Day 5 - Judging Day ... Wednesday May 16, 2012

Judging Day started at 7:15 am and all of the kids showed up neatly dressed in their Sunday best in Cathy's and Ingrid's room for breakfast.  To reduce the unnecessary stress of having to rush to ABP and then wait for each individual's orders, it was decided that Stef and I would go to ABP at 6:30 am and bring back light breakfast items back to the hotel and serve the kids there.  Experience from past fairs suggested a light breakfast was optimal preparation.


At the same time, Stef and I dropped by at Jimmy John's, a gourmet sandwich eatery and placed an order for everyone's pre-ordered subs.  We were going to pick up the sandwiches and have them ready along with drinks and fruit at the Convention Centre for the kids when they exited from Judging at noon.  Again, this was done to avoid the stress of having gather everyone together and process them all at some eatery.

At the same time, Stef and I dropped by at Jimmy John's, a gourmet sandwich eatery and placed an order for everyone's pre-ordered subs.  We were going to pick up the sandwiches and have them ready along with drinks and fruit at the Convention Centre for the kids when they exited from Judging at noon.  Again, this was done to avoid the stress of having gather everyone together and process them all at some eatery

.As such, a non-rushed trip to the Convention Centre got the kids there well in advance of the 8:15 am target.  The first judging session starts at 8:30 am sharp. At every 15 minute intervals, a bell rings to signal judges to start their next assigned judging session, regardless if the participant had finished their presentation or not.  During the 15 minute session, an interim bell rings at the 10 minute mark to signal that in 2 more minutes the judges are to move onto their next session.  Our kids were advised to keep their presentations to an approximate 10 minutes, thereby leaving about 2 minutes for engaging the judges for discussion and any Q&A.