A room packed full of young and not-so-young students and professionals, among them future policy-makers, budding entrepreneurs, successful and not-so-successful business men and women, yet-to-be-famous stars, each vying for the opportunity to win the coveted 2012 Gift of the Gab.

Be they Hungarian, Irish, Polish, Romanian, whatever, each will have a keen desire to entertain, to captivate their audience, to prove something to themselves. Theirs is a talent to be nurtured.

A speech slam! A social/cultural interactive event held on a random Wednesday in September, October, November, January and February. The rules are simple. Over six months, on five occasions, contestants compete on two levels. In Part I of each event, five hopefuls will give a five-minute prepared speech on a topic of their choice. Speeches should be entertaining i.e. interesting, topical, maybe even humorous. But this is the easy part!

In Part II, each contestant will then give a three-minute impromptu speech, which will again, be voted on. Audience members submit their suggestions when they register and just 30 seconds before the speaker takes the stage, they will draw a topic. This is where the gift of the gab comes into play: that ability to speak in a persuasive and interesting way on any topic to any audience.

Each month, judges randomnly selected from the audience will determine who will go forward to the final in March. Judges will take audience reaction into account when voting, so you, too, can have your say. The speaker with the most votes goes through to the final in March during the St Patrick’s week celebrations in Budapest.