Why is the National Speech & Debate Tournament coming to Richmond? In 2018, richmondforum launched the Richmond Forum Speech & Debate Initiative with ten high school teams and a straightforward goal to give students across the region access to competitive speech and debate. Seven years later, 43 schools have active teams, participation has grown from 171 students to more than 900, and 16 local students qualified for nationals this year — up from zero. That growth is what brought speechanddebate to Richmond. Beginning in 2020, visitrichmondva and The Forum worked together to make the case for this city as a host. NSDA saw strong venues and hospitality, and a community that had already committed to the values the activity represents. The tournament has previously been held in Des Moines, Phoenix, and Louisville. This June it comes to Virginia for the first time, in the same city where some of the most consequential arguments in American history were made. #Speechanddebate #speechan...