The speeches went extremely well, to my surprise. Everyone was not only extremely prepared for their speeches, with visual aids, props, and perfectly timed jokes, but everyone seem to actually care about their artifact. People put their personal touches into everything and made a point that they too cared about the artifacts at hand. I think this really helped add to the successes of the speeches. It made them more real and more relatable. It also made everyone seem more human; not just perfect speech-giving robots. The other great thing about this speech giving experience is the audience. Everyone was extremely supporting and welcoming. When I gave my speech, I was looking down at smiling, interested faces. Not a bunch of angry trolls waiting for me to mess up any second.
There were moments, however, where I believe every single person, including myself, needed to work on. Everyone looked down a lot, and did not fully involve the audience in their speech. I feel like everyone could have really taken the audience on a great speech journey. Introductions varied. Some people really grabbed the audience with an outlandish idea or thoughtful question, which I think was really good and successful. I am also extremely happy and proud that nobody passed out, threw up, or peed their paints, because I did not want to end up in the splash zone. Overall they were really great, but I feel the next time we have to give a speech, everyone will be complete experts.