We are proud to announce that the IDEA Youth Forum 2009 in Bosnia and Herzegovina will take place from July 23rd to August 5th, 2009 in the Olympic center, Jahorina!

We will be staying at a 4 star hotel Bistrica , with facilities like swimming pool, sauna, fitness-center, billiard and table tennis. There is also a court for football and basketball. The debates and workshops will take place in the same venue, so no walking up the 186 stairs like in Bulgaria! I guess you will have to use one of these above mentioned facilities to burn the remaining calories from the great food they will serve us here!

Jahorina is located 40 minutes from Sarajevo (really! Only 30 km/18 miles) and therefore offers a great combination of beautiful scenery and convenient accessibility. All of these will provide perfect conditions for chilling-out after the debates and workshops!

This year’s Youth Forum is co-organized by International Debate Education Association and Centar za kulturu dialoga BiH (CKD). The IDEA Youth Forum Coordinator, Veronika, stays the same. She will be just a little wiser and more experienced with running this show!

The representative of CKD, is Sanja Vlaisavljevic, the Director of CKD. Her merits are incomparable in the mean of existence of debating system in B&H.

Click here to learn more about the main organizing team!

What is the Youth Forum?

The IDEA Youth Forum (IYF) is a high school team debate event that includes three tournaments as well as a week long debate instruction and great evening activities!

During debate training sessions, participants are divided into small groups in order to engage in personalized learning process, which allows for cultural exchange amongst diverse groups of students, teachers and educators. The IDEA Youth Forum is a large scale event, which involves a large number of participants - on average it attracts 250 high school students and coaches from over 30 different countries from around the world. The students are taught by skilled professionals from 18 countries of the world, coming from 5 different continents.

IDEA YF includes two tournaments in the Karl Popper debate format. The IDEA Karl Popper Debate Championship is an excellent tournament of nations, in which students debate with partners from their own country or debate club. The Mixed Team tournament is the highlight of the Mixed team track, a hallmark of the Youth Forum. Students from different countries are mixed into teams of 3 to try to achieve the best results facing issues connected with working within an international environment. Additionally the IDEA YF features third tournament as a finale of the British Parliamentary Track in British Parliamentary debate format. The Capacity Building Track culminates in presentations of the projects participants of this track plan to implement after returning to their home countries.

The IDEA Youth Forum can provide you and your students with an opportunity to interact with other teachers and students from diverse cultural, social and educational backgrounds. In the past, IDEA Youth Forums have hosted teams from Rwanda, Uganda, Korea, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Argentina, USA as well as countries in Western and Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. The Forum provides an exciting opportunity for students, coaches and teachers from any country to participate in an international learning experience.

Let me walk you through the different parts of the YF, for you to get a better understanding why is the Youth Forum so unique and hence worth attending.

As you can see debaters and coaches are expected to arrive on July 23, 2008 to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The IDEA Karl Popper Debate World Championships lasts from July 24th – 27th, 2009 and it is a tournament of national teams. It is possible to attend the tournament separately from the other parts of the Youth Forum. Eligible is any 3-member debate team, whose members are or have been high school students in the last 6 months prior to the Forum. This tournament will feature 2 extended preparation topics and 4 limited-time preparation debate topics (announced at the Forum, 30 minutes prior to the round) in the area of Climate change. Participating in preliminary and elimination rounds, the best two teams meet in the Grand Final Round that is displayed in a prominent location (e.g. as last year Roman amphitheater) and open to the public and the media.

Participants who would like to experience the Youth Forum but haven’t got enough experience are welcomed to join the International New Debaters Track, formerly known as the Newcomers Track. Participants new to Karl Popper debate will learn the format and fundamental knowledge about debating, argumentation, case construction, effective use of evidence, flowing, delivery, etc. This track will run parallel to the IDEA KPDC: July 23-27, 2009 This track is devised for individuals have not been debating for more than one year in any debate format and for no more than six months in Karl Popper debate.

After the KPDC and IND are over the students and coaches will be divided into educational tracks of their choice. The students who are not graduating will be expected to join the Mixed Team Track. The coaches will be expected to join the Coaches and Judges Track and the graduating students will have a choice between the British Parliamentary Track and Capacity Building Track.

Participants of the Mixed Team Track will attend content and skills sessions and the IDEA Mixed Teams Tournament from July 28, 2008 - August 5, 2009. This track has been the hallmark of the YF since the beginning. It focuses on instruction of high school students in the format of Karl Popper, however it also zooms in on improving of selected debate skills. The teams are paired together based not only on their mixed experience with debate and public speaking skills but also with respect to cultural diversity of the team. The week-long debate instruction culminates in the IDEA KP Mixed Team Tournament, which lasts from August 3rd – 4th, 2009. It is not possible to attend the tournament separately without taking part in the MTT. This tournament will feature one prepared topic and three limited preparation debate topics (announced at the Forum, 30 minutes prior to the round). Please read more through description of the track in later section of this issue.

The purpose of the British Parliamentary Track(July 28, 2008 - August 05, 2009) is to help the senior high schools students with the transition from high school to university debating - British Parliamentary Debate Format. Participants new to British Parliamentary debate will learn the format and will gain fundamental knowledge about debating, argumentation, case construction, delivery, etc. This track will run after the KP World Championships. The track culminates in British Parliamentary Debate Tournament, which will be held from August 3rd – 4th and will feature 4 preliminary rounds, followed by finals. There will be no prepared topic; all the topics are going to be announced 15-30 minutes before the rounds.

Participants of the Coaches and Judges Track will gain the skills and tools needed to strengthen their debate programs. This track will help experienced debaters and coaches with becoming better coaches, judges, trainers or debate program administrators. The curriculum will cover topics such as: coaching and teaching, judging, strategies for retaining debaters and coaches; training new debate formats and organizing and running debate events. Participants will also have the opportunity to coach one of the mixed teams as well as judge at the MTT tournament.
Please read more through descriptions of the tracks!