First off, congrats to our entrants! 👏🏻 As I've said before, you all should consider yourselves winners just for having successfully landed your entries on the virtual judging table by the June 30 deadline! You certainly are a persistent lot as well, and I applaud you for that admirable trait! With every competition, a large number of people who register (about half) never submit entries, but this year the attrition rate was substantially less. Your stamina is appreciated and sure to pay off!
I am also so very impressed with the quality of your entries. Across the board, the submissions are thoughtful, extremely well executed, and courageous! You clearly challenged yourselves to explore new designs and techniques. I applaud you again - this time for keeping the true intent of the competition (to learn and grow) foremost in your minds as you created your entries. I dare say, the judging job is going to be tougher than ever this year!
Participation Recap
My virtual competitions always draw participants from all over the world, which is why I love this format so much. And this year was no different! Registrants came from 12 countries, with a full 39% residing outside the United States. Some of our registrants' more "exotic" homelands (at least to me!) include Turkey, Australia, Japan, Jamaica, Brazil, Italy, and Portugal. (I've been fortunate to teach in many of these lovely places, but Jamaica and Turkey remain on my bucket list! 😀) Anyway, I digress!
What to Expect from Here
Back to the matter at hand, which is what to expect now that entries are in. I've had some changes in personal and business circumstances that are beyond my control, so I've had to make some adjustments to the judging/winner announcement schedule in order to stay on track with our original commitment to announce winners by the end of July. Because judging will need to conclude later than initially planned, we'll be moving straight to a winner announcement, hopefully by the end of July. Here's a quick summary of the revised timing:
- July 1: Judging starts (and it has!)
- July 15: Judging concludes; winners notified (but not of their placement; we want that reveal to be a big surprise!)
- July 30: Winners announced online and on Cookie Connection (subject to change)
- Early August: Winners' prizes get distributed
- August 12: Processing of requested feedback begins
- August 30: All requested feedback delivered (subject to change)
As noted above, this timing is subject to change simply because there are many, many cogs in the competition "wheel" that must stay synced to keep us moving full-steam ahead. If there are any changes to the timing, I will be sure to update you here, so keep watching the Cookie Connection blog.
Also, please note, that if you requested feedback from the judges, that feedback will be processed in the order the requests were received. Again, my aim is to start consolidating the judges' feedback no later than August 12, but it could take one to three weeks beyond that point to receive yours depending on your position on the feedback list. Please be patient, as the list is quite long. TIA!
World-Class Judging from a World-Class Team
While on the topic of judges, I would be remiss if I didn't send a loud shout-out to my esteemed judges who have already jumped on the judging! They all are extremely talented cookiers who take the judging of this competition quite seriously. That said, my wholehearted thanks to @You Can Call Me Sweetie (Sandie Beltran), @Creative Cookier (Ginny Levack), @Beatriz Muller, @Laura Saporiti, and @Stephanie Kappel for the hard work they are now undertaking!
You can read more about each of the judge's cookie decorating, judging, and competing experience in this earlier judge intro post. They are indeed an impressive bunch!
Again, congrats to all entrants who made it this far! I wish you the best of luck as the judging process unfolds!
Comments (1)