April 10 update
Executive summary
Please remember that your executive summary is due today. Send a pdf file to exsum@ibecc.net.
General information about the competition
IBECC consists of three required competitions (full presentation, 10 minute, 90 second) and two optional competitions (AI, biathlon). In each of the three required and AI competitions, you will be competing in a division. There will be 2 graduate divisions and 3 undergraduate divisions of 4 teams each. The composition of the divisions is changed for each of the 3. The AI division has 6 teams. There will be a winner ($250) and runner up ($125) in each of the divisions in each of the three competitions. Prizes in the AI division are $500 for the winner and $250 for the runner up, based on the full presentation. The winning biathlon team gets to designate a verified charity for a $500 donation. See the website for details. IBECC does not have overall winners.
Awards will be presented at the 4:30 PM session on Friday the 19th. This should run no longer than an hour so that teams will have the opportunity to take advantage of the fact that we’re so close to Boston.
As far as length goes, officially you have 25 minutes for the full presentation with a 5-minute grade period. We’ve found that 20-22 minutes is an ideal time. This lets you make your main points without losing the judges’ attention. You can then go into more detail in the Q&A. You won’t be penalized for going close to 30 minutes, but you’re likely to be less effective. Many teams do much better in the Q&A than in the presentation.
Note that all of the following are considered serious errors: reading from a script, quoting from philosophers, using technical philosophical terminology (for example, consequentialist, virtue ethics, deontological, teleological, etc.), basing arguments on religious authority. Make your case using commonsense, secular language of the sort people use in business.
You will be presenting in one of three rooms which, if all goes according to plan, will allow you to display a PowerPoint slide show on screen. You do not have to submit your presentation ahead of time. Please have your file on a USB drive so that it can be plugged into the PC system. Connecting a laptop can potentially cause conflicts and delays. That’s why the plan is to load the file from a USB drive.
HOWEVER, AND THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT, WE ALL KNOW THAT TECHNOLOGY CAN CRASH AT ANY POINT. YOU NEED TO RECOGNIZE THIS. BE PREPARED FOR A LOW-TECH SITUATION.
As long as the technology works the way it should, you will have a combination of in-person and online judges–most likely 2 in person and 2 or 3 online. We are still recruiting and scheduling judges, and there might also be some last-minute changes. So you’ll meet your judging panel right before your session. We’ve never had a hybrid judging situation before, so everyone may need to make some extra effort to ensure this works smoothly. All sessions on Thursday and Friday are overseen by our experienced überjudges. See our website for more information about them.
All sessions will be live-streamed as Zoom webinars, so they’ll be available for anyone to watch. We’ll post links on the schedule page when that’s finalized.
Still to come
You will be receiving more information about the hotel and the Mt Ida campus, plus the Friday schedule.
If you have any questions at this point, please write to us at info@ibecc.net.