Dear debaters

welcome at the websites devoted to debaters! These should help you to get a better idea of what is ahead if you! You can look forward to mingle and make friends with over 250 students, coaches and trainers from the following 36 countries: Albania, Australia, Belarus, Bosna-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Germany, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malaysia, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nigeria, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, The Netherlands, The United Kingdom, The United States, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine and South Africa. This altogether represents the variety of 5 continents and that is promising to be LOADS of FUN!

The Youth Forum starts with the great competition of nations - Karl Popper Debate Championship. The best teams will meet in grand finals on the evening of July 26th in historic almost intact amphitheater of Plovdiv built under the Roman empire rule. The best debaters and teams will be announced and awarded on the very spot, where actors and speakers preformed their art almost 2000 years ago. From the very first day of the Youth Forum those of you, who do not YET have the experience to compete in the competition of nations, will intensively work within The Newcomers Track on developing your skills to be able to attend the KPDC next year!

From July 27th you will be able to develop your skills within the educational tracks focused on the specific skills you will need in your future debate career. During debate training sessions, you will be divided into small groups in order to engage in more personalized teaching, which will give you the opportunity to interact with other teachers and students from rich and diverse cultural, social and educational backgrounds. The experienced trainers from 18 countries of the world will guide you to make the important step forward. Additionally in the end of these tracks you will have a chance to test the acquired skills in a tournament - the Mixed Team Track, the British Parliamentary Track and The Newcomers Track. The highlight of the Capacity Building Track will be the end presentations of the best projects. The best individual and teams will be announced in the end of the closing ceremony.

Apart from the well prepared sessions during the day, we encourage you to take part in the evening activities. Apart from the more serious sessions like discussions with experts, fun debate of the trainers or discussion after the movie called Great debaters about the role of debate in civic movement, you will be encouraged to show your beautiful and varied culture (Cultural Expo - great fair of cultures), your talents (Smolyan Idol) and imagination (theme parties).

All in all there are 2 weeks of great fun, enriching experience and bonding with new friends from all over the world awaiting you!

Please refer to the track description, if you wuould like to know more about the track you are attending.
Check the schedule on program of the YF.
Please see the FAQ section or contact the Youth Forum Coordinator, if you have any questions.

Please download the registration mailings published below, that were sent to each registered person, but might have gotten lost on the way or in your junk mail. They feature vital information on all the things you might possibly want to know about the YF, if not - the next ones will :)