Yeditepe 2010 bid details

During Worlds in Cork Yeditepe announced details of their bid for Europeans 2010. They gave me a memory stick with all the details and I have been a little late in posting it.

Y-EUDC 2010 BID
BIGGEST EUROS EVER:260 Teams
LONGEST EUROS EVER: 5 day Tournament(8-9 rounds)-3 day holiday

HIGHEST FINANCIAL SUPPOT EVER: Istek Foundation (Yeditepe University) is the biggest private education company in Turkey with its 30.000 students. Our foundation pledges to write us an open cheque to carry out this great event. Furthermore, Istanbul will be the European Capital of Culture in 2010. Translation: The Turkish government is going to be one of our main sponsors.

STRONGEST JUDGING PANEL EVER: We have budgeted to fly in at least 50 additional judges for free.

CA: WILL JONES Current European and Worlds Champion Worlds DCA in 2010 - Euros DCA in 2007 Best Speaker in 2006 Europeans Worlds Masters Champion Winner of multiple IVs

DCA:BOB NIMMO Worlds Finalist-Euros Champion

DCA: ANAT GELBER Worlds and Euros Best Speaker EUDC DCA in 2007

DCA: CONNIE GRIEVE Euros Finalist-Worlds Semi Finalist

MOST ENTERTAINING EUROS EVER: 7 days of Social events with a Cultural Show, Bosphorus Cruise, Live concerts and Parties with FREE alcohol. ***A three day holiday in 5 stars Doğa Holiday Resort at the end of the tournament. http://www.dogatatilkoyu.com/galeri.aspx?pid=44&kategori_id=2&sno=1
REG FEE: 180 € (Holiday is included)

ACCOMODATION: Yeditepe University Student Hotel Yeditepe University has modern and furnished rooms in the residence halls for International students. All rooms are double occupancy, equipped with a private bath and wired for telephone and internet connection. In-house facilities include snack bars, study/social areas, and visitor salons.

FOOD: As an institution which organises huge international events every year we are very aware that catering to guests’ special dietary needs is crucial. In the past, our Gastronomy and Culinary Arts department (the top-rated in Turkey) was happy to care of making sure all cultural, religious, or allergy-related needs were catered for .We hope to use their assistance in this tournament as well.

LET US CREATE A LEGEND...

VOTE FOR YEDITEPE...

More details of the bid can be found on their facebook page:

Update on the benchmark

You can see the speech and read the text in full on the BBC site

My initial gut response was a bit flat. Reading the speech later it certainly reads a lot better than it was delivered. But then there may be a few reasons for that. I think it didn't make good use of his natural speaking style and flow. At times he seemed to be getting into a stride and then he had to change direction and tone suddenly.

Also I wonder if the sheer size of the crowd and bank of cameras in front of him was a little off putting. It certainly seems to have gotten to the chief justice and he only had to say 35 words. That might also have thrown Obama a little as his great moment of triumph (the swearing in) was not picture perfect for the ages. As a result the correct swearing in had to happen in a small room a day later with no crowd or TV coverage. If I was in his position I would have been hopping mad deep down inside. Lucky for the Chief Justice there aren't any more possible promotions.

Finally I think the message and tone of the speech was one of hard work to come. A speech in the style of his victory speech may not have conveyed the idea that he is now getting down to work. On balance it sent out the message he wanted and hasn't dominated the news cycle since allowing space for coverage of his first actions rather than first speech.

Did it set a benchmark in the public mind that all debaters will be judged against? Well hopefully it will remind people that both matter and manner are critical to a successful speech and shifting the emphasis from one to the other can be key to setting the tone and message.

Setting the benchmark

Tomorrow in Washington Barak Obama will make a speech that may become the most watched speech in history. It isn’t a debate as there won’t be a reply speech, unless you are watching it on Fox news then you never know. However it will be the only speech most people will see this year and could therefore set a benchmark on good speeches in the public mind and, unfortunately, in the mind of next year's in-take of first year debaters.

For such a critical speech its long term success is normally gauged not by it's specific details (as would be more the case in Debating) but by its ability to address the wider challenges of the time. John F. Kennedy’s and Franklin Roosevelt's speeches were both written at a cross roads in American, and World history. Yet interestingly both are probably remembered for 10 or so words. Kennedy’s “ask not what your country can do for you” and Roosevelt’s “only thing we have to fear is fear itself” have entered into the popular imagination yet beyond those 5 seconds little is remembered from the speech.

Obama has a reputation for good speeches and rhetoric. Because of this public expectation will be very high (certainly far higher than the mark Bush had to reach 8 years ago). Personally I’m not sure that Obama gave a really good speech between his convention speech in 2004 and the acceptance speech at the 2008 convention speech. Over the course of the election he gave a number of good speeches culminating with the election night victory speech which I felt was his best so far. Whoever wrote that speech (presidents and presidential candidates rarely write their own speeches) knew the right balance between imagery (“huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world”) message (“We may not get there in one year or even in one term”) and sound bites (“at this defining moment change has come to America” and “our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared”).

Obama has also made much of the link between this moment and other historical figures also known for their oratory. His speech tomorrow will be compared not only with Kennedy and Roosevelt but with the likes of Martin Luther King (e.g. “I have a dream”) and Abraham Lincon (Gettysburg). If he follows the pattern of the victory speech it is likely that he may refer to all four of these historical figures either directly or by weaving elements of their speeches into his speech. Given the emphasis in recent days on celebrating the memory of Martin Luther King I expect we will hear “a dream” and “promised land” in prominent positions in the speech.

If you want to see transcripts of past presidential speeches then visit. http://www.bartleby.com/124/ . If you are really bored and looking for something to do why not play reference bingo. Listen to the speech and look out for direct or indirect references to speeches made by Kennedy, Lincon, Roosevelt and King. Triple points if anyone finds a reference to a speech made by Bush…..

Videos from Worlds

For anyone who is looking for videos for the recent World Championships at Cork then check out http://debatevideoblog.blogspot.com/. Alfred Snider had a team of people videoing different rooms at the championships. He reports that the video of the final has already been viewed over 18000 times which proves there is a genuine interest in debate.