This Blog has now moved to idebate.org/worlddebating - all future posts will be made there!

5 March 2010

Israeli Open Results

The IDL annual "Israeli Open" competition has been won by Tel-Aviv University (Omer Nevo and Yael Bezalel).
The finalists were IDC Herzliya (Lior Hadas and Avihu Tamir), IDC Herzliya (Uri Feldman and Mila Finkelstein), BGU & Haifa (Yarden Olivero and Michael Shapira)

Best Speaker:
Lior Hadas - (IDC Herzliya)

Full tab can be found here

4 March 2010

Interested in sponsoring WUPID?

This is a repost of a post from http://wupidmania.wordpress.com/.  I have reposted it for two reasons (1) Hopefully someone will see it and decide to sponsor this excellent tournament. (2) It contains 5 good arguments any debating society or competition could use to structure their thoughts and presentation before going to ask a potential sponsor for money.  The arguments come from websites like sponsorship.com and others and in this era of constrained finances I strongly urge people to seek guidance and advice from sites like that when looking for sponsors.  When money is tight nothing will have you shown the door faster than a presentation that looks like something that was thrown together in the back of the taxi on the way.  You don't have to pay for advice there is lots online but remember debating is not as high profile as other activities on your campus so you need to be more professional than them when you compete for the same pot of money.


Hello All,

You are already impacted by our efforts just from reading this post

People are captivated by the debate motions/topics and the respective arguments from our group of talented university debaters discussing matters related to social justice, foreign affairs policy, religious freedom, human rights and many more issues under the umbrella of peace.

We intend to showcase the event at other university debating events like the Auckland Austral-Asian Inter-varsity Debating Championship (July), Amsterdam European Universities Debating Championship (August) and the Asian British Parliamentary Debating Championship (December) which always draw a world-wide debate crowd. We work with non-government organizations to promote peace, government agencies to assist and drive potential policies or activities that fosters more academic debating.

This December prior to WUPID, we will debut our new debate conference which will be co-organized with the Faculty of Modern Languages and Communications of Universiti Putra Malaysia – the host university. The subject of the conference will help continue WUPID’s strong presence among the world debating community and the academic fraternity. Below are the top five reasons why our previous sponsors and us believe you should sponsor WUPID:

(1) Consumer Trust – In case you missed it, findings from the Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey released earlier this month show that 64 percent of consumers “completely” or “somewhat” trust sponsorship as a form of advertising. That is a giant leap from the 49 percent who said the same in the first Global Online Consumer Survey two years ago. It also puts sponsorship ahead of all other forms of company-generated advertising except for brand Web sites, which 70 percent of respondents found trustworthy. Specific forms of traditional, digital and mobile advertising are all ranked below sponsorship.

(2) Sponsorship for Association – Create new partnerships and enhance your corporate image by associating yourself with prestigious institutions of higher education around the world and an event that drives debate and discussion as a preferred instrument for conflict resolution.

(3) Cause Marketing and Social Purpose – Despite the recession, consumers are still spending with companies and brands which have a social purpose. New findings released from the 3rd annual Edelman good-purpose Consumer Study, a survey of 6,000 people in 10 countries, revealed that during this recession, 57 percent globally say a company or brand has earned their business because it has been doing its part to support good causes (with Asian countries coming in highest). Two out of three (67 percent) globally also say they would switch brands if another brand of similar quality supported a good cause.

(4) Corporate Social Responsibility – It all used to be about managing a few sensitive areas that had the potential to generate positive or negative headlines. But, as companies recognize the direct link between social justice and increased shareholder value, they are abandoning this mandated model and instead embedding sustainability and ethical values into customer loyalty-building, cost reduction, new product creation, sourcing and HR.

(5) Flexible Sponsorship Relationship – Brand’s association with the well-liked event does have some positive impact on consumer perception, but the visibility alone doesn’t do enough to really change how consumers feel, in some ways it could be reinforcing the negative opinions – consumer may well be aware of the brand but has a poor perception of the company’s products/services and believes that they are inferior to its competitors. If the stated objective is to change consumer perceptions, the brand should have room to do so much more. WUPID provides the room that would give the potential sponsor a forum to tout its benefits or refine its focus on opportunities for consumers to interact with the brand to prove it is of good quality.

For any company who would like to reach university students, improve consumer perception and directly impact future international policies, please email ‘more info’ to wupid@hngsc.com or check out our sponsorship page here.

We are willing to work with a wide range of companies on a monetary level as well as in-kinds. As an event that revolves around a social cause, we follow strict legal and accounting guidelines but please feel free to contact us for more information or just to say hi.

Muhammad Yunus
World Universities Peace Invitational Debate (WUPID)

Botswana WUDC 2010 update

Hello fellow Debaters!!!

It is a great pleasure for Botswana to be Hosting the biggest Debating Competition in the world. I am Thato Utlwang, the Registration Deputy Director for Botswana World University Debating Championships 2011.

REGISTRATION
I am pleased to inform you that the registration dates will be communicated to you soon, and they are to be around July and August. The exact dates will be emailed to you well in time for you to prepare to register.

PAYMENT
Payments should be done to Organising Committee account via credit Card or Wire transfer. Institutions are adviced to have the credit cards ready prio to the registration dates as regstration will be on a first come first basis.
Delegation Fee is US $450 per Delegate
Teams will register using the n-1 rule

COMMUNICATION
Any questions concerning Botswana Worlds should be sent to this email address (tworlds2011@gmail.com) and will definitely be responded to.

Looking foward to working with you in making Botswana Worlds a success!!

Regards
Thato

Please take the Debatewise survey‏

Hi all,
If you haven't already, please take five minutes to complete our questionnaire. We've tried to make it as simple as possible but the more detail you can give us the better. We only expect a few hundred responses you do stand a pretty good chance of winning one of our two lovely iPod Touches.

The fringe benefit of the survey is we'll be able to find the right kind of sponsors for different things that we do, such as the Global Youth Panel. As a non-profit we depend upon the generosity of organisations like the Open Society Youth Initiative to keep going. Please help us find more like them by filling out our questionnaire. http://debatewise.info/mlist/lt.php?id=ZkQFUQkBAFEYDAVJBwwGVw%3D%3D

Thank you,
David Crane

Travel subsidies for FLTRP in China

Last week for travel subsidies to China!


We will make our first-round assessments for travel subsidies for adjudicators interested in attending the FLTRP Cup on March 10. If you have not submitted your application by this date you will likely miss out on available travel subsidy funds. Please visit http://www.chinadebate.org/Adjudicator.asp to apply.

The Foreign Languages Teaching and Research Press, organizer of the most prestigious English language debating tournament in China, invites you participate as a guest adjudicator at the 14th FLTRP Cup National English Debating Championship. The FLTRP Cup will be held May 15-25, 2010 at the FLTRP’s Convention Center in Beijing.

The FLTRP Cup is the oldest, largest and most celebrated intercollegiate debating competition in China. Since it’s inception, the FLTRP Cup has been a major sponsor of intercollegiate debating in China and is on the forefront of promoting open discourse and intellectual exchange among the best and brightest of Chinese college students.

This year, the FLTRP Cup makes an important transition as it adopts for the first time the British Parliamentary format, the style of debating employed by the World Universities Debating Championships. This transition is critical to connect Chinese universities to the world of international debating and will require the cooperation of volunteers willing to contribute their experience as adjudicators to the effort.

Though the competition is open only to Chinese university students, there is a great need for skilled adjudicators to ensure that the standards of the BP style are upheld. To encourage you to participate in this effort, the FLTRP is sponsoring an incentive package for all qualified adjudicators with significant BP experience who agree to adjudicate at the 14th FLTRP Cup. All qualified adjudicators will receive:

• Transfers from Beijing airport to the FLTRP Convention Center (May 15)
• Hotel at the FLTRP Convention Center (May 15-22)
• All meals while at the Convention Center (May 15-22)
• Transfer to downtown Beijing (May 22)
• Hotel in downtown Beijing (May 23-25)
• Tours of major sites like the Great Wall & Forbidden City (May 23-24)
• Some meals while in downtown Beijing (May 23-24)
• Transfers to airport on May 25

Additionally, we will offer partial travel subsidies to select qualified adjudicators.

To apply to be an adjudicator, please visit: http://www.chinadebate.org/Adjudicator.asp

Questions may be directed to steve.johnson.alaska@gmail.com

2 March 2010

Registration results Amsterdam Euros‏

Dear debaters of Europe!

We received 241 registrations after registration opened today, most of them within a minute. Unfortunately, this means that we do not have places for all institutions that registered. You can find a list of the order of registration below, which still needs to be checked for some eligibility issues, however, and does not give full information on who gets team spots for Euros.

We distribute the 200 available places using the following two criteria

The first institution from every country that registers will always get at least one team place.

We add teams in the order they registered until we reach our teamcap of 200.

Please note that criterion 1 implies that we can only post the final list of invited institutions after registration closes: some countries do not have any institution representing them yet and they may still register before March 8.

We expect that the places up to 175 can be certain that they are in. We cannot be certain about the next spots, as that depends on whether we receive any registrations from countries currently without representatives at Euros.

Note that Cardiff, Belgrade, Stockholm, St. Gallen, Kyiv and Carnegie Mellon are certain to have at least one spot as they are the first registrations from their respective countries. In the case of Qatar this is dependent, however, on whether they will be considered eligible to participate at Euros.

Institution City Country Teams Subtotal teams
University of Athens Athens Greece 2 2
Groninger Debating Society Kalliope Groningen Netherlands 3 5
University of Warwick Coventry England 3 8
Leiden Debating Union Leiden Netherlands 3 11
St Andrews St Andrews Scotland 3 14
University of Helsinki Debating Society Helsinki Finland 2 16
Utrecht University Utrecht Netherlands 3 19
Rephael Recanati International School – RRIS Herzliya Israel 1 20
Debattierklub Wien Vienna Austria 2 22
Debatttierclub Stuttgart Stuttgart Germany 3 25
Erasmus Debating Society Rotterdam Netherlands 3 28
ULU London England 3 31
University of Aberdeen Aberdeen Scotland 3 34
Cambridge Union Society Cambridge England 3 37
Debattierclub University of Potsdam Potsdam Germany 2 39
Higher School of Economics Moscow Russia 3 42
LUDK Riga Latvia 1 43
Greifswald Greifswald Germany 2 45
Stockholm School of Economics in Riga Riga Latvia 2 47
University of Bristol Bristol England 3 50
NUIG – Literary and Debating Galway Ireland 3 53
Athens University of Economics and Business Athens Greece 1 54
Durham Union Society Durham England 3 57
Dublin City University Dublin Ireland 2 59
Tilbury House Cologne Germany 3 62
MGIMO Moscow Russia 3 65
Universtiy of Ljubljana (1st and 2nd team) Ljubljana Slovenia 2 67
IDC Herzliya Israel 3 70
Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv Israel 2 72
University College Utrecht Debating Union Utrecht Netherlands 3 75
Galatasaray University Istanbul Turkey 3 78
University of Haifa Haifa Israel 3 81
Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz Mainz Germany 2 83
Tartu Univeristy Tartu Estonia 1 84
Glasgow University Union Glasgow Scotland 3 87
UCC Philosoph Cork Ireland 3 90
The Oxford Union Oxford England 3 93
TCD Hist Dublin Ireland 3 96
Kings Inns Dublin Ireland 2 98
SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) London England 3 101
Koç University Istanbul Turkey 3 104
Zagreb Law Zagreb Croatia 3 107
Moscow State Academy of Law Moscow Russia 3 110
University of Nottingham Nottingham England 3 113
London School of Economics London England 3 116
University of Limerick Limerick Ireland 3 119
University of Birmingham Birmingham England 3 122
Griffith College Cork Cork Ireland 1 123
Zagreb Zagreb Croatia 3 126
Polytechnic University of Timisoara Timisoara Romania 1 127
Birkbeck College London London England 1 128
Ono Academic College Kiryat Ono Israel 1 129
The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple London England 2 131
UCD Law Soc Dublin Ireland 3 134
MLU Halle Germany 1 135
University of Rijeka Rijeka Croatia 3 138
University of York York England 3 141
Babes-Bolyai University (BBU) Cluj-Napoca Romania 3 144
English Debating Society Sciences Po Nancy Nancy France 3 147
N.U.I Galway Law Soc Galway Ireland 1 148
Bar Ilan University Ramat Gan Israel 3 151
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer-Sheva Israel 3 154
UCD L&H Dublin Ireland 3 157
Edinburgh University Debates Union Edinburgh Scotland 2 159
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple London England 2 161
Boun Istanbul Turkey 3 164
University of Split Split Croatia 3 167
TCD Phil Dublin Ireland 3 170
West University of Timisoara Timisoara Romania 1 171
University of Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne England 3 174
Debating Society Goettingen Goettingen Germany 1 175
King’s College London London England 1 176
Zagreb SEM Zagreb Croatia 3 179
Cardiff University Cardiff Wales 2 181
University of Ljubljana (3th team) Ljubljana Slovenia 1 182
IKU Istanbul Turkey 1 183
National University of Ireland, Maynooth Maynooth Ireland 1 184
Technion – Israeli Institute of Technology Haifa Israel 3 187
Strathclyde Glasgow Scotland 2 189
Center fo Transnational Legal Studies London England 1 190
University of Belgrade Belgrade Serbia 3 193
Tilburg University Tilburg Netherlands 1 194
Deree College Athens Greece 2 196
Lincoln’s Inn London England 1 197
New Business School/University of Westminster Amsterdam Netherlands 1 198
Singidunum University Belgrade Serbia 2 200
BPP Law School London England 1 201
Debattierclub Bonn Bonn Germany 1 202
Hebrew University (1st team) Jerusalem Israel 1 203
Student Association at Stockholm School of Economics Debate Society (SASSE Debate Society)Stockholm Sweden 1 204
Ludwig Maximilians University Munich Munich Germany 2 206
MSTU Bauman Moscow Russia 1 207
DebatingClub St.Gallen St.Gallen Switzerland 2 209
Bilkent University Ankara Turkey 2 211
National University “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (NaUKMA) Kyiv Ukraine 2 213
Debating Club Heidelberg Heidelberg Germany 1 214
MSLU Moscow Russia 1 215
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar Doha Qatar 2 217
MSATU Moscow Russia 3 220
KhUML Khmelnytskyi Ukraine 1 221
UCL London England 2 223
Frankfurter Debattierclub Goethes Faust Frankfurt Germany 2 225
Berlin Debating Union Berlin Germany 3 228
Hebrew University (2nd team) Jerusalem Israel 1 229
Lund University Lund Sweden 3 232
Manchester University Manchester England 3 235
UCC Law Society Cork Ireland 3 238
Ýstanbul Bilgi University Istanbul Turkey 1 239
Hacettepe University Ankara Turkey 2 241

(Ljubljana first registered two teams and later a third and Hebrew first registered one team and later a second, hence their double appearance in this list.)

We are now going to go off Skype for a bit, but you will be able to reach us by phone and email throughout the rest of the evening and we will get on to Skype again at around 21:00 (CET), so if you have any questions, please do contact us. Have a wonderful evening!

With kind regards

Anne Valkering
Convener Amsterdam Euros

Results from the McGill Women's Tournament

Champions:
Queen's University - Megan Vanden Hof & Christine Wadsworth

Finalists:
McGill University - Riva Gold & Natalya Slepneva
Queen's University - Shaughnessy Hawkins & Kaya Ellis
McGill University - Sophie MacIntyre & Hannah Pavalow

Semi-Finalists:
York University - Sarah Sahagian & Anna Koppelman
Carleton University/Dalhousie University - Emma Robillard-Cole & Jacqueline Byers
McGill University - Karen Geukers & Annike Flomen
University of Ottawa English Debating Society - Devon Black & Dayna Prest

Best Speaker:
McGill University - Riva Gold

Best Public Speaker:
Carleton University - Emma Robillard-Cole

Motions:
1 - THBT it is a legitimate tool of foreign policy to send political dissidents back to their countries of origin even if they meet the standards for refugee status.
2 - THW ban defendents in criminal trials from defending themselves.
3 - THS non-territorial sovereignty for aboriginals.
4 - THW Impose strict caps on university spending on varsity sports.
5 - THS the public HIV test mandatory for all South African MPs.
Semi - THS Europe's hostility to multiculturalism.
Final - THBT the courts should have stayed out of the abortion debate.