The Miniconference – Day 1
The Miniconference of seminar group 11 was held on rainy Tuesday afternoon 9th
April 2013
at Faculty of Law, Masaryk University, Brno. It was our honour to attend so long-awaited
Day-1. Members of three presenting groups and also audience could not wait to see the
Miniconference. Everybody was cordially welcomed, registered and endowed with useful
vouchers concerning program and topic information.
First presented topic was “The Amnesty”. Authors concentrated on recent act of Czech expresident
Vaclav Klaus. We were introduced basic facts about amnesty and there was
mentioned legality of that act too. Then audience heard reaction of foreign media and at the
end we underwent quiz. Creators of presentation revealed how it was made. Authors spent 5
hours working on it, divided topic into parts. They felt nervous during presentation and said
they were glad, it was over. Group expressed gentle dissent with the amnesty of Czech ex-
president.
After discussion and feedback we were acquainted with really contemporary theme called
“Gay and lesbian adoptions in CZ and GB”. This group consisted of two persons, because
one of teammates did not appear. Presentation was based on knowledge from the similar
project, they prepared in the past. Reporters were disclosed that the most difficult was to find
legislation and choosing Youtube video. In spite of one colleague´s absence, the rest did well.
The last presentation was called “Al Capone- no subtitle needed”. Presentation focused on Al
Capone’s life and activities, investigation, trial proceedings, imprisonment. Authors spent a
lot of time working on it but the audience really appreciated the whole presentation and
awarded authors with a big applause.
We have been also interested in discovering how the presentations were accepted by the
audience. And what have our classmates taken from the Miniconference? For example, we
have found out that civil couples cannot adopt children in the Czech Republic. Surprising
information is that Al Capone had also a good part of personality or that he died of syphilis
and was retarded at the end of his life. Finally, most of us had not known before that he came
from non-criminal family. The Miniconference was considered to be well-organised, the timekeeping
subtle but effective. Very appreciated were also the visuals. As for the first
presentation (The Amnesty), we would like to point out the quiz. It was placed in the middle
of presentation to raise the attention curve, which worked well.
We can boldly proclaim that the first Presentation Day was successful and fulfilled its purpose
well. The presenters have been satisfied with their performances and the audience have
learned something new. At the end, we would like to express our hope that the second
Presentation Day will be at least as successful as the first one. It will be held on the 23th of
April and we are really looking forward to it.