Table Topics Contest

The largest procedural risk is topic leakage, or any circumstance that gives one contestant more preparation time than another. Open the current rulebook.

1. Choose a topic that is short, clear, broadly accessible, and able to produce an opinion or conclusion. Avoid trivia, technical knowledge, obscure references, and questions that favor a particular profession or demographic. The rulebook says the topic must be of reasonable length, must not require detailed knowledge, and must lead to an opinion or conclusion.
2. Keep the topic confidential until the contest begins. Limit advance knowledge to as few people as possible. Do not put the topic in agendas, shared drives, rehearsal scripts, emails, texts, or volunteer packets.
3. After the contest begins, every contestant except the first leaves the room and stays under the supervision of the sergeant at arms, where they cannot hear the question or earlier responses.
4. Use at least two sergeants at arms when the venue allows: one with the contestants and one to escort the next speaker. Contestants may not use devices to gain an advantage.
5. Rehearse the movement, not the responses: holding room, route, entrance, speaking area, exit, and microphone. Do not expose the topic.
6. Introduce each contestant in the prescribed order: name, topic, topic, name. Put that wording on the contest chair's script.
7. Read the topic the same way every time, with the same words and a similar pace.