Over the next four days, we’ll be on hand to report from the 29th Annual Best of Newspaper Design competition. The global gathering of graphics and design pros kicks off today at Syracuse University, home of the Society for News Design’s annual judging for nearly two decades.

The SND International Web Desk has you covered, rest assured.

The competition this year boasts a near-record number of entries: 14,816.

Whoa. Really?

Yes. Really.

That means the judges will be busy when their work begins in earnest on Saturday morning. That’s also when we’ll introduce you to the 27 folks who have convened here for this part of the competition, traveling far and wide (from eight countries, by our count) to pick the best work from 2007.

Speaking of the best, the World’s Best judging this year happens after the general judging and the five folks doing that part of the work won’t be here now, lest they be unduly influenced. That means we won’t have the winners of those coveted awards (if there are any) until the week of Feb. 18. That’s a change from previous years, but one the Society wanted to try. We’ll report back on how it works out.

If the judges we met last night are any indication of what’s to come, we think they might be pretty picky, setting a high bar for what design excellence looks like in the 21st Century. The Web Desk applauds a discriminating design guru or three, especially ones who also seem to also possess preternatural partying prowess.

Let the fun begin.

THE SCHEDULE

Wondering what to expect over the next few days? Here’s our handy guide to what happens.

FRIDAY …

Judges and professional facilitators finish arriving in Syracuse. No judging is done today, so don’t expect to see results anytime today.

But there are several things to keep an eye on.

There’s a day of design, graphics, photography and multimedia training at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, our hosts for the competition and proud owners of a sparkling new building that has some of the best learning space we’ve ever seen. Many of the pros who have already arrived here take the bulk of the day to work with students, while the other half finish setting up the judging site in anticipation of Saturday’s start. Watch for our coverage of the student sessions.

Then there’s an opening reception this evening at the Newhouse School, where judges get to know each other and the top folks at the university and from the Society welcome the group. That’s usually a great way to break the ice.

The reception is also a place where the judges have an opportunity to ask loads of questions about what’s to come and are allowed to dry run through the process, with no actual votes cast, so they can get some experience with the voting procedures.

SATURDAY …

Judging starts first thing in the morning, but working your way through more than 14,000 entries takes some time. Don’t expect any results until afternoon, at the earliest.

We’ll be up early, too. You’ll get your first glimpse at the judges as we introduce you to the 27-member panel for the general judging (five more judges get here next week to determine World’s Best).

As we have done in the last few years, we’ll be randomly announcing a few Award of Excellence winners throughout the general judging. If there are any Gold winners, we’ll clue you in on those as well.

We’ll also be doing nightly SND Update video reports, hosted by Melissa Angle of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Matt Mansfield of the San Jose Mercury News. Expect those segments each evening around 8 p.m. EST. In those reports, we’ll recap the day’s action, spot emerging trends and generally give you the lowdown.

SUNDAY …

More of the same. With one very important announcement: We’ll reveal the leading winners at the midpoint of the competition, so expect to see a Top 10 winners listed (up to that point) revealed in this evening’s Update video report.

MONDAY …

The judging is set to conclude, so we’ll be able to give you the top winners (but, remember, no World’s Best yet), as well as any Gold or Judge’s Special Recognition honors. And if the unanimous judging panel tells us there’s a Best of Show, we’ll get you the scoop on that.

So, click back, relax and watch it all unfold. We’re hankering to get started. Thanks for swinging by.