Living an Inspired Life: The First Grand Slam

After one year of intense battling, powerful competitors going head to head and heart to heart, Speaker Slam® brought together the best of the best. Eight competitions later, 14 speakers returned to the Lula Lounge stage on November 21st, 2017 with their interpretation of the theme Living an Inspired Life. It was the biggest Speaker Slam® yet.

The 200-Person Bet

At the previous event, The Road Less Traveled, Dan Shaikh went up on stage and declared that Speaker Slam® would bring 200 people together for the Grand Slam. That was double what the competition regularly drew.

Getting that number put the team through late nights and early mornings. On November 21st, the people flooded in and filled the seats. Standing on stage looking at a sea of inspired eyes, with the room echoing as everyone yelled "SLAM!" together, it was worth it.

1st Place: Joze Piranian

Joze was crowned the 2017 Inspirational Speaker of the Year, the champion of champions. He had already won Overcoming Adversity that May. Within three months of the Grand Slam he was on the TEDxQueensU stage, and his story would later become the documentary Words Left Unspoken.

2nd Place: Jonathan Andrews

3rd Place: Ande Clumpus

Unforgettable Moments

It was clear that night that there was a strong community of speakers in Toronto, and Speaker Slam® was blessed to be part of it. The competition had grown from a one-off at Revival Bar to a year-end final at Lula Lounge in thirteen months.

See the full 2017 season on the Alumni page, and read how it all started in How We Started Speaker Slam®.