP24 journalist, she's spent the past 20 years as a corporate speaker and facilitator, woman's empowerment advocate, Facebook blogger at Project Passion and global host of her show Ignite a Life You Love and her new podcast, Spiritual G Spot. When she's not writing, speaking or singing carpool karaoke, she is mothering her amazing 2 preteen kids and desperately trying to convince them she is still dope.
Darius Bashar
Portrait Photographer, Writer, Podcaster
I am a portrait photographer, writer and podcaster, but before any of that, I am a soul having a “human experience”.
Ven Virah
Award Winning Motivational Speaker, World Class Speaking Coach, Charismatic Wedding MC
Ven Virah is an award winning motivational speaker and a certified World Class speaking coach. Affectionally known by many as "the Brown Tony Robbins", Ven loves to light the room with infectious energy, contagious humor and attractive optimism! He leads business keynotes, workshops and advises clients from around the world on how to speak to influence, so they can influence to change lives.
Sultan Akif
Chief Library Builder, Social Entrepreneur
Sultan Akif walked out of his corporate job with Microsoft to build libraries with his own hands for some of the poorest children in the planet. He left his 17 year career as a corporate executive and traded it for a drill machine so he could make a real difference and be in the space of people who need his help. He is the CEO of Library in a Week organization with an objective of building 100 libraries around the world with four already completed.
Ian Keeling
Author, Actor & Coach
Ian Keeling is an author, actor and coach. His first novel, The Skids, won the 2017 Copper Cylinder Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. He’s on the faculty at The Second City in Toronto and is a speaker-coach with Talk Boutique. In over twenty years of corporate workshop facilitation, he’s worked with hundreds of clients, including: Rolls Royce, Ernst and Young, Deloitte, Bell Canada, The Rotman School of Management, and various municipal, provincial, and federal levels of government.
Sam Demma
Social Entrepreneur, Speaker, Student
Sam Demma is a 19-year-old professional speaker, avid reader, co-founder of the social enterprise PickWaste & one of the top 25 under 25 environmentalists all throughout Canada. This November he will be completing his first TEDx talk. In addition, Sam is the youngest club member of an advanced Toastmasters group, a student at the University of Toronto, and a connector for the league of innovators -- a Canadian charity that is bridging the gap between youth and entrepreneurship. He strives to spread a simple but powerful message, that small consistent actions will lead to massive change.
Armin Shafee
Vice President of Think and Grow Rich Institute, Peak Performance Coach to the largest sales teams in Canada, Certified Speaking Trainer
Almost dying at the age of 18, Armin Shafee was REBORN and made life altering decisions to change his environment and career path. His near-death experience lead him to realize the secrets to living a fulfilled life and that started his journey of learning all about human behaviour, psychology and patterns so that he can change his own habits. As he learned from the best in the world, he studied all the personal sciences on how to produce greatness in his life, and now has successfully manifested his dream life and is helping others learn how to master theirs through the science of self-mastery.
Greg Frankson
Entrepreneur, Content Creator, Professional, Communicator
Greg is the founder and creative force behind Voice Share Human Development, which promises its clients that “we will amplify all voices we work with until their collective empathy, passion and purpose creates the cacophony that drowns out the darkness.” Greg appeared on the 2012 CBC TV special Canada’s Smartest Person, won a 2012 national poetry slam championship and is a former poetic commentator on CBC Radio One’s Here and Now Toronto. For over twenty years, Greg has been pursuing his personal mission, to present the vision that inspires others to positively change the world, through the power of the pen and the microphone.
Merav Richter
Author, Poet, Performer, Peacemaker
Best-selling author, career woman, entrepreneur, philosopher, mystic, poet, dancer, traveler, adventurer, comedian… Through her new book, Brave Ecstatic Woman, and her online community of the same name, Merav inspires women around the world to ignite their feminine essence and experience ecstasy in their everyday lives.
Jhannell Edwards
Real Estate Professional, Entrepreneur
Jhannell is a proud Real Estate professional who offers a tactical marketing and transaction management service with her distinctive boutique style methodology. Jhannell is also a leader in the Positive People Army, a global group of over 15,000 people who are on a mission to make a difference. Jhannell is eager to continue the discovery of her voice in pursuit of influencing many. She believes that with hardwork, practice and persistence, individuals can simultaneously change their lives while positively impacting others.
Stephen Hopkinson
Motivational Speaker, Performance Speaker, Coach
Motivational speaker Steve Hopkinson decided to overcome his fear of public public speaking in 2006. He has continued to be active in public speaking as well coaching individuals to become effective confident speakers. He runs public speaking, personality, and marketing workshops through his organization Speakers Momentum and is an active member of Toastmasters.
Imran Mouna
Entrepreneur, Catalyst, Trial and Error Expert
Imran Mouna is one of the co-founders of InStage, an accelerated learning company that uses virtual reality and artificial intelligence to help people develop communication skills for everything from classroom presentations to professional keynote speeches. He graduated from the engineering programming at Queen's University, where he filled a provisional patent for his thesis research on preventing ACL injuries in athletes. Prior to his work with InStage he was part of the production team for the Aston Martin 1-77, published games on both the Apple App Store and Google Play, and taught programming to underprivileged students in Kingston, ON.