Participants

Provincial Teams of YES Members: Each of the nine South African provinces and other Southern African countries are represented by at most 22 YES members made up of 1 person per province/country for each of the 10 individual events (3 x Grade 9s or YES Pioneers, 3 x Grade 10s of YES Champions and 4 x Grade 11s or YES Entrepreneurs) plus 3 member Society teams for each of the 4 team events. It is possible for a YES member to represent his/her province/country in both an individual and team event. Young people are able to qualify for participation in the knock-out rounds only if they are active within an existing YES society. Yes members should bring along their sports clothing and equipment as the venue normally caters for football, swimming, tennis, rugby, squash, etc.

YES Advisor responsible for Provincial team: The parents of each province/country elect one YES Advisor to accompany their team of YES members to take care of their children while travelling to and from the conference as well as at the event itself. The parents of the YES members must feel confident that their elected YES Advisor will take good care of their children while their children are away from home.

Venue Managers and Assistants: Six YES Advisors together with six YES Alumni (Grade 12s) are selected by EWET from amongst the nominations received from provinces/countries to manage the six venues utilised for the competitive events. Selected YES Advisors operate as Venue Managers while selected YES Alumni act as their assistants.

Business People serving as adjudicators: Three member panels of voluntary business people adjudicate each of the 14 events plus 4 sub-events resulting in a total of 54 business persons serving in this capacity. They are oriented by the Venue Managers, adjudicate their event (taking 3 hours utmost) and provide feedback to the YES members on what they did well and where they can improve. Adjudication is done on forms supplied by EWET.

Keynote speakers at Awards function: Persons of national/international stature from business, government and/or civil society are invited as keynote speakers to anchor the Awards Function during the morning of the 4th day of the event. The first, second and third place of each of the 14 competitive events are announced at the Awards Function together with the winners of the five annual, national awards.

Business Workshop presenters: YES members usually only compete in one event resulting in them having one and a half days (of the two day competitive event schedule) open for other activities. One of the options open to such YES members is to participate in workshops that cover various aspects of business operations, presented by experts within these fields. Each workshop continues for utmost one and a half hour, involving participants in activities.

Observers: YES secures the interest of many people representing various communities, government, business, parents, development experts, educationalists, donors, etc. The participation of these people as observers is welcome because this annual event represents a showcase of what is being attained through the YES movement.

Media: Representatives from the printed and electronic media find the event newsworthy because YES relates to job creation - the second most important national priority after crime. The media cover the action oriented (rather than written) events, exhibitions by YES members, canvassing campaigns (a-political) by YES members for being elected to the national YES executive and interview people participating within the YES movement. Media interest is often in successful business ventures by specific YES members - case studies. The achievements of the provincial/national teams receives coverage in their local media, while the keynote speakers usually attracts considerable interest from the media.

Sponsor representatives: Sponsors of each of the fourteen events as well as the major sponsors of the YES programme utilise this showcase event to secure branding for their companies through: mounting exhibitions at the venue, serving as adjudicators of the event that they sponsor, presenting the medals and/or trophies to the winners of the event that they sponsor and through showing the impact attained via their Corporate Social Investment to the media and to their other important stakeholder groups.

EWET Staff: EWET, the "mother" organisation of YES, assumes responsibility for presenting the national event through: advising people presenting the local, regional and provincial events; arranging the logistics of the event itself; securing sponsors; developing the events; media liaison; securing keynote speakers; providing administrative support, training, etc.

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