Thanks, blondie and Pistoff!
Jo... last year, I graded every speaker from 1 to 10. (I may have been a loyal dub, but I was still a very opinionated one. ) This year, however, I didn't do that... I was annoyed with every speaker, so it would have been hard to be objective.
As far as speaking quality, I have to say that it was pretty good as far as JW conventions go. A small handful of the speakers sounded like they were reading rather than speaking; and a couple of the speakers were actually very good (although there were no truly outstanding ones). Most, however, were competent but not brilliant, maybe a 7 or an 8.