Talking in front of huge audience often turns into a sort of a phobia and causes fear in many. One is calm and balanced at one point and in the next moment he or she has to step up in front of many people staring – suddenly the entire self-confidence collapses and words seem to vanish. Yes, we have all felt that but with time concerns fade away and finally disappear. Practice and communication are the keys to confidence in front of many. The Pixelmedia.bg website and the Debates Association come to assist young people who turn into ambassadors of the Cause for Intelligent and Active Young Generation. They organized the first of its kind debate contest with its initial edition focused on new technologies. The event is named Debates on the Future and it gathers high school and university students who have the chance to discuss different subjects and causes, to present their point of view and to argue a bit with the others. The goal of the whole thing is the participants to get more confident without worrying to share their opinion and views in a debate with the rest of the teams. Rumyana Peneva from the board of the Debates Association tells us more about the event:

“Our cause is to teach those kids how to speak freely in front of audience via a debate game. We carry out those training games for them, showing them how to select good reasoning, how to think in a critical manner about subjects which are of great public importance. The teams of high school and university students discuss different subjects during the contest, related with politics, economy, philosophy and new technologies.”

People from all over Bulgaria take part in the contest, as the greatest interest comes from the cities of Sofia, Plovdiv, Burgas and Pazardjik. The first debate competition was subjected New Technologies and Futuristic Trends. The participants discussed how modern technologies change our existence and how we can use their assistance within any aspect of our everyday life.

“Young people are the ones who are most interested in new technologies, using those most easily and naturally in their life. The technologies that we discuss here haven’t been introduced to our everyday life yet – robots, artificial intelligence, self-driven cars etc.”

Rumyana Peneva also gives us details on the impressions of the young people:

“First, they learn how to speak freely in front of an audience, they also learn much more about teamwork. We spot their growing confidence and enhanced communication on topics that they couldn’t discuss with their family and friends. We give them a chance to improve their knowledge and skills while playing the debate game.”

The organizers are convinced that the Debates on the Future format is very well accepted by the participants and we can expect for sure many other editions of the contest game in the future, which gives confidence to young people, alongside the new skills and knowledge. If you want to overcome your fear of public speaking, sharing your point of view on subjects that are interesting for you then Debates on the Future is your thing.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev