Body Beautiful: Speaker Slam® Goes Hybrid

On September 29, 2021, Speaker Slam® held its first hybrid event. Body Beautiful was presented on stage at the Paradise Theatre in Toronto and livestreamed to an online audience across North America, while co-founder Rina Rovinelli hosted from home.

Eleven speakers competed, including one competitor who joined from Chicago. "Last night Dan and I were proud to enter the era of Hybrid events," Rina wrote the next day.

1st Place: Kristin Light

Kristin started with the comment she feared people would make about her: that she had "let herself go." Nobody had ever said it, she admitted, yet the threat of it lived in her mind daily. Drawing on nearly 40 years of dancing vintage styles on stages like this one, she owned the phrase and pointed to the one key word people forget. One month earlier, Kristin had placed third at Forgiveness 2021.

2nd Place: Daniel Burns

Daniel delivered his speech as a breakup letter to alcohol, a relationship that began at high school house parties and grew closer through university pub crawls. He had wanted to write that letter for years, he said, but had been scared to. Daniel also placed third at Self-Acceptance 2021.

3rd Place: Sara Rahimi

Sara set the scene at her first Christmas with a family since moving to Canada: a table for 15, fresh Italian pasta, and her boyfriend's family. Then came a question about her height, and the moment she realized it was not the first hurtful comment of its kind.

Meet the Judges Who Made It All Happen

• Alvin Brown
• Gina Hatzis
• Mark Bowden
• Mike Brcic

Rina also noted that one last chance to qualify for the 2021 Grand Slam on December 1st was still to come: Personal Power.

Meet the full lineup in Meet the Speakers for Body Beautiful 2021 and the panel in Meet Your Judges for Body Beautiful 2021.