Hosting the Simulation Competition

• Master's students in public-service degree programs must respond to a challenge presented by an interactive, educational computer simulation. They must work together to achieve their goals, and the simulation will give them a score based on their performance.
• After the simulation portion of the day, students will prepare a policy memo to present what they learned to a panel of judges, which is followed by a Q&A. Students will need to clearly organize and present their thoughts as if they were practitioners justifying their course of action.
• Judges will then proceed to give an informal panel about what they observed during the simulation competition. Students will be able to ask them questions.
• The scores from the simulation and the scores from the judges will be tallied to determine the winner at each competition site. 
• Finally, host sites have the option to put together a closing party to end the day.

• Full-day event on a Saturday in late February or early March. These dates are usually determined in late Summer or early Fall.
• Each host school will only run the simulation once in one of the two available Saturdays.
• The default competition schedule is 9:00 AM-5:00 PM (your local time), but this can vary.
• Each site can expect to have approximately 40-60 people total.

• The ability to participate in a fun and exciting competition experience.
• Introduce your faculty to simulation education.
• Inspiring and teaching the next generation of public service professionals.
• Facilitate student learning with an educational simulation that teaches communication, negotiation, international relations, teamwork, and critical thinking skills.
• Challenge students to understand and respond to the diversity, equity, and inclusion facets of public service.
• Receive external visibility through pre-event and post-event recognition in local press releases, NASPAA newsletters, NASPAA social media, the post-competition program book, and on the NASPAA website.
• Pre-event recognition at the NASPAA Annual Conference.
• Opportunity to build faculty expertise in simulation pedagogy;
• Opportunity to learn how to use sophisticated simulation approaches in the classroom;  
• Opportunity to engage alumni as judges, volunteers, or contributors to the competition;
• Opportunity to showcase your school to students and judges from the region.

The NASPAA Institute of Innovative Teaching and Learning for Public Service will design and execute the competition. NASPAA will be responsible for the following: 

• Prepare and design the content of the simulation and the logistics for the competition, including agendas, slideshows and scripts.
• Prepare educational background content to supplement the simulation.
• Work with the host school to secure judges for the competition.
• Prepare a press release template and social media templates to be used by the host school to promote the competition.
• Conduct virtual training sessions for site facilitators and judges prior to the competition.
• Create a competition ‘Run of Show’ document and slide deck for the event, as a step-by-step guide for site leaders and judges.
• Distribute simulation manuals to students before competition day.
• Prepare and send communications to site facilitators and students during the competition preparation period (approximately a 30-day time period prior to the competition day).
• Promote the competition through NASPAA’s website, newsletter, and social media (Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram)
• Arrange for virtual simulation support during the competition. 
• Conduct a post-competition survey and evaluate the competition for improvement.

Each host school plays a key role in ensuring competition success. While the NASPAA team handles most of the planning and coordination, the host school will determine some of the event logistics.

NOTE: Much of the information below only applies to in-person competitions. If the competition is planned to be virtual, there will be different expectations and responsibilities as noted below.

Facilities (IN-PERSON COMPETITION ONLY)

• Workspace
  • Provide one large meeting space for introductions and concluding presentations. It should be able to hold 60 people (45-55 students and various staff and volunteers). If this room is used for students to play the simulation, it will need readily accessible power outlets.
  • Provide two or three classrooms to allow students to break into teams and sit around tables in addition to the large meeting space. Rooms with readily accessible power outlets are necessary, and the rooms should be relatively close to the large meeting space.
  • Room set up: for the breakout classrooms, the room should be set up into (X) tables for the countries where student teams will meet 
• A/V and Media
  • Wi-Fi access
  • Video recording for up to two hours at the end of the competition to record the final presentations. The host school does not need to hire a professional, but the audio and visual of the recording needs to be high quality, meaning the presentations done by the students need to be reviewable by the Global Judges–audio heard and slides shown.
  • Projectors or TV setup in the large meeting space and the breakout classrooms.

Food & Beverage (IN-PERSON COMPETITION ONLY)

• The night before the competition (Friday evening)
  • Host an informal networking event for students and judges on campus or at a local restaurant or pub the night before the competition.
  • Provide appetizers and/or dinner.
  • (Preferable but not required) provide up to two alcoholic beverages to participants.
  • NOTE: If serving alcohol, the university must provide a Certificate of Liquor Liability Insurance. During the competition day, the host provides coffee and water, light breakfast options, lunch, and late afternoon snacks. Host sites can also have an informal celebration after the competition, but this is optional.
• Competition day
  • Coffee and light breakfast
  • Box lunches or simple catering for competitors who will eat while working. This could be sandwiches, pizza, buffet style, etc. NASPAA will collect and provide a list of dietary restrictions ahead of time.
  • Afternoon coffee and snacks (chips, pretzels, vegetables and dip are all fine)
• Post-Competition (optional)
  • Informal celebration event

Support Staff (APPLIES TO BOTH IN-PERSON AND VIRTUAL COMPETITIONS)

• Site Facilitator: This person will be responsible for facilitating the competition at their site, being the main point of contact for the NASPAA team before the competition, and overseeing site logistics. This person must be a faculty member, staff member, or post-grad. The site leader will need to be available during January and February for 2-3 virtual meetings to coordinate with NASPAA on site preparations. The site facilitator will receive a script, slide deck, training and live support from NASPAA.
• Secondary site facilitator and volunteers are strongly encouraged.
• Technical Support: This person or department will be on call for technical support (computers and other technology infrastructure) during the competition. Preferably, this person will be a member of the host site's I.T. department. They do not need to be familiar with the simulation itself. They would be responsible for maintaining internet access, providing A/V technical support or, in the case of a virtual simulation, maintaining the Zoom meeting and breakout rooms.
• Judges: There will be at least three on-site judges during the competition, and NASPAA requests the assistance of the host school in securing these judges. A judge can be a faculty member, alumnus/alumna with experience, local practitioner, etc.; familiarity and/or expertise in the public service topic or related fields is highly desirable but is not a requirement, as long as they have relateable public service experience.

Printed Materials (IN-PERSON COMPETITION ONLY)

• On the competition day, the host site will have printed out the following materials, which will be emailed ahead of time by NASPAA:
  • Sign-in sheet
  • Name tags
  • Judge rubrics
  • Signs for team tables (Group 1, Group 2, etc.)