Today is C-1 (1 day before competitions begin). Tonight is the opening ceremony. I spent most of the morning trying to debug small problems with some of the application plugins. Without going into great detail, competitors need to have their software automatically upload their files to the server (so they do not have to manually do this). Files on the server are the ones marked by the judges. Some plugins do not play well with sFTP and the newer authentication routines. After a fair amount of time debugging, we all agreed that this would not be solvable in the allotted time.
We also had some experts continue working on the technical description for the 2017 competition. I learned that WorldSkills uses the web design technical description as a model for other competitions. I thought this was a measure of the level of this competition.
We returned to the hotel and had a couple of hours before opening ceremony. I rested a little. I suspect the next few days are going to be incredibly busy. This is going to be a short post given the time (11:40 p.m. as I write this). Need to get up and have breakfast at 6 again. So, let’s review the opening ceremonies.
The opening ceremonies were amazing. They are modeled after the Olympics. In fact, these are the Olympics of Career and Technical Education. One quote by an official of the Brazilian government stands out. “You are here because you are standing on the shoulders of giants. Those giants are your parents and teachers.” That pretty much sums up the sentiment. I am here because of the competitors (Nick in this case) and for the opportunity to connect with peers in web design and development throughout the world.
First, a few facts about this competition. 59 countries and regions are represented, There are 50 competitions. There are 1,192 competitors. There are 1,100 experts. There are 800 volunteers helping everything run smoothly. Yes, this is a big event. I am amazed that most everyone speaks some English. Yes, there are a lot of translators as well.
Each team entered the arena with their flag. The teams arrived in alphabetical order by country. The US team entry is shown in the video below.
US Team entering arena from Mark DuBois on Vimeo.
The host country enters last. Here is the team from Brasil.
Brazilian team entering arena from Mark DuBois on Vimeo.
We also had the Brazilian national anthem sung.
Brazilian national anthem from Mark DuBois on Vimeo.
There were many speeches as well as entertainment. Here is a sample of what we saw.
P8110131 from Mark DuBois on Vimeo.
Dancing from Mark DuBois on Vimeo.
During the ceremonies, I sat next to Dr. Lori Foster (from the White House). I talked with her about our Web Professionals challenge – What’s Right about America.
Well, that is it for today. Tomorrow is the first day of competition. I do hope you find these posts enjoyable and I look forward to your comments.
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