Well obviously there are more and more debate tournaments being organised in Europe and the “fight” to get teams to debate.

The organisers of the Amsterdam Open 2008 have released an analysis of the tab after the tournament, and I believe that this is a good way to show, that you are concearned about what has been going on on the tournament.

It does not really matter, that the results show, that two of the motions were a bit more op orientated, because this can happen on any tournament. And the CA-DCA pool was really good on this tournament, so the motions were discoussed beforehand.

What is important is, that the organisers showed, that they are concearned about what has happened, and that they will (probably) try to make the motions more unbiased the next time. And this is what is important, if you show that you are concearned and prepared to learn and to improve.

And I’ve attended the tournament and I know that they have done a lot of great steps to make the tournament as good as possible.

While I’m at it, I can write a bit about it:

1. Take care for the break-fast

If you go to tournaments where you crash at peoples places, it often happens, that you have to go without a breakfast. While I’m not a big breakfast eater, I always enjoy something to eat after a night out. And the organisers took care that the people that crashed debaters had breakfast ready for them. This was great.

2. Great name-tags

A lot of people will say that it is not really important how the name tags look like, and what is written on them, but I disagree. The idea to put all the info about you crash on your name-tag is great. If they would add the schedule on the back of the name-tag it would probably be one of the best name-tags I’ve seen. And I like name-tags, because I never remember names of people that I meet.

3. Post-tournament activities

Brunch after the tournament and a bike tour or history tour of the city is what was offered after the tournament, on the departure day. This is a thing that is great, because it happens too often that you get to a tournament and all what you see are the debating and party places. This way we got to see the city and doing it on a bike was a great way to do it.

4. Parking problems

Well, this is one of the things, where I believe that the organisers didn’t do all that great, because I had to take care of my own parking, and it is not that easy to get a parking place for a reasonable price in Amsterdam. Maybe provide info about cheap parking places before the arrival. And P+R deals are great.

5. Payment via PayPal

A great way to make the payments easier. Good job. But next time please check twice before you talk to debaters that they did not pay. It gets annoying if you payed, and you are approached about your non-payment 3 times in two days.

All in all it was a great tournament, and I believe that a lot of people from my debate institution will continue to come to your tournaments. After all, I believe that we were allready the biggest or even one of the biggest institutions on the tournament (15 people).

BTW, thanks Jana and Anne for the crash