Features

SpeechWire Wizard

• The SpeechWire Wizard will guide you step-by-step through every part of setting up your tournament, minimizing the chance that you might accidentally miss a setting or skip a step that could cause problems later, and making the entire process simple and intuitive.
• Color-coded messages in SpeechWire will provide information for you, and will give clear indications of when actions have succeeded, or when further attention is needed.
• You also receive a detailed electronic handbook that accompanies you through running your tournament.

Registration

• You can invite teams to your tournament via automatically sent emails and let them register for your tournament online, eliminating the labor of digging through papers and e-mail for the number of entries and judges on each team, and automatically adding the numbers from each team's coach to your tournament.
• SpeechWire keeps a record of every team and every competitor that competes at any tournament using SpeechWire. If a team has already competed at one SpeechWire-enabled tournament, then registering for another is a snap - SpeechWire will automatically guess competitor names as you type, saving time and aggravation.
• SpeechWire can track entry fees for each team customized for your tournament.

Scheduling

• You can choose to schedule as few or as many rounds as you want for each event either before the tournament, or on the day of the tournament. If you want to get scheduling done early, you can do so, or you can wait for late drops and run the scheduler right before your tournament - the scheduler is quick enough to handle it.
• With SpeechWire, you'll spend no more long nights going over tables of codes to schedule speech events, making sure teammates don't face each other, and judges don't judge their team's competitors - SpeechWire does it all for you in a matter of seconds.
• SpeechWire makes sure that, unless it is unavoidable, no teammates will face each other in competition. It also ensures that judges won't judge their own team.
• Whenever possible, SpeechWire also tries to create schedules that minimize the number of times competitors will have to face each other, and checks to make sure judges aren't judging the same entries multiple times.
• SpeechWire is capable of scheduling tournaments with separate varsity and novice/JV divisions, and can also group divisions together in prelim rounds if you choose.
• SpeechWire will recommend how many sections to have in each event, but you still have final control over your tournament's structure.
• SpeechWire generates printable tournament schematics, tab sheets, judge's ballot labels (with section and judge information on each), team judging assignment sheets and entry forms for each team.
• SpeechWire will now be able to handle debate scheduling, using various methods of creating power rounds and following side equalization rules.
• On the day of the tournament, you can add, move or drop competitors as needed.

Tabulation

• Any computer with an internet connection and a web browser can be used as a tabulation station, since SpeechWire runs entirely through a web browser.
• There is no fee for using more than one computer to tabulate - use as many computers as you want. You can also tabulate the whole tournament on a single computer if you don't have access to a roomful of computers.
• Entry of ranks and results is intuitive, and SpeechWire checks the ranks before submitting them to try and prevent typos and mistakes.
• Creating final/power rounds is easy. SpeechWire will show you a list of all competitors in an event, and how large the final round will be if you make the cut at each point total. You then select where to make the cutoff, and SpeechWire automatically creates the final round and shuffles the speaking order for speech.
• SpeechWire can create separate varsity and novice/JV finals and next-in finals for speech.
• You can print tab sheets at then end of the tournament, and print incomplete tab sheets during the tournament in case of an extended power outage or similar occurence cutting internet service to your site.
• Coaches in your tab room can enjoy viewing tab sheets, competitor results, team sweepstakes totals, and various statistics and reports that are updated live throughout the tournament.
• Tabulation is password-protected to maintain your tournament's privacy and security.

Posting

• When you are ready, you can post the final round listings on the SpeechWire website with one mouse click, for parents, coaches, and students.
• You can also post final round results from your tournament once the awards assembly has finished.
• Posting final round rosters and final results online requires no additional typing, and can be done with a click of the mouse.
• For posting at your tournament, SpeechWire generates final round rosters that you can print out and use to copy onto posters.
• Once posted, your tournament's results will be linked to results from other tournaments in the SpeechWire database on the SpeechWire website.

Free documentation and support

• If you order SpeechWire, you will have access to PDF handbooks that will guide you step-by-step through registration, scheduling, tabulation and posting.
• Technical support is always free, and is available by phone or email on the day of the tournament as well as the days and weeks leading up to your event.

Fully online

• SpeechWire runs through a web browser, which means that any computer with an internet connection already has everything it needs to run a tournament.
• Rooms with at least five or six computers, such as computer labs and science classrooms, would make great tab rooms.
• Problems like data loss when someone accidentally closes a spreadsheet program without saving it are a thing of the past, since SpeechWire's database is running on a secure web server in a data center in Chicago, Illinois. No data is stored at the tournament site.
• If there's a power outage at the school, once the power comes back on, all the tournament data will be just like it was before the power outage, so you can resume right where you left off. Even a delay of a few hours hasn't stopped tournaments from finishing basically on time in the past.
• You don't need to wait for any software to download or install - just register your tournament on SpeechWire, and when your tournament is set up (which takes at most a couple days, and is usually done the same day), you will be ready to start!