Nordic region 2015 winter conference

The Nordic region 2015 winter conference will be held in the deepest backwoods of Espoo, Finland at the Maininki school. 

The conference program will include traditional presentations as well as small group workshops. 

Registration

Registration is open to all certified judges in the Nordic region, and applications will be accepted as they come in. The working language of the conference will be English. Judges from other regions may apply as well, but we'd like to know why you would want to come this far north. The deadline to register is October 4th. Certified judges who have registered by this date will receive a package of foils.

Schedule

The conference will start at 10:30 with coffee and awkward conversation. The first presentation will start at 11:00 and we will finish by 19:00 (this should allow those taking a ferry from Stockholm to arrive on time). A more detailed schedule will be provided later.  

Seminar sessions (full schedule TBD): 

Patrick Ericsson - Reviews

This seminar focuses on ways to find your fellow judges’ strengths and discusses how important a face-to-face discussion is to deliver effective feedback. The goal is to help everyone give simple, concrete and positive criticism that lets judges use their personal strengths to grow better, no matter if you are a GP-hopping L3, an L1 that only occasionally works with other judges or an L2 growing their local community. Simple, positive feedback is surprisingly easy, effective and ego-boosting to both give and receive.

John Eriksson - Customer Service

Why do Judges exist? Who are we there to help? What do you call that? Customer Service!
This is a presentation on what you should be doing before, during and after an event to make sure all your customers are having the best possible time at your event, and that you are having fun doing so.

Espen Skarsbo Olsen - Serious Problems at Regular

There are certain behaviors and actions that aren't welcome at all at Regular REL, and all of these result in a DQ for the player. What are these behaviours and actions? How do you handle situations like this? How do you get the player to feel welcome and wanting to come back even when you're DQing them for rolling a die at their first FNM? What do you do about the players you don't want to come back? And, how to you prevent situations like this from happening?

Charlotte Sable - Damage 

Dealing with Damage - Damage is at the core of what Magic is, but do you really understand what it is or how it works? This rules-focused seminar examines the topic from all angles and helps you understand everything you could ever want to know about damage. 

William Tiddi - Answering Questions From Players

JUUUDGE! - Your time has come: doesn't matter why, someone needs you! You are eager to help, but do you have what it takes to ace this call? 
Answering a question at the table is an art: board states raising obscure interactions, clock pressuring you, all while having to interact effectively with confused (and confusing) human beings… Fear no more: thanks to this seminar in less than an hour you too can master basic and advanced traits of the perfect delivery.

Jonas Breindahl - Local Conferences

Local Conferences is all about building a solid foundation for you judges at home. They allow you to engage your local judge environment, teach and share what you and your fellow judges know. You build the community, test new judges and allow everyone to get to know each other. 

This seminar will talk about why we need more local seminars and how you and your fellow judge can coordinate your own seminar at home. If you want to attend you should think about what you would want at your own conference and what seminars you think would be relevant to your local judges.

Kevin Moore - Drawing Extra Cards

The IPG is a living document, changing every time a new set comes out. As judges, it's important that we keep on top of these changes in order to do our job correctly. Let's sit down and review the major changes that have been made to Drawing Extra Cards in the latest two updates this year together.

Johanna Virtanen - State of the Region

Your Regional Coordinator talks about the current state of the region, current and future projects, and answers questions. 

Slawomir Nowaczyk - Judge Workshop 

We will split into small groups and discuss a variety of judging-related topics. 

Eskil Myrenberg - Judge Jeopardy

A fun quiz show for the whole judge family! See forum for more information. 

There will be a lunch break (food will be provided). Evening dinner plans will be confirmed later. 

Presenters

We are looking for presenters. If you would like to present, please send Johanna a short (max one page) outline of your presentation. Presenter slots will be confirmed by the end of September. Presenters will receive extra foils as a thank you for their efforts. 

Workshop team

We are going to put together a team that designs and leads the workshop part of the  conference. If interested, please indicate so in your application. The workshop team will be selected by the end of September. 

Other cool things

Would you like to help in some other way? Do you have an idea that would make this conference even more awesome? Please let us know! 

But how do I get there? 

First, you must find your way to Finland and the Helsinki region. 

By air: Helsinki-Vantaa is the closest airport. There are several options for getting to central Helsinki: trains (it's a new thing!), Finnair's bus and the "normal" bus 615. I recommend bus 615 since it departs right outside the terminal (the train is a bit further away) and gets you exactly to the same place as the train. 

By sea: Viking, Tallink Silja etc operate ferries between Helsinki and Stockholm/Tallinn. 

Then you should head to the Kamppi bus terminal. Buses 150 and 160 are among your options, but it is recommended that you use www.reittiopas.fi to check on the route (also available in app form). The trip takes about 30 minutes. 

If arriving by ferry on the morning of the conference, we recommend taking a taxi. 

Where am I going to sleep? 

If you are unable to sweet-talk a Finnish judge into letting you crash on their sofa, there are of course hotels and such available, with prices ranging from "reasonable" to "OUCH". Espoo has few hotels and none of them are near the venue (Google Maps claims there is a Hotel Meripuisto nearby, but that doesn't seem to actually exist), so your best bet is to stay in downtown Helsinki. 

One relatively budget-friendly option is the Omena-hotel, which has two locations fairly close to Kamppi: http://www.omenahotels.com/fi/. All of their rooms can sleep up to four people. 

Other reasonable options include the Holiday Inn at the Central Railway Station, and the Scandic hotel Simonkenttä next to the Kamppi bus terminal. 

MORE INFORMATION TO BE ANNOUNCED!