In the interview series “EUDC talk” we met EUDC’s convenor Anne Valkering. She told us about preperations for and the execution of the tournament and her own plans for the time after the EUDC.

Achte Minute: Hello Anne, thank you for taking the time to give us a short interview!

Anne: Hello!

Achte Minute: How long have you been preparing the Amsterdam EUDC 2010?

Anne: We started thinking about two years ago but we’ve been working on this for one and a half years.

Achte Minute: And now – how is it going?

Anne: Pretty okay. I’m happy that everything runs mostly as we expected and wanted to.

Achte Minute: Is there anything you’re really upset of?

Anne: Upset? No. I don’t get upset easily.

Achte Minute: How many people are involved in the organization?

Anne: I don’t even know exactly. There have been 15 to 20 people that have been involved in preperations and now there are 50 to 60 volonteers from all over the Netherlands. There are about 15 highschool kids who work incredibly great. The team consists of people from Utrecht, most of the people are from Amsterdam, but also from Leiden, Groningen and so on.

Achte Minute: What do you think about German Debating? Tell us something about the Germans at EUDC!

Anne: I’m always suprised when I go e.g. to the Tilbury House Summer Open that there are so many German debaters who I don’t know and there are so many great debaters that do not go to international tournaments. Three German teams broke here – that is really great.

Achte Minute: What are you going to do when this ends? I guess you’ll be spending one week watching TV and not doing anything?

Anne: I don’t really know. I have to finish my thesis. Well I think I’ll be watching lots of TV and finish my thesis.

Achte Minute: Thank you very much!

Anne: Your welcome!

Achte Minute invites you to get to know some participants of the European Universities Debating Championship 2010. Therefore, during the EUDC-days we’ll have the series of interviews “EUDC talk”. Here we get in contact with debaters from all over Europe – whether participating as adjudicators, speakers or organisers.

Die European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC) 2010 are held in Amsterdam from July 12 to July 17. The tournament’s slogan is “Spread the love”. The motions and amore infos around the tournament can be seen on Twitter, look for hashtag #EUDC.

glx / isa

Foto: fnp