Heath, I'm a long time MBN (and MiM) competitor but more so a judge. If I could show you a few of our pics from a few years back with explanation; hopefully this'll help with your on-sites.
With on-sites, you have 2 additional categories being judged that aren't in blind; presentation and appearance (of your site). Make everything NEAT and CLEAN. Spitshined! The presentation, just have one, be nice, sell it, and tell your story.
Many will have top of the line china and nonsense. I've always had straight 10's onsite, with chinette plates, solid (not cheap) plastic forks and spoons (for sauce), and fresh bottled water for every judge. CLEAN; fresh. That's the ticket.
You're going to receive 3 judges on-site for every event, in 15 minute intervals. Pretty much you have 13 minutes to greet, present, eat, and say adios. That gives you 2 minutes to clean up and prepare for the next one.
When the judge shows up, greet them and introduce your team (fast). Quickly head over to your presentation smoker. Notice how I said that. Some have separate smokers for presentations; some dont. It's ok, just make sure that your smoker is clean! I used 1 smoker total. Everything came off before 8am. At 8am I clean the smoker (even use a little spray paint if I have to) while one of my teammates builds the presentation area.
Here's Pete from Yazoo's Delta Q showing his hog:
Here's ours without anything in it:
See the drip marks? They were gone (wiped down and painted) about 10 minutes after this photo.
Ok, when the judge arrives, greet him and quickly get him/her to the smoker. Have your meat INSIDE it already, ready to go. Have a quick spiel about your smoker, why you use this type, the wood and why, etc.
Then, open it up and show the meat and finish your spiel.
This whole smoker, wood, meat presentation shouldn't take more than 4 minutes (leaving at least 9 minutes ON MEAT). Get them and the meat to the table. Continue your presentation of the meat. Pull that bone from the shoulder. Hopefully it'll be steaming (hot). Grab a chunk and show how easily it pulls apart. Ham it up a little (SELL YOUR Q). The "look how awesome our pitmaster is" nonsense...
Slight mistake but we got away with it; dont stand over a judge. Sit with them.
I dont know if you can see in the pic above. There was a new unopened bottle of water for the judge, a fresh napkin for him, 2 sauces presented in little cups, each with their own spoon (all fresh, for this judge), and a fork for the meat if he wants it (rarely ever do they use this), and that chinette plate. Anyone handling meat or even perceived as handling meat had on gloves. Also note, clean and simple team uniforms. Uniformity helps in that appearance picture; not required, but looks less rag-tag.
Us, ready for our first judge, all the plates ready, team lined up for introduction, etc.
During presentation, we keep it quiet, and we're neat...
Not shown is the exit. As the judge walks out, we thank him and then clap (show appreciation). Then the firedrill begins. One guy clears the table, another wipes the table cloth clean and dries it (FAST). I break for the next meat. Quickly a light coat of finishing sauce (which is piping hot) and quickly put it in the smoker. Our 4th person is our catch-all. He watches to make sure we dont trip, etc.
Also, not shown, we have a tradition right after every blind turn-in; we take shots of Patron. Have fun.
Ugly team:
With any luck, you'll get a few of these:
