{"id":1401,"date":"2014-01-28T14:08:45","date_gmt":"2014-01-28T14:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/articles\/?p=1401"},"modified":"2014-09-09T21:57:45","modified_gmt":"2014-09-09T21:57:45","slug":"gp-warsaw-judge-conference-organizers-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/articles\/2014\/01\/28\/gp-warsaw-judge-conference-organizers-notes\/","title":{"rendered":"GP Warsaw Judge Conference \u2013 Organizers\u2019 Notes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Written<\/a>

Written by Adam Cetnerowski<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

\"Written<\/a>

Written by Adam Kolipi\u0144ski<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Earlier this year I was selected along with my friend Adam Kolipi\u0144ski to organize the judge conference preceding Grand Prix Warsaw. I knew I would enjoy this challenge as I had never organized a GP conference before, but had success organizing non-event judge conferences. I could also apply my experience in organizing professional conferences in my day to day job.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Best Laid Plans\u2026<\/h2>\n

Much like the tournament itself, the success of the conference hinges on good preparation.<\/p>\n

<\/p>
\nThe first thing you want in your conference is participants. Fortunately they can be easily recruited through judge apps. I don\u2019t want to delve much into this topic, which is generally well-known, but wanted to touch upon a point about registering. There is some logistics work (e.g. ordering and shipping the judge foils) that is dependent on the number of participants, so if you plan to attend, please sign up before the deadline. On the other hand, if you find out you won\u2019t be able to make it (for example, you aren\u2019t selected to judge at the GP), please drop from the event, so we have a clear picture.<\/p>\n

The next item on our list is the presenters themselves. When people register for the conference, they have an opportunity to indicate if they want to run a seminar. Some judges will clearly state their idea and willingness. Others will be less enthusiastic (\u201cI can, if you need me to\u201d), give several proposals or actually ask for a topic. Of course, you use the resources you have. It is good to have a vision for the conference (see below), which helps you pick the presenters and nudge the undecided ones into the direction that you need.<\/p>\n

For our conference, the initial review of topic proposals indicated that we could run two parallel tracks \u2013 the first one on rules, judge fundamentals, judging techniques skewed more towards less experienced judges; the second on more advanced topic such as team leading as well as judge program presentations. We finished the day with two combined sessions \u2013 a review of the GP format (always useful!) and a fun activity \u2013 in this case a team trivia contest.<\/p>\n

The initial plan was sent out to presenters. The sessions needed to be juggled a bit to accommodate arrival times, but we got a commitment from everyone. When asking a group to commit to a plan, always set a deadline and specify that the plan is (silently) approved by anyone who doesn\u2019t reply by that deadline.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the full schedule:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nBlock A
\n<\/strong>(Adam Cetnerowski)<\/td>\n		Block B
\n<\/strong>(Adam Kolipi\u0144ski)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10:45<\/td>\nWelcome<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11:00<\/td>\nA1: Team Leading
\n(David de la Iglesia<\/a><\/a><\/span><\/span>)<\/td>\n		B1: Slow Play
\n(Christian Gawrilowicz<\/a><\/a><\/span><\/span>)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
12:00<\/td>\nA2: Arranging Tournament Space\u00a0and Crowd Management
\n(Konrad Wieczorek<\/a><\/a><\/span><\/span>)<\/td>\n		B2: Backups
\n(Kenny Koornneef<\/a><\/a><\/span><\/span>)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
13:00<\/td>\nLunch<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
14:30<\/td>\nA3: How to Certify an L1
\n(Matteo Callegari<\/a><\/a><\/span><\/span>)<\/td>\n		\n

B3: Out of order sequencing
\n(Francois Grossi<\/a><\/a><\/span><\/span>)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

15:30<\/td>\nA4: First Aid for Judges
\n(Niels Viaene<\/a><\/a><\/span><\/span>)<\/td>\n		B4: Delivering a Ruling
\n(Emilien Wild<\/a><\/a><\/span><\/span>)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
16:30<\/td>\nA5: How to present a thrilling seminar
\n(Wojciech Strzyzakowski<\/a><\/a><\/span><\/span>)<\/td>\n		\n

B5: Cooperative conflict resolution
\n(Aaron Hamer<\/a><\/a><\/span><\/span>)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

17:30<\/td>\nA6: How to apply to a GP
\n(Alexis Rassel<\/a><\/a><\/span><\/span>)<\/td>\n		B6: Would you downgrade? (Gianluca Bonacchi<\/a><\/a><\/span><\/span>)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
18:30<\/td>\nA7: Standard Review
\n(Dominik Olak<\/a><\/a><\/span><\/span>)<\/td>\n		<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
19:00<\/td>\nTeam Trivia Tournament
\n(Kaja P\u0119kala<\/a><\/a><\/span><\/span>)<\/td>\n		<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
20:30<\/td>\nJudge Meeting<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
21:00<\/td>\nJudge Dinner<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>
\nWhen running a professional conference, it is typical to require that all presenters submit a synopsis of their talk and then (typically) a draft of their presentation. Due to the scheduling and effort, I decided not to go that route. I think that some oversight may have been useful (some presentations did fall flat) and is something I will consider for the future, but generally it was not too bad.<\/span><\/p>\n

The final aspect of preparation is the logistics. We quickly got in touch with the TO (Glen White<\/a><\/a><\/span><\/span>) and probed about the availability of resources:<\/p>\n