Hoover man certified as Guinness World Record holder for most speeches in 24 hours

A Hoover man has been certified as a Guinness World Record holder for the most speeches given in a 24-hour period.

Patrick O’Mara, a subrogation analyst for the State Farm insurance company who has a side business providing training in public speaking, made his attempt to break the world record on June 8.

He gave 33 speeches at different locations in Hoover, Bessemer, Homewood and Birmingham that day, and O’Mara learned this month that the Guinness World Record organization counted 32 of them. That was two more than the previous record of 30 speeches in 24 hours, set in 2018 in Gujarat, India, by a man named Piyush Vyas.

Certain conditions had to be met for each speech to qualify for the record. Each speech had to be an unscripted, unique speech that lasted at least 10 minutes, which meant he couldn’t give the same presentation more than once.

Each speech also had to be in a different venue, and each venue had to be capable of seating at least 50 people. Also, there had to be at least 10 people in the audience at each speech, with no duplicate audience members.

O’Mara relied on statements in fortune cookies he cracked open to give him something to talk about at each venue. He started the day at 5:15 a.m. at the 459 Crossfit in Bessemer and ended it at Brock’s Gap Brewery in Hoover about 9:30 p.m.

A film crew documented 17 hours of continuous footage and sent the footage in to the Guinness World Record organization for certification. O’Mara’s record now can be seen on the Guinness World Record website.

The main reason O’Mara decided to pursue this world record was to bring attention to his side business called Pro Presenting, which provides training in public speaking, he said last year.

Read more about O'Mara's record-breaking effort in this story from June of last year.