Alternative Ways to Include A&S at Events:

Lochac uses an official judging system for each round of the Kingdom Arts and Sciences Championship. However, there is absolutely no requirement to use that format for other A&S comps. For a one-off event in your local group, you can offer something just as fun and interesting, without needing all the official tasks of organising, judging, and reporting.

Some alternative formats for A&S at your event:

– Showcase – Static display with no prizes or scores. Entrants don’t need to stay with their item. Tokens may be left as a mark of encouragement.

– Show and tell – Entrants have a spotlight moment to talk about their work to an audience. (Judges, scores, winners – optional)

– Laurel prize – Entrants stay with their displays, visitors move from entrant to entrant. Visitors may ask questions, offer feedback, and give tokens if they wish.

– Vote by assigned token – a controlled number of tokens are provided by the organisers, and awarded at the visitor’s whim. Winners are decided by the final number of tokens received. Entrants don’t need to stay with their item. (Choose tokens for ability to stay in one place, or provide cups so they don’t roll away…)

– Popular vote or general acclaim – winner judged by who gets the most applause, or the most tokens (tokens are provided by the visitors themselves, or by the organisers, without tracking the starting total.)

– Iron Chef – equipment and consumables are provided, along with a goal to be reached. Entrants have a time limit to produce their entry; scoring should be done as a crowd sport.

– Full official entry format – using the Lochac Entry forms and judging rubrics…this can be useful to do once in a while, especially if people want to practise using this system. Or, just encourage them to enter the actual Championship!

No doubt there are other possibilities, and many ways to combine these ideas. Performance competitions will lend themselves to different styles than entries of static objects.

Which style appeals to you? Maybe you can suggest using it at your group’s next event…