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Photo by Jon Anderson
Patrick O'Mara of Hoover, Alabama, celebrates with friends at the Brock's Gap Brewery after giving his final speech of the day in an effort to break the Guinness World Record for most speeches in a day on Thursday, June 8, 2023. His wife, Suzy O'Mara, cuts a celebration cake.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Patrick O'Mara gives his final speech of the day at Brock's Gap Brewery in Hoover, Alabama, in an effort to break the Guinness World Record for most speeches in a day on Thursday, June 8, 2023.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Patrick O'Mara of Hoover, Alabama, had this cake waiting for him after he gave his final speech of the day at Brock's Gap Brewery in an effort to break the Guinness World Record for most speeches in a day on Thursday, June 8, 2023.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Patrick O'Mara of Hoover, Alabama, celebrates with friends at the Brock's Gap Brewery after giving his final speech of the day in an effort to break the Guinness World Record for most speeches in a day on Thursday, June 8, 2023.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Patrick O'Mara greets audience members at his final speech of the day at Brock's Gap Brewery in Hoover, Alabama, in an effort to break the Guinness World Record for most speeches in a day on Thursday, June 8, 2023.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Patrick O'Mara, center, poses for a photo with his video and volunteer crew after giving his final speech of the day at Brock's Gap Brewery in Hoover, Alabama, in an effort to break the Guinness World Record for most speeches in a day on Thursday, June 8, 2023.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Patrick O'Mara gives his final speech of the day at Brock's Gap Brewery in Hoover, Alabama, in an effort to break the Guinness World Record for most speeches in a day on Thursday, June 8, 2023.
A Hoover man on Thursday completed his effort to break a Guinness World Record for the most speeches given in a 24-hour period.
Patrick O’Mara won’t know for sure if he achieved the goal until his documented video proof is sent to the Guinness World Record organization and verified, but he believes his effort was successful.
O’Mara was seeking to break the Guinness record of 30 speeches in 24 hours, which was set in 2018 in Gujarat, India, by a man named Piyush Vyas. On Thursday, O’Mara gave 33 speeches at 33 locations in Hoover, Bessemer, Homewood and Birmingham.
“We accomplished our goal,” he told about 35 people who gathered to hear his final speech about 9:30 p.m. at the Brock’s Gap Brewery in Hoover.
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 33 times, or even twice.
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.
However, at the very first venue, there was no fortune inside the cookie, so he winged it, he said. He started the day at 5:15 a.m. at the 459 Crossfit in Bessemer, so he framed his talk similar to a CrossFit Whiteboard, which covers the daily workout details, he said. He basically laid out his plan for the day, he said.
Several of the fortune cookies he opened throughout the day had a friendship theme, so he started running out of friendship material to talk about by the end of the day, he said.
His last speech — at about 9:30 p.m. — dealt with the topic of gift giving.
O’Mara initially set a goal of doing 40 speeches, but finding venues that qualified with good potential audiences was challenging, so by Thursday, he had cut his goal down to 33 speeches.
Still, he was unsure how the day would unfold. While he encouraged advance registration for audience members, he had only 148 people registered at the beginning of the day, and he needed a minimum of 330 people, and they needed to be spread out, he said.
There were a couple of rough patches early in the day. At first, two hotels in Hoover — the Hyatt Place and Hampton Inn — didn’t have enough people to do the speeches. But he had volunteers helping him who rounded up audience members “like Bible salesmen on steroids,” he said.
He went back to the Hyatt Place, where the manager had brought in half his staff and volunteers had found three Girl Scouts and two Girl Scout mothers who were staying at the hotel and agreed to listen, he said.
He then went back to the Hampton Inn, where additional staff were found to meet the quota there.
O’Mara’s voice also started getting a little huskier in the middle of the day, and he had a little bit of a sore throat, he said. But by the end of the night, he felt fine again, he said.
When it was over, he felt like a coach giving a victory speech, but “this is not my victory; this is our victory,” he said. “This has been a collective effort.”
He thanked all the people who came out to hear him speak, the venues that allowed him to use their facilities, the team from Digital Motion Event Services that captured 17 hours of continuous video to document the day, and the UAB students in a business entrepreneurship program that helped him organize the day.
The main reason he 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. He thinks it will be a great hook to attract clients.
However, this also was an opportunity for cities like Hoover, Homewood and Birmingham to get a place on the world stage by getting in the Guinness Book of World Records, he said.
He looks forward to getting the results verified, he said.
