The Annual Conference is an opportunity for students to measure up to others in their specialist areas, as members of teams drawn by lots at the time of the contests which year by year become more and more refined. In Cervia each category of competition was supervised by a head judge assisted by teacher-judges – all of them volunteers, of course, and members of delegations taking part in the Conference. And with the added bonus of all the preliminary preparatory work put in by the Cervia school to ensure that the competitors had the very best chances of success in the contests.
Thus the IPSEOA had made available its kitchens and its classrooms so that the competitions could take place in them: haute cuisine, nouvelle cuisine, decathlon, pastry, barista, restaurant service, wine service, cocktail bar, tourist destination, front office, hospitality- management.
These three days involved a real marathon for the judges and the students who had to be ready for work either to judge or to compete or to participate, since the IPSEOA was located at the opposite side of town from the hotels, and shuttle buses were provided for travel between the two locations.
Here are some views of some of the briefing meetings:
Views of the competitions, an atmosphere like no other:
Some samples of students’ skills
The winners of bronze, silver and gold medals in the competitions. For each competition the photographs bring together the winners of bronze, silver and gold medals.
As is customary, the presentation of the medals and certificates involved the President and the various Vice-Presidents, assisted by the head judges: and sometimes the presentation was accompanied by chaotic shouts, tears and scrambles. Just as usual!
Complete list of medal winners: 
Medal winners.pdf
