Dear Jan

Anna Maria Torlontano has asked me to send you the report about the Women’s Bridge Festival which I hope you will find of interest.

Anna Maria also asks me to thank you for your co-operation in publicising this event, and says that she very much relies on you and your help … especially when we do it all again next year! Thank you!

REPORT ON THE WBF/BBO WOMEN’S BRIDGE FESTIVAL ONLINE
APRIL 7 to 13 - 2008

The Festival is now over and I am very pleased to send you my report.

1. THANKS.

First of all, I am very pleased and obliged to thank all the people who made of this Festival a success!

-Our fantastic President, José Damiani to whom I first spoke about this idea. He liked it immediately, he trusted me and wanted that this first experiment to be a WBF event. It is very clear that without his approval it could not be achieved!

So, José, my sincere thanks also on behalf of my Committee.

-Vincenzo Delle Cave, the man responsible for BBO -Italia, who I met in May 2007 in Salsomaggiore, not knowing him at all. He liked the idea very much and we started to work on it immediately. He is a perfect organizer, very enthusiastic and always ready to accept and share the requests of my very lively Committee. Vincenzo it is really a pleasure to work with you!!

- Fred Gitelman...the Boss of BBO, who also trusted me and sent me very kind words of sincere appreciation, congratulations and good wishes!

-The members of the WBF Women's Committee who approved with enthusiasm this proposal in the meeting that we had in Shanghai, in October 2007, expressing themselves ready to give their invaluable help in this organization.

-The friends who very kindly translated for us the information pages of the Festival in 6 languages: in alphabetical order) : Olivier Auduard (French) - Marijke Blanken-Burger (Dutch)- Anna Gudge (English)- Cristine Mattson (German) - Ana Prados (Spanish)- Silvia Valentini (Italian) Thank you all, thank you very very much!!

- Some special words to the people , marvellous friends with whom I worked very closely ....more than once, every day..

I am very pleased to name them and believe me, I am very emotional at this moment, and I feel sorry because I am sure that I cannot express with my words the appreciation and the gratitude that I have for them:

The Vice Chairman of the WBF Women's Committee, Joan Gerard who, with the Communications Director, Barbara Nudelman, drew up the "conditions of contest" of this Festival. Always present, with their suggestions, in all the decisions that we had to undertake during the preparation of the event
Anna, our invaluable Secretary, but saying "secretary" doesn't mean anything. One of the most active and efficient members of the Committee, ready to find always a moment to work for us ,(even if all of you know how she is busy working for the WBF) to clarify, to write, to translate and to fulfil all the requests that the "Chairman" (it's me) made everyday!
Silvia Valentini, my assistant in the EBL Women's Committee, who didn’t leave me even for a minute!
and I left my dear Marijke to last, because she needs some very special words: Marijke Blanken Burger, member of the EBL Women's Committee who was one of the most important and indispensable part in this organization. Marijke runs in the Netherlands a web design company, and as soon as I asked for her collaboration she was ready to work with us. But she did more, much more than we expected. The work for the Festival started as a small thing: one webpage, some banners, graphic, designs and pdf-files. Then, the one web page turned into 9 pages, and these into 14 pages and extra banners too. She took care of the design of the "certificates" that we gave as prizes, in total 51 on which she had also to write the names and upload them, then send them to Anna for them to be emailed individually to all the winners. Always in contact with Vincenzo also for the small details. Marijke is a "professional", but in this case, very very kind and generous, she started to work for fun and gave her big contribution as a "gift". What more than this? Marijke, again I have no words to thank you, also on behalf of our colleagues, for what you did for us. I am really proud to work with you!!!

2. INSCRIPTIONS

664 valid (many more at the start of the Festival , and many annulled )

3. PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES

67 countries took part:

495 tables

more in the Pairs Tournaments than in the Individual

(Every day two individual tournaments and two Pairs Tournaments

4. The WINNERS

4.1 Participating in all "Individual Tournaments"

1st classified MAGDALENA DABROWSKA (Poland)

4.2 Participating in all " Pairs Tournaments"

1st classified FRANCESCA STOPPINI AND MARIA STOPPINI (Italy)

4.3 Overall combined classification -(INDIVIDUAL + PAIRS)

1st classified JESSICA TAHYA (Indonesia)

2nd classified LARAS SURYANINGTYAS AKSA PUTRI (Indonesia)

3rd classified FRANCESCA STOPPINI (Italy)

ex equal MARIA STOPPINI (Italy)

5. APPEALS

Very few and solved without any problem.

6. SPIRIT AND ATMOSPHERE

The organizers and the Directors said "very very good!"

7. DIRECTORS

There were many also helped by 2 from abroad.

8. CHEATING

No signalling.

9. INFORMATION

The classifications are online and you can see the tables of each tournaments, the board played etc etc. and of course, the names of the Winners.

BBO is a special Site which has incredible characteristics.

This report, the results, the "certificates" and as soon as we receive them, the pictures of the overall winners, will be sent to Panos, to be put on the WBF Web Site. In addition, Anna sent a message on my behalf to thank all the women who participated in the event. This report has also been sent to all WBF NBOs, thanking them for their support.

10. COMMENTS FROM THE ORGANIZER

It was a splendid idea, to be absolutely repeated!

Most of the defections were due to misunderstandings, bad interpretation of the regulations. Some players said that there was a lack of information, despite details having been sent out to everyone we could possibly contact. In any case we will seek to establish in which areas this can be improved! A large number of these defections also were due to the players trying to register at the very last minute or even after the Festival started, which could not be accepted – we had made the regulation that registrations must be made at least 1 week in advance, and it seems that, despite this being well publicised, the players did not take note of it. We need to recognise that in other online tournaments the players register at the very last moment and for some of them there are no inscriptions at all until about 10 minutes before the start of play. It is a kind of mentality that we will try to change!

11. COMMENTS BY THE CHAIRMAN

As the "certificates" went also to the personal email address of the Winners, I was able to read their thanks and their enthusiastic words of appreciation on this event. Many players wrote, hoping that this Festival will be repeated in the future

Well, my comment? I am very satisfied . Of course, for the next event....(because we will have a next event!) we have to revise and modify some things, in the light of this first experiment.

12. THE FUTURE

I found the proposal of BBO to continue these tournaments online, reserved only to the Women Players very interesting.

Then BBO should make a communication like this (of course some things could be changed):

"The Women's Bridge Festival organized by BBO and the WBF Women's Committee was a great success.

Therefore the WBF Women's Committee is in agreement with the proposal of BBO to continue to organize, with the same format, tournaments every month, reserved just for women players.

You, the players, will get more experience in playing tournaments online, you will have the opportunity to train with your partner before a National or International Championship, you will make many new friends, and in addition you will have the opportunity to play a tournament with a World Champion!!. All this while waiting for the next "WBF /BBO Women's Bridge Festival" that will be held in the Spring of 2009.

The organization of this series of tournaments will be handled exclusively by BBO. There will be no prizes, no certificates, no pictures. Only the winner of the monthly classification will gain the opportunity to play a tournament with a World Champion (name).

BBO has also in mind to create with us a "Women's Bridge Club online", where we will be able to let you know about events organized by the Women's Committee and where the Women Players can "meet", to exchange ideas, to talk amongst themselves, discuss hands, bidding...etc.

The details of these tournaments will be published as soon as they are finalized".

This is the end of my report. Thank you for your attention and let's look at the future of the Women's Bridge with optimism and trust!

Anna Maria Torlontano

Chairman