IDEA launches online mentoring service

IDEA London has now launched the first online mentoring service for debaters, judges, coaches and society administrators all over the world. The goal is to help improve the capacity of remote debating societies and speakers that do not have access to regular coaching or are in newly established debating communities, as well as to provide debaters in more traditional debating communities with an easy-to-use resource to help them further their debating and judging careers.

Starting today, idebate.org users can visit our mentoring microsite and post their own questions. The questions can relate to any popular debating format, such as British Parliamentary, Karl Popper and World Schools, or any argumentation, research or public speaking exercise. We are able to offer support to both debaters and judges, regardless of background or experience level.

Apart from getting advice on how to become better debaters and adjudicators, idebate.org users can also get advice from veteran organisers about how to set up their own debating society, host their own tournaments and run their own public events. Our mentoring team has run a number of large tournaments, both for IDEA and other debating organisations around the world.

Our first mentors are:

• Alex Helling, Expert researcher and Debatabase editor-in-chief
• Manos Moschopoulos, Best ESL Speaker at WUDC 2010 and CA of multiple competitions
• Steven Nolan, DCA of Galway EUDC 2011 and EUDC 2007 finalist
• George Trigatzis, WSDC 2009 semi-finalist and DCA of Durham Schools 2012
• Anne Valkering, ESL champion at WUDC 2008 and convenor of Amsterdam EUDC 2010
• Georgi Velkovski, Budapest Open winner and seasoned Youth Forum tabmaster

As the program develops we will be recruiting more mentors to cover a wider range of debating formats and knowledge areas, while we aim to also launch mentoring services for the other language versions of idebate.org, such as Spanish and Russian in 2013. We will also be developing online training resources and FAQ sections based on the best questions asked and answers given through the programme.

For more information, contact Manos, our mentoring programme coordinator, at mmoschopoulos@idebate.org.uk.