Following various conversations I’ve had in the last 6 months, as well as a quick perusal of the survey results[1], it seems that the primary motivation people have for entering Kingdom Competitions is to get feedback on their work. Kingdom competitions have traditionally had a hand-lengths anonymous entries and judging culture, which is not doing any of us any favours. Many people have also spoken of how much they enjoy the Laurel Prize format, where a conversation about work can be held.
So, we are trialing a change to the format for 12th night competition judging:
- any entrants who wish are able to ‘defend’ their entry in person rather than just through written documentation.
- any entrant who wishes it can receive feedback in person rather than written feedback after the event.
If this works we’ll incorporate it going forward.
How it will work
When you arrive at the event, or any time before judging commences, submit your entries as per usual.
Judging will commence at 3.30, and we’re going to give the judges 30 minutes to assess all the entries and read documentation supplied with the entry.
At 4pm*, you are welcome to come back to the hall and stand with your entry to either answer any questions the judges may have about your entry (don’t worry, they are most likely to want to clarify something they don’t understand – not to grill you. Our judges are all lovely people who don’t know everything), and to give you any feedback they have on your entry.
Remember you don’t HAVE to do this, it’s just an option we think some people may be interested in.
*Unless you want to attend the Fibre Guild meeting, in which case come back at 3.50.
Can’t attend in person?
The ability of every member of the populace to participate in these competitions despite the vast distances that our Kingdom covers is a concern that has been expressed to me, and is something I am keen to work on. It’s certainly been raised as a barrier to people entering competitions. However, for this particular event I want to trial the mechanics of in person feedback to see what works, and so this sort of feedback won’t be offered to all entrants.
Once we understand whether its valuable to entrants and how our judges feel about the experience then we will think whether other feedback options are possible. I will, of course, try to send typed feedback to all participants in the week following the event.
[1] results coming soon to this website, promise!