Worlds Bids: Zagreb 2005 (Successful)

Official Bid Document

Presented to Worlds Council

Stellenbosch, January 2003

Zagreb is Croatia's capital and its largest city.


Its demographic size and economic, scientific and cultural significance make it the largest urban agglomeration connecting Central Europe to Southeast Europe.

Zagreb is Croatia's political and administrative center and is home to the Croatian National Parliament, the Croatian president and the Croatian government.

Passing through Zagreb are the shortest routes connecting Western Europe with the Near East and Central Europe to the Adriatic coast.

The population of Zagreb is 1200 000 inhabitants and the history of the city dates as far back as 1094.

The city offers abundance of historical and cultural sights worth visiting, such as museums, palaces and castles, as well as many natural beauties, including a big lake in the city center and the mountain surrounding the city.

Zagreb is the hometown of winter sports, so December is a very good time to visit because it gives the opportunity to enjoy skiing, ice-skating, hockey and other snowy and icy activities.

Over the past ten years Zagreb has grown into metropolis, providing its citizens and visitors with plenty of fun and things to do, offering a variety of restaurants, night clubs, bars, internet cafes, sport facilities, cinemas, theaters, concert halls, museums and other enjoyable places.

Whether you are a skiing fan, a party animal or a history freak, you will find Zagreb enjoyable and amusing. The Croatian capital offers a number of museums, theatres and palaces (if you are into that sort of thing). If you are just a regular citizen of the consumers' society, you will enjoy our excellent restaurants, serving national specialties and a wide range of international dishes, nightclubs and shopping malls. If you are one of those people who can do winter sports without breaking both arms and legs, Zagreb is the place to visit. Plus, you can always rent a car or take a bus to one of the neighbouring countries and be back the same day. Finally, December is when the annual international winter fair in Zagreb is being held, so more shopping and fun (and you get to see the Santa Claus). As you can see, you will not be bored

The University of Zagreb is the oldest Croatian university, as well as the oldest university in South-Eastern Europe. The university was officially founded on September 23, 1669 by Emperor and King Leopold I Habsburg who issued a diploma granting the status and privileges of a university to the Jesuit Academy of the Royal Free City of Zagreb.

The University of Zagreb is also the largest university in Croatia and one of the largest universities in Europe.

It consists of 30 faculties and 3 academies, located in the City of Zagreb and near-by towns, offering more than 140 major fields of undergraduate studies and more than 100 graduate fields of study.

The University has 5 dormitories with 7130 beds, 12 restaurants, multimedia center, theater, 2 cinemas, art gallery, library, night club, disco club and many other facilities.

With almost 400 years of tradition and 70 000 students, we have the capacity and the experience to host a major event like Worlds. Our university has already organized a number of important student competitions and conferences, so we have a large team of capable and hard-working individuals, who will treat Worlds as their priority in the next two years.

The University of Zagreb is the next host of the European Universities Debating Championships. Our international tournament in Dubrovnik attracts more and more people every year. We organize local and regional tournaments and seminars on a monthly basis. We cooperate with other debating and student organizations, such as the Student Council, and are supported by national and international institutions, such as embassies, ministries and the President of Croatia.

The size of our University and its 5 campuses enables us to accept the unlimited number of teams, so you would not have to worry about the team cap. The campuses also offer you a number of places to visit, like student night clubs, restaurants, cinemas, theaters, internet cafes, etc.

University of Zagreb Debating Society

Student debate has been active in Croatia for many years and our debaters have participated at a number of national and international tournaments, practicing different debate styles.

Croatian Academic Debating League is an umbrella organization, gathering and organizing students and student debate clubs in all parts of the country. CADL has carried out various debate projects, including regional and national tournaments, seminars, debate presentations, and 3 international debate tournaments "Dubrovnik 2000", "Dubrovnik 2001" and "Dubrovnik 2002".

CADL established the University of Zagreb Debating Society with the support of the Senate of the University, in order to ensure better conditions for hosting Worlds 2005. The Society opens its door to all students interested in working on this particular and other projects and by doing so does not limit itself to only one institution or debate club, but gathers all enthusiastic and experienced individuals, regardless of their institutional affiliation, who will contribute to the Championship with the diversity of their knowledge and skills.

It is also important to mention that our open-door approach gives us the opportunity in terms of logistics, using various resources, accessing facilities and institutions all over the city and therefore providing participants of Worlds 2005 with plenty of things to do, places to visit and all the equipment necessary for the success of a debate tournament.

Travel
Thanks to its central location in Europe, Croatia is easy to reach by plane, train, bus or car. Croatia Airlines and other companies offer direct flights to Zagreb from all major European cities, several times a day (Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Budapest, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt (4X), Istanbul, London (2X), Manchester, Munich, Paris, Prague, Rome, Sarajevo, Skopje, Vienna (3X), Warsaw, Zurich.) In addition, inexpensive plane tickets can be ordered from Croatian travel agencies, regardless of the country you are traveling from.

If you wish to explore other parts of Europe, Croatia is a great starting point - a two-hour drive is all it takes to reach Austrian, Italian or Hungarian border. That means that you can visit those countries before or after coming to Croatia or that you can fly to Budapest, Graz or Vienna, if that is cheaper for you, and take a bus to Zagreb from there. Or you can rent a car and we guarantee you will get a free parking place. If you live in Europe or happen to be there in December 2005, you can take one of those fast and comfortable trains to Zagreb. If you choose Zagreb, your travel options are numberless.

Special notice for British debaters and all those raveling from Great Britain:

VISIT ZAGREB FOR ONLY GBP 39, 99!!

As you can see at www.ryanair.com this low cost airline offers daily flights to Graz, Austria for only GBP 39,99. Considering that Graz is less than 3 hours from Zagreb, we will organize a coach for only E 10 to take you from the Graz airport straight to Zagreb. Ain't that cool?

If you are coming to Zagreb from United States or Canada, prices range from $500 to $600, and for those traveling from Asia and Australia your ticket will cost around $ 850.

Remember: Zagreb has one of the most convenient locations in Europe; even if you choose not to fly into Zagreb, or if it turns out (which is very unlikely) that your flight to Zagreb costs more than you can afford, you can always fly into one of the neighboring countries and airports, and catch a bus to Zagreb. Your options are countless.

Accommodation
If you choose Zagreb as a host for 2005, you will be staying in the heart of Croatia's capital and all resources, services and attractions of a city with million people and thousand palaces will be available to you.

The campus is located close to the center in a safe and quiet residential/ recreational area, which means that shopping, dining and entertainment are only minutes away. The largest disco club in Zagreb is 5 minutes walking distance from campus. The campus has its own restaurants and bakery, cinema, swimming pool, gym, jogging and bicycling trails, post office, shops, computer rooms with free Internet access, nightclub and parking lot. Public transportation can take you to any part of the city; buses and trams stop right in front of the campus.

One of Zagreb's main attractions, the Jarun Lake, surrounded by more than 50 excellent restaurants, nightclubs and pubs is only 15 minutes walking distance.

And now the best part: you will not have to wake up 2 hours earlier to get to the debating venues, nor will you have to catch a train if you miss the morning coach. THERE IS NO COACH!! Debating venues are just across the street. All debates and briefings will be held in one building. Also, all participants will be staying in the same part of the campus and will not be spread out over different locations. We care about your time and convenience.

Moreover, Zagreb is a fairly inexpensive city compared to other European capitals, so your money goes further in Croatia. Here are some examples:

Big Mac™ Meal $3
Beer 0,5l $1,5
Coke $1,3
Coffee, Tea $0,8
Public transportation $0,8 (unlimited travel within one hour)
Complete menu in a good restaurant $10
Movie ticket $3
Train ticket to Budapest :) $12
Entrance to disco clubs $4
Britney Spears CD $12 (you'll get one for free if you promise to take it out of our country for good)
Bottle of water Don't you dare! Tap water is perfectly safe in Croatia
Internet access in a café $2/hour
Manicure (this was Iva's idea) $8
Cigarettes $1,5/pack

Finally, this is the first time that you won't have to worry about the team cap. Our campus is big enough and our resources are strong enough to accept any number of people who are interested in attending Worlds.

Adjudication
Zagreb has developed a sophisticated system of adjudicators' accreditation that begins months before the championship actually starts. We collect CVs and information from all adjudicators who registered. Based on that, we give them the initial grade. Their grade can change at any point based on how well they write the test, how well they adjudicate the accreditation video debate and how well they do in preliminary rounds. We constantly collect information about every judge and evaluate them throughout the tournament. At least one member of the adjudication team is always free to deal with your complaints and comments and to follow how you evaluate each other. Finally, judges will not get stuck in either lower or higher brackets- each judge will experience rounds of different quality.

Our adjudication team will consist of four people (CA + 3 DCAs) representing different regions and different debating backgrounds. All members of adjudication team will be chosen very carefully according to several criteria: debating and adjudicating experience, debating and adjudicating achievements, teaching (debate training) experience and finally, communication skills. We believe that CA and DCAs must have not only extensive adjudicating experience, but also exceptional ability to listen, to communicate with others and to encourage people to communicate with them.

Tabbing
In order to ensure smooth and punctual management of the tournament, all events will be handled electronically. We have hired a team of experts from the Faculty of electrical engineering and computing who have developed a system that enables us to keep a database of every participant. That means that every participant will be registered electronically upon arrival and will receive a magnetic ID card (similar to the credit cards and to the student ID cards used at our University). Participants will be required to check in electronically before every briefing so that we know exactly how many teams or adjudicators are missing and who is there to replace them. All information will be transmitted automatically to the main tab room. In addition, we will have more than 60 runners equipped with cell phones who will be present in front of every debate room ready to contact the tab room in case any problem occurs on the spot or during debates. That way debates will start on time and we will always have a clear picture of the situation. The ID card will also ensure that social events and meals are managed quickly and safely. We will also give the previous systems a trial run to see what went wrong and how to avoid the same problems.

Safety
After the recent terrorist attacks not a single country can guarantee 100 percent safety. However, some places are at much higher risk of being targeted by the terrorist groups and some places are less likely to be affected by terrorist attacks. One of the countries that are least likely to be targeted is certainly Croatia. Being a Central European country and trying to join European Union, Croatia does not have any extremist movements or parties and it has never been affected by terrorism in any way. We are proud to say that our city, our airport and our national airlines haven't experienced a single incident or even a threat.

Being the largest university in the region, the University of Zagreb often hosts major international events such as conferences, festivals and competitions and the participants of these events have always been safe. Our campus security makes sure that all students and visitors are safe 24 hours a day. We will also hire extra security for all social events during Worlds and all social events will be open for participants only (tournament ID will be required to enter the facilities).

In addition to that, Croatia has one of the lowest crime rates in the Europe so it is perfectly safe to walk alone at night even through the darkest alleys.

Extras
What other host offers two free extra days after the tournament, just for fun and relaxation? We want you to remember Croatia as a fantastic place, so we are giving you two extra days: one for an excursion of your choice (on us! and you can choose from a wide variety of options, from a baroque castle to a national park) and the other one for sleep, relaxation, shopping and everything else you do not usually have the time to do during the competition. Don't you just hate when you have to pack your stuff and leave just when you started having fun or while you are still suffering from a strong hung over? In Zagreb, you do not have to pack. You can just stay with us.

Plus, as we constantly emphasize: Worlds is about learning, as well as about competing, so we are preparing several interactive workshops and training sessions on BP for novice debaters, plus, seminars on other debating styles for those who are not familiar (and would like to become familiar) with Karl Popper, American parliamentary, Lincoln Douglas and many other styles. All seminars will be conducted by some of the most accomplished and experienced debaters and trainers.

When you add it all up, this is how Worlds in Zagreb will look like:
* 11 nights at the University of Zagreb campus (single, double, triple rooms- again, you choose)
* 3 meals a day/ every day
* Transportation to/from airport
* Local transportation
* Guided sightseeing tour of Zagreb
* Welcome cocktail party
* New Year party
* Championship dinner
* 2 extra days - one excursion of your choice
* Evening activities & plenty of free drinks

EXCURSION OPTIONS ARE:
1. Baroque castle Trakoscan
2. National Park Plitvice Lakes
3. The coast
4. Skiing trip to Sljeme

ADDITIONAL REASONS FOR HAVING WORLDS IN ZAGREB:
- involving new countries in the region and expanding debating community
- seminars and workshops on different debating styles/formats
- promoting debate in Central and Eastern Europe

CONTACT DETAILS:
debateunizg@yahoo.com
http://www.hadl.hr/