{"id":59057,"date":"2026-08-14T16:29:02","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T10:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedeccanmessenger.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/14\/from-silence-to-a-standing-ovation-indias-only-public-speaking-championship-ends-season-one-in-tears-triumph-and-a-new-voice-for-leaders\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T16:29:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T10:59:02","slug":"from-silence-to-a-standing-ovation-indias-only-public-speaking-championship-ends-season-one-in-tears-triumph-and-a-new-voice-for-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedeccanmessenger.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/14\/from-silence-to-a-standing-ovation-indias-only-public-speaking-championship-ends-season-one-in-tears-triumph-and-a-new-voice-for-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"From Silence to a Standing Ovation: India\u2019s Only Public Speaking Championship Ends Season One in Tears, Triumph, and a New Voice for Leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"
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India\u2019s Only Public Speaking Competition Platform Launched in Mumbai by SBY Academy<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], August 13:<\/strong> Fifteen years ago, a young leader was cut off mid-sentence in a meeting room \u2014 not because what she had to say was wrong, but because she hadn\u2019t yet earned the title that, back then, came with permission to speak. That single silence has now grown into a roomful of applause. SBY Academy<\/a><\/strong>, a leading corporate training and coaching platform for top executives, on Sunday, August 9, brought the curtain down on the inaugural\u00a0PowerSpeak\u00a0Championship \u2014 India\u2019s first public speaking competition platform built exclusively for corporate leaders and business owners \u2014 with an emotionally charged Grand Finale in Mumbai.<\/p>\n

For Yukti Kapoor Mehandiratta<\/a><\/strong>, Founder and CEO of SBY Academy, the finale was the closing of a wound she had carried for a decade and a half. \u201cIt made me realise something I couldn\u2019t unlearn,\u201d <\/em>she said, her voice catching as she recalled the moment. \u201cHaving a meaningful insight isn\u2019t enough. Somewhere along the way, we decided that voice needs a title to earn the right to be heard. That single moment\u00a0of being silenced is what seeded the idea for a platform where no leader needs anyone\u2019s permission to speak \u2014 where leaders can go beyond titles and be free to share their voice with the world. I can hardly believe that dream has become a reality with the\u00a0PowerSpeak\u00a0Championship.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

What followed was nothing short of a movement. When auditions opened nationwide, corporate leaders and business owners from across India poured in with\u00a0video entries bearing their stories, their scars and their ambitions. The submissions went through a gruelling selection process before ten finalists were chosen to walk onto the Mumbai stage \u2014 each one carrying not just a speech, but a piece of themselves.<\/p>\n

The evening drew a house packed with international professional speakers,\u00a0industrialists, corporate leaders, business owners and working professionals, all witnessing something India had never quite seen before. Adding rare global weight to the jury panel were professional speakers from the Netherlands, Sweden and the UAE, who\u00a0evaluated the semi-finals online, shortlisting the top 10 on the basis of a structured 15-point assessment\u00a0\u2014 a quiet but\u00a0powerful validation of the credibility SBY Academy has built into this platform from day one.<\/p>\n

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\"Public<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Inside the hall, something rarer than competition took hold. As each finalist stepped into the light, the loudest cheers often came from the very people they were competing against. \u201cOur contestants set the stage on fire, exhibiting the power of vulnerability, while our jury sat on the other side genuinely struggling to find the best among the best,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Coach Yukti\u00a0said. \u201cThat\u2019s exactly the kind of challenge we hoped to create.\u201d<\/em> It was rivalry softened by respect \u2014 a living demonstration of SBY Academy\u2019s core values of service and respect, organisers said.<\/p>\n

Adding to the evening\u2019s emotional pitch was a keynote address by actor Vijay Vikram Singh, whose presence lent the finale both star power and sincerity. For\u00a0Coach Yukti, his participation carried a deeper meaning than the glamour it brought. \u201cThat\u2019s not just the power of networking,\u201d<\/em> she said. \u201cIt\u2019s the power of humanity that binds us together, and the power of dreaming \u2014 the kind that somehow aligns the universe to help you in ways you couldn\u2019t have imagined.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Industry watchers say the timing of\u00a0PowerSpeak\u00a0Championship could not be more significant. As Indian boardrooms increasingly treat\u00a0communication as core leadership currency rather than a soft skill, the platform arrives as one of the first in the country to turn public speaking into a competitive art form \u2014 worthy of a stage, a jury and a trophy, rather than a training-room checkbox.<\/p>\n

Organisers say the jury\u2019s anguish over choosing a winner was, in many ways, the entire point.\u00a0PowerSpeak\u00a0was never designed to reward polish alone \u2014 it was built to reward truth. Finalists were judged not just on what they had achieved, but on what had broken them open along the way, giving the evening an emotional charge rarely seen on a corporate stage.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead,\u00a0PowerSpeak\u00a0Championship<\/a><\/strong> will now run as an annual property, with auditions for the next season set to open soon to corporate leaders and business owners across the country. \u201cOur vision for\u00a0PowerSpeak\u00a0Championship is to create a safe space for leaders to go beyond titles,\u201d\u00a0Coach Yukti\u00a0said. \u201cA space where they don\u2019t just share their victories, but also their vulnerabilities with the world \u2014 the emotions that make us human, and that hold an integral part in our growth, both as leaders and as individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n

SBY Academy has confirmed ambitious plans to scale the Championship into a global stage in the coming\u00a0seasons, widening both its applicant base and its international jury bench, while holding firmly to the founding ethos that carried it through season one: camaraderie before competition. \u201cIt\u2019s time these voices go beyond the four walls of the boardroom,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Coach Yukti\u00a0said, \u201cand become the voice of power.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

About SBY Academy<\/strong><\/h3>\n

SBY Academy is one of India\u2019s leading corporate training and executive coaching platforms, founded by Yukti Kapoor Mehandiratta \u2014 an ICF-accredited Erickson Certified Coach who spent a decade in leadership roles at global majors including Citi and Barclays before turning her own experience of being silenced into a mission to help others find\u00a0their voice. Over the years, SBY Academy has served 150+ organisations and trained more than 100,000 individuals through signature programmes spanning Public Speaking, Coaching Skills for Leaders, Building High-Performance Teams and Spiritual Leadership.\u00a0Yukti\u2019s work has been honoured with the Rashtriya Abhiman Puraskar, the Mumbai Woman Leadership Award, and a place among\u00a0Zee Media, The Economic Times, Forbes India, Fortune India,\u00a0India Today, and Business Standard\u2019s Top 10 Most Dynamic Entrepreneurs. Through platforms including the\u00a0PowerSpeak\u00a0Championship, SBY Academy remains committed to helping leaders build self-awareness, self-mastery, and authentic communication \u2014 with a mission to help leaders lead beyond titles, in the boardroom and in life.<\/p>\n

PowerSpeak<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0Championship \u2014 Leaders Beyond Titles.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

For media inquiries, partnership opportunities or details on upcoming\u00a0PowerSpeak\u00a0Championship auditions, contact:<\/p>\n

[Media Contact Name\u00a0\u2013 Deepashri\u00a0] \u00a0| \u00a0[Email\u00a0\u2013 team@sbyacademy.com] \u00a0| \u00a0[70906 03690] \u00a0| www.sbyacademy.com<\/u><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

If you object to the content of this press release, please notify us at pr.error.rectification@gmail.com. We will respond and rectify the situation within 24 hours.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

India\u2019s Only Public Speaking Competition Platform Launched in Mumbai by SBY Academy Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], August 13: Fifteen years ago, a young leader was cut off mid-sentence in a meeting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59058,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[655],"class_list":["post-59057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-lifestyle","rishi-post"],"rishi__cb_customizer_meta":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedeccanmessenger.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedeccanmessenger.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedeccanmessenger.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedeccanmessenger.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedeccanmessenger.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedeccanmessenger.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedeccanmessenger.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedeccanmessenger.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedeccanmessenger.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedeccanmessenger.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}