How Award-Based Events Can Continue To Be Hosted Successfully Online

The practice of giving, and certainly receiving, awards in something to be celebrated. That’s why at Submit we are keen to show examples of how the process and management status is set up to ensure that these events can continue to be held, even if the ‘venue’ becomes somewhat remote!

Celebrating a number of different assets in a workplace, from innovation, to team work and success are all good reasons to return an achievement in the form of an award.

There have been a few recent examples within a competitive industry that shows how and what organisations have earned the prestigious honours across different fields. Particularly at a time where uncertain feelings and thoughts can be a lot to overcome, it is good to give back and feel positive about nominating somebody or a relevant institution.

We will look at some in-depth case studies and talk about how they excel and how they have given their rewards specifically. There is also an explanation of how to set up entry forms, and in allowing the ‘judging’ aspect of the awards full access to the event as it moves to an online format.

In this climate, it is difficult or simply not possible to conduct many of these interviews and ceremonies as it would normally have been expected to be in person. With that in mind, the process of moving many of these online is now both possible and in practice.

Any event that hosts nominations and gives awards is a lot of work to manage in itself. There are many challenges to be met by even the most experienced and dedicated teams, and a lot of individual thoughts to be considered. As we shall see with some customer success stories, clients that have used Submit to help manage these events have been hugely impressed with the company’s software and how the process has functioned as a whole.

Case studies regarding award events; Chambers Ireland

Chambers Ireland is Ireland’s largest business organisation with a network of Chambers of Commerce in every major town and region in the country. Through awards, in addition to their business practice, they aim to enable growth and development as well as awareness in the sector of long term enterprise development. Carly Mooney is their Event manager and administrator, who has been using Submit to process for three separate awards:

• The chamber awards
• The corporate social responsibility awards
• Excellence in local government awards

As the organiser to these events, Carly was obviously in an extremely busy position, and was very impressed with the accessibility of the platform, noting how beneficial it was for all members of the process. “Before Submit, it was torturous for our judges because they couldn’t work from anywhere. Whereas now they can do it on the train, the bus, or wherever, it’s just much easier for them to do it online.”

Each client will have different priorities in terms of what should be put first, and in the case of Carly, it was that of the judges. The previous system that Chambers were using was ultimately not fit for purpose, as Carly mentions, “for example, the minimum number of judges we’d have would be five, so we would print off the applications five times and put them into a big huge folder to send them.’’

Such a large amount of extra work would be stressful and needless for the judges, particularly as they would not be full-time employees;

“We were actually starting to struggle to get judges to participate. The workload was scaring them off! And then each year we would get more and more applications.”

After going through a demonstration, Carly and Chambers Ireland were happy to implement Submit’s system, to the point that earlier queries were answered and addressed very quickly. Carly was also glad that the system catered for the potential ‘generational gap’ in some of the potential judges and how they would implement the forms and applications, such is the accessibility and user-friendly platform of the software itself.

More information specifically regarding Chambers Ireland and their customer feedback is available on our website.

Case Study: CIPD Ireland and their awards system

CIPD Ireland is the professional body for HR and people development, responsible for supporting better work and working lives throughout the country.

 They set a high standard for people management, development and in influencing policy and practice in the professional world. All told, the organisation has a lot of responsibilities in managing different facets of the working environment. Therefore, the fact that they also run an awards program as well shows that they like to recognise excellence in candidates in their own manner.

For the 2020 edition, CIPD decided to seek out an online tool to aid their workflow and manage their programme. This would help ease from the paper-based system to a more automated, fast flowing one which would help the awards program run a lot more smoothly.

This would be good for both the team and the customers, and so it eventually proved, saving time, energy and resources in the process. Going back to before it was first implemented, however, proved initially somewhat challenging as could naturally be expected.

Being used to the expected system with paper-based entry and applicants, and how the entrants expected it to be, was something that the team nonetheless overcame with expectation. Eventually, working on Submit’s new system saved time and actually allowed more focus on the awards themselves, which was a welcome change.

The IT projects lead Fiona McDermott notes that ‘There was a concern on trying to get the mindsets to change. Now I think we wouldn’t go back!’  The value of staff resourcing, financial and user experience won out in the end, and the team have not looked back since. More information on this specific case study is available here.

The application process and Submit’s dedicated team

When processing our forms, applicants will find user-friendly and accessible information, saving time while also being able to understand the format.

The team, entrants for the awards and judges can all access the support available from Submit, therefore saving time to focus on the awards themselves in more detail.  The reporting tools would help to give feedback and quickly reply with any help or in answering any forms of queries that may arise in the process. The customers who have used our software have found its flexibility so beneficial that they have recommended and used it again for a diverse range of purposes across various departments.

More detail regarding the process of application is available here where the submission phases are explained in terms of technical detail.

Submit is happy to ensure that nominees and award winners get recognised for outstanding work in chosen fields. If you’re interested in using us a platform for awards and nominations, please get in touch today for a free trial!