Enter our new Generation Freedom competition!
“Freedom is not given once and for all, it must be won time and time again with the help of truth. Opportunities and threats to independence, economic autonomy, and freedom of expression in Central Europe’s new geopolitical situation.”
Top off your summer with a true adventure in Poland!
Enter our competition to win a visit to Poland and seat at the unforgettable the Three Seas Generation Freedom Conference in Warsaw in the second part of September 2022.
The competition is open to young adults between 18 and 27 years old from the Three Seas region, 12 countries in Central Eastern Europe (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Austria, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Croatia).
Write a short article or record a two-minute video in order to have the chance of becoming one of 50 winners who will receive 1500 Polish Zloty for a journey to Warsaw and will spend two days with some of the region’s brightest minds.
State of Poland’s competition for the best article or video is centered on the question of how to best preserve freedom in our increasingly perilous times.
Your article or video must be on the topic of this year’s edition of the Three Seas Generation Freedom Conference, which is “Freedom is not given once and for all, it must be won time and time again with the help of truth. Opportunities and threats to independence, economic autonomy, and freedom of expression in Central Europe’s new geopolitical situation.”
Your article or video is to be short: 3000 to 6000 characters or 2 minutes long.
The deadline for submission is August 15, the results will be announced on August 20. 50 winners from across the region will arrive in Warsaw and participate in the conference, which will take place in the second part of September 2022.
Send your articles to 3s@stateofpoland.pl
The winners will take part in workshops dedicated to how to best promote the importance of freedom, while the conference taking place the next day will also feature young adults from the region, thought leaders, journalists, diplomats, business representatives and top politicians.
The competition’s winners will receive a prize on 1500 Polish Zloty at the conference (currently around EUR 315) and will be provided with lodging and meals during the time of the conference and workshops in Warsaw.
The winners will also receive a job offer as journalists, writing articles in English for a publication dedicated to culture and development in the Three Seas region. You can find the rules of the competition and all the information needed to participate in the link below.
Hope to see you in Warsaw,
The team at the State of Poland Foundation
Rules:
“Freedom is not given once and for all, it must be won time and time again with the help of truth.
Opportunities and threats to independence, economic autonomy, and freedomof expression in Central Europe’s new geopolitical situation.”
Contest Rules and Regulations
§ 1. Organizer
- The Organizer of the Contest titled “Freedom is not given once and for all, it must be won time and time again with the help of truth. Opportunities and threats to independence, economic autonomy, and freedom of expression in Central Europe’s new geopolitical situation.” (hereinafter the “Contest,) is the State of Poland Foundation, located at Al. Jerozolimskie 7, Warsaw, 00-955, NIP 7010917548, REGON 383016091, KRS number 0000779650 (hereinafter the “Organizer”).
- The prizes are funded by the Organizer.
- The Contest Rules and Regulations (hereinafter the “Rules”) list the conditions for participation and the rules of the Contest, and specify the rights and responsibilities of Contest’s participants, as well as the rights and responsibilities of the Organizer.
- All inquiries regarding the Contest are to be submitted via email to the Organizer’s address: 3s@stateofpoland.pl.
§2. Aim of the Contest
- The aim of the Contest is to select the best written or video submissions on the topic: “Freedom is not given once and for all, it must be won time and time again with the help of truth. Opportunities and threats to independence, economic autonomy, and freedom of expression in Central Europe’s new geopolitical situation.” (hereinafter the “Entry”).
- Entries must fulfill the following criteria:
- length of the article: 3,000 to 6,000 characters; length of the video: 2 minutes
- the Article must be written in English; the Video should have English voiceover or subtitles.
§3. Contest Participants
- The Contest is open to the public.
- Participation in the Contest is voluntary and free of charge.
- The Contest is open exclusively to Participants aged from 18 up to 27 years old
- The Contest is open exclusively to citizens of any of the following countries: Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, and Croatia.
- The Contest is open exclusively to individuals who own the copyright to Entries written individually or collaboratively. In the event that the copyright to a work is owned by more than one individual, they participate in the Contest as a group.
- Each Participant may submit one Entry.
- Employees of the Organizer and their relatives, members of the Panel Judges and their relatives, and employees of entities represented by members of the Panel of Judges and the relatives of said employees are prohibited from participating in the Contest.
§4. Conditions for Participation
- In order to take part in the Contest, each Participant must:
- read and accept these Rules;
- submit Entry that meets the criteria specified in these Rules, within the period specified herein, via email, to the address: 3s@stateofpoland.pl.
- Entries must be written or recorded independently and must be original works of writing or recordings that have not previously been used or awarded.
- By participating in the Contest, each Participant consents to the publication of their Entry through the State of Poland Foundation’s communication channels.
- The Contest is subject to the provisions of these Rules.
- The Rules shall be published on the Organizer’s website, at the following address: www.stateofpoland.pl.
§5. Submission of Entries
- The Article must be submitted to the Contest in the form of a document. The Document mentioned should be submitted to the Organizer in PDF or Word format.
- The Video must be submitted to the Contest in mp4 format.
- The Organizer shall not be held liable for errors, omissions, loss, damage, substitutions, unauthorized access to submissions, or delays in their delivery, caused by external factors beyond the Organizer’s control and which affect the correctness of the submissions.
- Entries that fail to fulfill the criteria specified in these Rules will not be accepted as Contest entries.
§6. Panel of Judges
- Members of the Panel of Judges are appointed by the Organizer.
- The Panel of Judges comprises employees or regular collaborators of the State of Poland Foundation.
§7. Contest Schedule and Assessment of Entries
- The Contest begins July 7, 2022, and ends at 12:00 pm (noon) CET on August 15, 2022, the non-extendible deadline for submission of Entries.
- Entries submitted to the Contest will be assessed for formal eligibility by the Panel of Judges appointed by the Organizer.
- The Panel of Judges appointed by the Organizer will, by August 20, 2022, judge all submitted Entries and select the winners, who will be announced on the website www.stateofpoland.pl and on the Organizer’s Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/stateofpoland.
- Furthermore, Participants of the Contest will be notified via email at the address from which they submitted their Entry.
§8. Prizes and Honors
- The Panel of Judges will select the winners by choosing the best entries among the submitted Entries (hereinafter: the Winners).
- 50 equal and unranked prizes will be awarded. The Organizer of the Contest reserves the right to award a smaller number of prizes in the event that the submitted Entries are not qualified/selected by the Panel of Judges.
- Prizes – the Winners will receive an invitation to the Three Seas Generation Freedom Conference, which will take place in the second half of September 2022, in Warsaw (hereinafter the “Conference”). The Winners who will participate in the Conference, will receive cash award in the amount of PLN 1500 as part of the award. The cash Prize will be given to the Winners along with registration at the Conference.
- The Winners of the Contest will also receive an offer of employment from the Organizer for the position of journalist, which will involve writing articles in English.
- The receipt of the prize by the winner is conditioned upon his or her signing a contract transferring the copyrights to the winning Entry.
- In the event that the Conference is canceled for any reason (in particular, due to restrictions associated with the Covid-19 pandemic), the Organizer will not be required to provide any substitution prize. However, in such an event, the Organizer will reimburse the Winner for any incurred expenses associated with Winner’s planned participation in the Conference (transportation), particularly the cost of purchased travel tickets.
§9. Personal Data
- The Participant, by providing his or her personal data, consents to the publication, in the event that the Participant is chosen as a winner, of his or her first and last name in the communication channels used by the Organizer (including but not limited to the Organizer’s website, Facebook page, and Instagram profile).
- The Contest Participants’ personal data will be used exclusively for the purpose of conducting the Contest, pursuant to the law on Personal Data Protection of May 10, 2018 (Dz. U 2019, item 1781) and Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation). Each Participant of the Contest has the right to access and rectify his or her personal data.
- By agreeing to the provisions contained in these Rules and by taking part in the Contest, the Participant furthermore agrees to the publication of his or her first and last name for the purpose of conducting the Contest and the announcement of the results thereof.
- Personal data is provided on a voluntary basis; however it is a necessary condition for the Participant’s receipt of the prize.
§10. Copyrights
- The Participant states that he or she owns full economic and moral rights to the Entries submitted by the Participant.
- The Participant states that his or her Entry does not violate any rights of any third party. The Participant shall indemnify the Organizer and hold it harmless against any and all third-party claims and shall satisfy such claims in full. In the event of a claim made by a third party, the Participant undertakes to immediately join the case on the Organizer’s side and satisfy all valid, legally adjudicated or granted claims of the plaintiff along with the due costs.
- The Organizer is entitled to disqualify any Entry that violates the copyrights or other rights of third parties.
- By submitting his or her Entry to the Contest, each Participant grants the Organizer permission to use and dispose of the Entry for the purpose of the Contest.
§11. Final Provisions
- The Organizer reserves the right to cancel the Contest in the event that:
- no submissions are received;
- the submissions fail to meet the conditions of these Rules;
- circumstances beyond the control of the Organizer prevent the completion of the contest.
- Individuals who fail to meet any of the requirements listed in these Rules or who provide false information shall be disqualified from the Contest.
- By taking part in the Contest, the Participant accepts the provisions of these Rules.
- Each Participant shall bear any and all costs involved in preparing and submitting their Entry.
- The Organizers of the Contest will cover the cost of lodging of the Winners participating in the Conference, at a location of its choosing in Warsaw for the duration of the Conference as well as the meals during the Conference;
- The Contest Organizer reserves the right to amend these Rules provided that said amendments do not violate the Participant’s acquired rights. Amendments to the Rules will enter into force upon the publication of the amended Rules and Regulations on the Organizer’s website, www.stateofpoland.pl.
- All issues not settled herein are regulated by the Civil Code.
- Any disputes arising between the Participants and the Organizer shall be settled by the common court having jurisdiction over the location of the Organizer.