GIIS organised its first edition of the GIIS Just a Minute Forum (JAM) on September 16 and 17, which gave the students from Grades 8 to 12 a platform to explore and hone their public speaking skills and broaden their understanding of pertinent issues and skills of communication. The forum allows participants to speak on a specific topic for a minute without repeating, hesitating, or deviating. Launched this year, the forum was the first to be held in the ASEAN region by an international school, and received a warm welcome with over 40 registrations. 

Just a Minute is the longest-running game show in the world, launched in 1967 on BBC Radio 4. The format was developed by Ian Messitor and producer David Hatch, who submitted a new game show pilot to his BBC development committee, but 50 years later, the show is still the channel's most popular. 

The forum offered a total of three categories and a press team. The categories, based on the panellists' experience in public speaking, included the beginner category, the intermediate category, and the advanced category. The press team captured the flow of events in each category over the two days and published their observations on the official GIIS JAM Forum website.

Day 1 started with an opening ceremony by the event’s Marcom team delivering a brief introduction about the forum and its history. Following the address, The Head of the Event and IB Year 2 student, Lakshitaa Kamat declared the forum in session. The event officially started with a quick mock session to help the participants familiarise themselves with the proceeding regulations. The participants engaged in friendly sessions over a range of topics, including The Russia - Ukraine War, top things one can do in traffic, etc.

Mr Rahul Shah, Founder of Up Your Game 2016 graced day 2 of the event as the Guest of Honour and participated in an interactive session with the students. UYG is a community to provide barrier-free access to individuals to indulge in personal development. He is also the author of Golden Pearls of Relationships and the Enteral Series. Being an impactful speaker himself, Rahul is passionate about helping individuals optimise their fullest potential to pursue their dreams and ambitions. He started the session by sharing his personal experiences and his path to becoming a convincing speaker. His talk emphasised on the importance of confidence, conviction, and extempore. The session motivated and fuelled the panellists for the day ahead.  

The JAM sessions started with all the participants giving their best, going back and forth with their one-minute speeches, with quality challenges being called out while being observed by the JAM Masters. The various rounds made the sessions more interesting by increasing the level of competition through elimination based on rounds. A unique addition to the forum was the twist in the final round. The panellist would start based on a topic, but after every challenge, they would have to continue their speech with the last word of the opponent. This compelled participants to push their limits and hone their skills. 

At the end of the forum, the JAM Master gave out the awards to the winners of each category. To officially close the session, The head of the event, Lakshitaa Kamat delivered the closing address and vote of thanks- thanking the entire team and the faculty that pushed the event to success.

All-in-all, the GIIS JAM Forum was a huge success, with students being allowed to hone their oratorical skills and gain confidence in themselves. The participants not only went back home with these skills but also had a lot of fun-filled memories. GIIS has always placed emphasis on empowering students with 21st Century skills that can help them in the future to become global leaders. Through events and initiatives such as the GIIS JAM Forum, students get to develop new life skills while honing their existing ones.