Support

Please email any questions you have about SpeechWire Tournament Services to support@speechwire.com.

For customers, technical support is available free of charge by email in the days and weeks leading up to the tournament, and by phone while the tournament is in progress. Rapid response phone and email support is provided for in-progress tournaments. Leading up to the tournament, emails will be answered as soon as possible, the same day in general, if not within hours. SpeechWire does not provide training services.

Who created SpeechWire?

SpeechWire was founded in 2004 by Ben Stewart, a former speech competitor at Wheaton North High School in Illinois. Ben had long had an interest in the idea of computerized activity administration, and after creating and running the team website for three years during high school, his head coach, Stan Austin, asked if he might have ever thought about creating a service to run speech tournaments. Ben had thought about this, but wasn't sure anybody would really want a service like that. Stan said he'd be interested, and after a crash course in how a tournament comes to happen, Ben wrote the initial version of SpeechWire to schedule and tabulate results from Wheaton North's home tournament in 2004, his freshman year in college. Many people in the tab room liked what they saw and tried it themselves, and the service grew from there.

As of 2024, SpeechWire is used in the operations of more than 2,000 speech, debate, congress, academics, moot court, mock trial, and journalism competitions across the United States and internationally each year. This includes contests at the high school, college, middle school, and elementary school levels, as well as many state and national championship tournaments.

Ben is grateful to have received the Frank Sferra Director's Commendation from the National Speech and Debate Association, the Distinguished Service Award from the Minnesota Speech Coaches Association, the Friend of Speech Award from the Ohio Speech and Debate Assocation, the L.E. Norton Award from the Bradley University Speech Team, the Service Award from the Tournament of Champions in Extemporaneous Speaking at Northwestern University, the Mason Mentor Award from the George Mason University Speech Team, the Sunvitational Service Award, and the 2003 Illinois High School Association state championship in Radio Speaking.

Ben has also developed and provides other services used to assist the administration of competitions in music, cheerleading, dance, and gymnastics. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from the Medill School of Journalism and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University.

Thanks for your interest in SpeechWire!