The Bike Europe Website has just announced a significant changes to the structure and procedure of the IBDC. This competition is the first key event for the annual Taipei Cycle.
The Show runs from 9am Wednesday thru 3pm Saturday in the first or second week of March each year.
The announcement of the finalists, usually the top 20 or so from 800-odd entries, takes place right after the official opening of the Show on Wednesday morning. Various awards are given, the pinnacle of these being the Bronze, Silver and Gold medals.
The event is quite well managed and conducted in a professional manner. It could do better, though, and being run more along the lines of the Eurobike competition may well be a step in this direction.
One notable characteristic of the finalists tends to be that design are offered up as based on one key feature. (You can get a feel for the way this works here). Actually, if you were to take the various innovations and combine them into a particular frame, you would have much more powerful and convincing–even more practical–designs.
Perhaps the separation of entries between students and established designers will be a step in this direction. Student designers come up with creative ideas, although they often stretch the bounds of practicality.