Awards Process
Have you ever wondered how ADMEI's award process works? Below is a handy step-by-step guide to exactly what happens in the ADMEI Awards Program.
ADMEI company members are invited to submit their best programs to compete for a coveted ADMEI Award via the awards website. Each entry must be completed and paid for by the final registration deadline to qualify for judging. ADMEI uses an awards entry platform website that is managed and maintained by a third party. The site is customized by the ADMEI staff for the type of entry – Achievement or Recognition. The individual at the DMC who creates the entry is responsible for ensuring that company names and entry names are correct.
After the final deadline, ADMEI staff does a quick review of all paid entries and disqualifies any for the reasons listed in the awards entry instructions document. This document can be found on the ADMEI website under the ADMEI Awards section.
Judges from around the world and familiar with DMCs (association and corporate planners, hoteliers, venues, photographers, production companies, agencies, etc.) are then divided into teams and assigned a category to judge. Judges are not permitted to judge a category that contains an entry that is within their same city, state in the US, or country outside the US. Judging is anonymous -- judges do not see any company specific information - only what was submitted via the ADMEI awards website.
Judges are instructed to eliminate a company from consideration if they find any indication of the company name in the supporting documents, including photos.
Each judge logs on to the awards website, has 2 weeks to review the materials presented, and assigns point values for each answered question.
The awards website then generates a list of finalists to ADMEI based on the points earned in each category. Based on number of entries received per category and baring any ties, the top 3 in each category is generated automatically by the awards platform (potentially top 5 for Best Overall Program). The ADMEI office then notifies the finalists for each category.
This third-party awards platform generates all of the documents ADMEI uses during the awards notification process. ADMEI will review the final list for misspellings and accuracy, checking with the person who completed the entry if there are any questions.
When judging is complete, all entrants are notified if they are a finalist or not. Finalists are announced via ADMEI Newsletter and the list is posted on the website. Press releases are sent to industry trade publications.