On behalf of the Association of Debate Clubs of
Olomouc Region, I would hereby like to invite you to the 8th year
of our traditional international high
school debate tournament, Heart of Europe Debating
Tournament 2011. The tournament takes place in Olomouc, Czech
Republic on 10th-15th July 2011 and is open for secondary and high
school students.
Competitive debating is an effective method of education, helping the involved develop a wide
range of skills, broaden their views and
explore important issues of their lives.
These are the basic characteristics of an
application of critical and analytical
thinking - in our case, debate. The competitiveness, however, adds
a few more things to this - mainly motivation. Motivation, as far
as any activity goes, generates drive and passion in participants,
thus leading to their better reaching of
the goals in question. This is why we emphasize several aspects
of a debate tournament, comprising fairness
and objectiveness of the competition, its
welcoming character, enough constructive feedback, but also moral
values, social interaction, cultural exchange and language
development. We sincerely hope that after attending the tournament,
everyone will be filled with lots of new
input to be turned into experience, maybe having made a friend or
two along the way too :-).
Heart of Europe features 8 preliminary power-paired rounds
(half of the debates are impromptu), octo,
quarter, semi-finals (all impromptu) and the Grand Final
(prepared). The team cap has been set to 60 this year and we use
the WSDC format. The tournament also enjoys a broad geographical
diversity of debaters and judges. For
instance, we had 17 countries participate last year - with a low
team cap of 24 for 2010, that is a good
figure. Debaters came from countries as far as China, South Africa,
Israel, USA and Canada. Heart of Europe is a very
welcoming event, renowned for its friendliness.
Since we, in order to ensure a quality competition, pride
ourselves on using panels of 3 adjudicators
for every preliminary debate, we will be applying a n+1 rule to the
relationship of numbers of teams and judges brought to the tournament. A
delegation bringing one team has to bring two judges, a delegation
bringing two teams has to bring three judges, and so forth. I know
this is not very convenient, but every debater and judge surely
recognizes the benefits of using panels
of 3 or more judges at a tournament. It
cannot be helped if the tournament is to be a good and fair
competition.
The fees for Heart of Europe 2011 are 160
EUR / debater, 110 EUR / judge and 200 EUR / observer. It is
possible that we will require a deposit to a bank account some time
before the start of the tournament, but it
is more likely that we would have you pay the fees upon your
arrival - as we have always done. All participants will be
accommodated in the best university dormitories in Olomouc and
provided with meals and tickets for public transportation
throughout the city during the course of
the tournament. Festivities will be available as well.
If you like what you have read so far, feel free to read the
enclosed Call for Registration for more details and we will
hopefully be able to welcome you to Heart
of Europe Debating
Tournament 2011 :-). Do note that participants should be familiar
with English at least to such an extent that they will be able to
deliver a speech in a comprehensible manner. Other than that,
proficiency in English does not matter so far as the registration
is concerned - weak English is not a problem.
You can also check out our facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=157313607658423
or our website (unfortunately undergoing reconstruction at the moment - please bear with us): http://www.heart-of-europe.org/web/
HOE '11 Registration Team
Organising Committee
Heart of Europe Debating Tournament
Association of Debate Clubs of Olomouc
Region;
IN: 72067756
- activity of Asociace debatnich
klubu, o.s.; IN: 69058041
Address: Jana
Welzla 1099/1, Zabreh, 789 01, Czech Republic, EU
registrations@heart-of-europe.org
http://www.adkolk.eu | www.heart-of-europe.org
