Dear YCC students, professors, jury members and fans,

It has been a fantastic YCC year so far, with the grand finale, the European awards ceremony in Paris, on September 29, rounding up this year’s competition soon.

The entries this year inspired and excited us with their creativity and innovative feel. I knew driving down to Belgium for the European jury deliberation that the jurors were facing a really tough task to select the final winners for 2010. I want to give you a quick behind the scenes peek into the deliberation and our stellar jury panel that decided who the winners for this year are.

On June 19, 12 jury members from all around Europe gathered in the early morning in Zolder to debate discuss and ultimately select the European winners.

Chevrolet is very proud to have had the support of an expert panel with members from Germany, Greece, Slovenia and the U.K. to make these important decisions. Video expert, Pasa Nicholas Mustafa, is the Head of Digital Studios at Endemol UK where he heads up a team that develops and produces web originals. To help judge the clothes designs we were lucky to have two fashion savvy women onboard from trendy international clothing brand Lipsy. Leanne Aspinall, Online Marketing Executive and Vikki Barker, Senior Designer, brought great creative expertise to the table combining it with production, sales and wear ability knowledge. A great help as we have to be sure our models will be able to carry the design off without a hitch!

Eastern Europe was well represented by renowned Slovenian journalist and novelist, Vesna Milek who served as the press jury. She is most famous for her celebrity interviews, work with Delos newspaper and of course her two bestsellers, ‘Kalipso’ and ‘If’. Freelance photographer Nico Markompotsaris used his keen eye and fantastic aesthetic sense to guide everyone through the technical and creative aspects of all the photos. Last year’s YCC music project winner Leander Bauer remains involved with YCC since his triumph and was chosen to be this year’s music jury member.

The jury was also joined by the Chevrolet Europe team: Chevrolet Europe President and Managing Director, Wayne D. Brannon, Director of Communications, Marc Kempe and Director of Design UK Advanced Studio, Jeff Perkins.

The thirteen entries in the Visual Arts contest were judged at the WTCC track in Zolder, and Wolfgang Buchwieser, Marketing Manager of RIDE Snowboards led the debate on the projects. We also brought in some support from experts who know the A-Z of motors sports and understand the importance of car design; the Managing Director of WTCC Marcello Lotti and the race driver Alain Menu.

To find out more about the national and European jury members you can go to:
http://www.youngcreativechevrolet.eu/en/jury_members

It was a great deliberation week-end in Belgium, thank you to all the students who took part. I would also like to thank all the jury members for their time, input, support and enthusiasm for the YCC project.

Thank you everyone for your interest in the competition and enjoy your well-deserved summer holiday.

Florence