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As a Round Robin judge, you will be on one of a handful of small panels (5-6 judges per panel) set up in different conference rooms at the David Rittenhouse Laboratory building on Penn’s campus.  Each panel will hear short pitches from 6 teams with some extra time to ask questions and give advice.  Each team has come up with its own policy initiative and should have preliminary ideas about a political approach to make it happen, but they’ll all benefit from your impressions and constructive criticism.  You will score each team based on the potential impact of its policy initiative, the feasibility of the initiative, and the overall quality of presentation.

Details

Public Policy Challenge – Round Robin

  • Date:  Monday, February 21st
  • Time:  5:30 – 8:30pm (light dinner will be served)
  • Location:  Penn Campus – David Rittenhouse Laboratory building– 2nd Floor – Rooms A5-A7 view map here

Click here for directions, parking and public transportation info. The nearest recommended parking is at the Penn garages on 38th & Walnut or 34th & Chestnut, either of which is a 5-10 minute walk from Houston Hall.

Description
The Round Robin is a preliminary judging event and an opportunity for teams to test out their ideas on real regional policy actors.  Each team will give several preliminary pitches, in private, to different panels of judges – stakeholders and opinion leaders from the Philadelphia region who are working in different sectors on various policy issues.  Based on the rankings and feedback from the panelists, 5 teams will advance to the 2nd phase of the competition (Workshop #3 and Finals).

Agenda

  • 5:30-6:00 – Reception (Panelists can also take food and drinks with them to conference rooms.)
  • 6:00-6:15 – Welcome, brief instructions, breakout to small rooms
  • 6:15-8:15 – Team pitches (with a few breaks between)
  • 8:15-8:30 – Closing remarks

Panel Groupings and Detailed Pitch Schedule
More information regarding panel groupings, room assignments and specific pitch schedules for the entire evening will be emailed to judges and participants.

Student Teams
Each team is made up of 3 to 6 students from a variety of disciplines and schools working together because of their shared policy interests.  The majority of participants are graduate students, but some teams also include undergraduates.

Pitches and 1-sheets
Each team will be responsible for preparing a 5-minute pitch, as well as a 1-page handout describing its initiative.  Once the students are admitted to the conference room, they will have a couple of minutes to get acquainted with the panelists, 5 minutes to present, and about 5 minutes for questions and feedback.  Panelists will then get a 5-minute break before the next team is admitted.

Scoring
Each judge will fill out a simple scoring sheet for each team.  At the end of the evening, each panel will seal all of its scoring sheets in an envelope and submit them to the competition organizers.  The scores will be tallied and the 5 finalists will be announced by email the following day.

Student Assistants
Each panel / conference room will be assigned a student assistant.  This assistant will keep the panel’s schedule, admit teams to the room accordingly, notify teams when they are approaching their time limits, get refreshments or other materials for panelists and communicate with the main event organizers as necessary.