The event was a huge success in unifying all 5 Nails Association in Korea to come together for the first time organizing Korea's 1st Nation-Wide Nail Competition.
The organizing committee is made up of representatives from 5 Nail Association in Korea and most importantly, representatives from the Korean Government are also involved in the entire process. It is a huge step for the Korean Nail Industry!There were about 2000+ entries for the various categories in the competition. The actual number of participants was about 1000+ pax; with 3 Associations registering about 300 persons each, the rest were registrations from the other 2 Associations. It was a fair healthy distribution of participants
A Judging Committee was form to decide on the details of this competition. Head Judge was Ms Kim Mi Won(Korea Nail Expert Association), her many experiences Judging in various Europe & Asia Nail Competitions is useful in bringing their 1st National Nail Competition to the same international platform. She was assisted by 5 Chief Judges, each representing a Nail Association. The Judging Committee also includes representatives from the Korean Government.
All decisions were made during the numerous committee meetings held prior to the actual competition day.
Each Association were also to submit 30 judges to make up the judging team for the 2000+ strong participating entries. There would be a total of about 150 Judges in all for competition day judging.The judging committee also decided to have a MASTERS CATEGORY for the top nail professionals in Korea to compete on.Masters Category participants are to complete 1 set of French Sculpture and 1 set of Design Sculpture in 150 minutes.
The Judging Committee also decided to invite international judges to assist in this Masters Category of the competition; each Nail Association was to submit 2 Judges for the Master Category Judging, one Korean Judge and one foreigner Judge.
It was decided that the 5 International Judges for the Master Category to be: Danny Haile, Carla Collier(Nailpro Head Judge), Trang Nguyen, Fiona Chua(Hong Kong Nailist Union) and Rachel Tang(myself).
Unfortunately, weeks before the competition day, one of the association - Korea Nail Association (KNA) requested that they be allowed to invite a 3rd Judge for the Master Category instead of the agreed 2 Judges agreed upon for each Association. As the additional Judge they requested to be invited, happened to be on the same Competition Team as Trang Nguyen(one of the 5 International Judge); the Korea Judging Committee deemed it would compromise the fairness of the Master Category Judging. Thus they refuse for the 3rd Judge to be included as a Master Category Judge.
As with any differences in opinion, numerous meetings & discussions
were held to try to reach a amicable solution; after which the final
decision of all committee members(including the government
representatives) was to cancel the competition of the Master Division. The 15 participants from the Master Category would proceed to showcase their work during the competition, but there would not be any judging of this category. This decision was made in unison during the Judge Committee meeting weeks before the Competition Day. It was not a last minute decision and all Master Category participants were informed.
The Judges were to be informed by the Association that invited them. Well... I was informed... Thank God, else it would be embarrassing if I went to Korea still thinking that I am a Masters Category Judge right? ... shiver ... But anyway, I was there not only to Judge the Master Category, there are also many other categories to judge too.Of the 15 participants in the Master Category, 9 participants are from the Korea Nail Expert Association.
I'm not affected much by their decisions though, coz IT IS after all a Korean National Competition... I'm just an foreigner, I need to respect whatever decisions they decide. I felt that non-Koreans dun really have a right to intervene in their country's 1st unify efforts to run their own National Competition.
Korea had become like a second home to me, with me going to Korea nearly every month for a Nail Event or Seminar. Being one of the few international individual to be involved in the coming together of all Korean nail associations holds a special meaning for me... for I know that real unity is actually such a hard thing to bring to reality, but Korea had taken its first step.
All in all, it was a good competition.. But more importantly a special opportunity for all 5 Korean Nail Associations to get to know each other through this event. Hopefully draw closer and make build more bridges between each other. For now, it is impossible for Korea to become one big association as all individual associations have their own uniqueness, but after this event, I think it is possible for the 5 Nail Associations to work together as One Big Family of Associations.
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