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The online experience will be deployed through the National Speech Championship YouTube channel using a series of video premiers. To help explain this, I want to walk you through what the day of experience will look like from your end, what I need from each of you in order to get that to happen, and then some extra notes to make sure we are all prepared for the national speech collegiate online experience.

There is no charge for entry, covered or uncovered. There is no limit on entries other than each student can be entered only once per event other than duo. In duo a student may be entered twice as long as each entry has a seperate partner.

-On the evening of Friday April 3^rd, we will have regional or to use AFA terminology “district” meetings

Let me start with Friday evening to help you to understand how this will work on your end. At roughly 6:50pm Central time you can go to the NSC YouTube channel and find the video that corresponds to your district. It will be made clear by the title. All “district” videos will all be set to premier at 7pm central time so you’ll see a countdown timer until that point. Then at 7 there will be one long video played for each district that is compiled of videos coaches from that district have previously submitted. You’ll have access to chat with each other right there in the video comments during the premier. There will be a moderator from each district designated to monitor the chat. My hope is that, for the entire weekend, you create very small in-person watch parties with your friends, team and alumni. Or you can create your own separate video chat or even create a big group text.

On Saturday for preliminary rounds, the first round will be Duo at 10am central time. When you go to the YouTube channel, there will be a whole lot of duo rounds set to premier at that time and each one named according to a room on the Speechwire schematic. So, let’s say you want to watch your teammates or even yourself do duo - you will go to Speechwire, find the “room” where that duo is performing, and then you will select that video and it, along with 5 other duos in the “round” in that room, will premier at 10am.

Immediately following the round of duo, we will have a short break of about 15 minutes. During that time, you’ll be able to vote on any one duo you want to see in exhibition finals the next day. It can be any duo you think should be especially highlighted- you could pick a duo that won a big tournament this year, you could pick one you loved from the round you just watched, or maybe you just pick your own duo- it really doesn’t matter because this isn’t a tournament- is a digital festival celebrating the year. Voting will happen through a google form that will be posted on the National Speech Championship Facebook page and a link will also be on Speechwire. Each person will be allowed to vote only once. That vote will determine the duos to be shown the next day. Then we will move on to the next event and repeat the process one event at a time throughout the entire day.

On Sunday, we will start off with another opening video and then we will be showing each exhibition final round, one event at a time with the same schedule as the day before. The only big difference is that everyone will be watching the same exhibition final at the same time. So, we all get to see the performances that were voted as those that should be in the exhibition final.

First, I need for your team to sign up just like you would for a tournament using speechwire. The only difference is that you won’t pay anything for entry and your “judges” will end up being moderators. These moderators can by anyone you would typically use as a judge but they can also be a 4^th year member of your team if you are from a 4 year school. We will need as many moderators as possible and I’ll assign those people "rooms" just as if it were a tournament. The hope is that every room will have at least two moderators if not more. This guarantees that everyone gets an audience. Feel free to sign up as many moderators as you want. If you have 50 alumni who you can trust to show up to watch, put them all on the entry. They don’t actually have to do anything other than to pay attention and to say nice things in the comments when we would normally clap.

Sign up through Speechwire is due by March 23^rd. There are no entry limitations other than one video per event per student (excpet duo where the student can submit two if each is with a different partner)

For the videos, each performance should follow NSC event descriptions, mainly for timing purposes. Please record yourself walking to the front of the performance space and then end the video as soon as you can after completing the presentation. Cut the video before submitting it if necessary. For limited prep, you are on the honor system. Please work with a coach or teammate for questions or quotations and then record only when you are speaking. We don’t need to watch as you prep. Each student can send only one video per event other than duo where you can send two if you have a different partner.

Competitors should all then send their recordings to their coaches using email, dropbox, google drive, a flashdrive, or any method you choose. As I receive entries, I will send coaches a link to a sharefile site where they can upload the videos. Coaches should also remember to create a video saying nice things about their students for the district/region time on Friday evening. Please keep your total comments per team to under 5 minutes- you can have multiple coaches talk but the total should be under 5 minutes. If it only takes two minutes that is fantastic as well.

From then on, I’ll take care of the rest. My production company will be compiling the videos, designing graphics and animations, and also producing opening and closing videos. I’ll also be handling all of the YouTube premiers and the occasional live stream content that will be there to surprise you throughout the weekend.

Private and Public Divisions: There will be two divisions for performers, public and private. If performers want to showcase their events but want the audience to make sure it isn’t seen by say, their parents or the general public, they can enter into the private division. I’ll keep the video designated private and I’ll only send links to watch the video to the people in that room and to the moderators of that room. After that round is over, I’ll delete the video from YouTube. I can’t guarantee that no one else will see the video but it will be unlikely. For the public division, the performances will be open to the public in general and may end up with a very large audience. Only those in the public division will be eligible for exhibition finals. So, consider if you want anyone to be able to view what you have to say before you submit your video. No one is obligated to submit a video or to watch. It is all entirely voluntary.

Along with this, I’ll need for coaches to have each student email a signed copy of the video release form before submitting video entries. You can send these forms to info@nationalspeechchampionship.com and please make the subject “Video Release for (Insert student name)”. This form can be found on Speechwire under Files for Download.

I hope you will patient with me as we experiment with this idea. The more teams that give it a chance, the more enjoyable it will be for everyone. If we all come together, we can create something amazing.

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