• By April W Bowman
• Posted Thursday, April 30, 2020

4-H Virtual Presentation and Public Speaking Competition

Youth ages 5-18 are invited to video themselves giving a 6-12 minutes speech or presentation and submit it for competition by May 12.

• Youth must be active in 4-H Online. Enroll at https://nc.4honline.com/
• Youth must register for the competition at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/forsyth-county-4-h-presentation-contest-registration-102681336642
• Youth must email their video as a .mp4 or .mov attachment or shared via Google Drive to awbowman@ncsu.edu or dmpearc3@ncsu.edu by 8 PM, May 12. Videos must be less than 10 GB.

The deadline to submit videos for county competition is May 12 by 8 PM. Judge’s will evaluate the presentations, make constructive comments and return the score sheets to us by May 29. Youth that earned Gold or Silver in their age division and category and all youth ages 5-7, may revise/improve presentations and submit a new video for district competition to us by June 8. Presentations will be judged on the district level later in June and will rank those youth.

Talent Show and all Outdoor Cookery competitions are postponed until the end of the summer/fall.

Video Tips:

• Hold your phone or table horizontal (long ways and NOT up and down)
• Make certain that you are in good light
• Try to use a tripod, table or something to keep your device steady
• Stand in front of a simple background ( a plain white or black sheet on the wall may work)
• Don’t have the camera right up on you. Have it a few feet away.
• Don’t zoom in. If you need to, move your camera closer instead of zooming.
• Test your audio. Can you wear a set of earbuds with a microphone to improve your audio? Watch for background noises.

4-H Presentation Guidelines & Regulations & Categories

Rules:

• Videos of youth presenting their presentations must be single cut - do not do several recordings and splice them together. SINGLE CUT ONLY - just as if youth are presenting live.
• Must see youth doing their presentations.
• Must Dress as they were giving the face-to-face presentation
• Teams - use zoom or something similar to record you both on the screen at the same time. (Use co-host to share the roles) (Siblings may co-star in one video, but remember you compete in the age group of the oldest youth.)
• Videos can not be bigger than 10GB - smaller is better
• Videos must be .mp4 file format or .mov as these are universal and we should be able to open them easily. We do not want links to a youtube channel or anything else.
• Be creative in how you manage this new way of doing things this year. An example of this is that you probably don’t have an “easel” at home for posters, so use a chair, use a person, whatever works to make a smooth transition from face to face to recorded videos.

We are here to help you! We know that this is a new thing and it may be scary for you. Don’t let fear hold you back. Together, we can do this! Please reach out to the county 4-H staff, your club leaders and other volunteers if we need help or have questions.

April Bowman, awbowman@ncsu.edu

Monique Pearce-Brady, dmpearc3@ncsu.edu

Dee An, dcan@ncsu.edu