Blog
Free resources to scale your awards & contests
Guides and insights to support you in running the smoothest program possible, and scaling the impact of your competitions, awards, grants and more.
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Hiring the Right Awards Coordinator
Finding the right Awards Coordinator can make or break your programme – the wrong hire leads to stressed staff, disappointed applicants, and damaged relationships. This complete guide includes job description templates, interview questions, and cost analysis to help you make the smartest hiring decision for your awards programme.
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Turning Industry Connections Into Your Most Powerful Awards Marketing Channel
You’ve spent months crafting the perfect awards marketing campaign, yet entries aren’t flooding in. The problem isn’t your messaging – it’s that professionals no longer trust marketing channels for career decisions. Here’s how successful awards programs activate trusted industry voices who already have their ideal entrants’ attention
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Why Public Voting Can Transform Your Awards
“I wanted this to be more of the people and not just from a small group of individuals,” explains one awards organizer who made the switch. The results speak for themselves: increased reach, enhanced credibility, and stories that “go a teeny bit viral” because they’re relatable to broader audiences.
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Your Programme Failed, Now What? (Free Template)
So, your open call didn’t go as planned. Maybe entries were lower than expected, the timeline slipped, or feedback from artists, judges, or partners wasn’t as positive as you’d hoped. But this isn’t the end of your programme. It could be the turning point where things become clearer, stronger, and more aligned with your mission.
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How to price your Award using AI: Prompts for every program
Setting the right price for award submissions is a delicate balancing act. Charge too much, you limit applicants; charge too little, you risk overwhelming costs. Discover powerful AI prompts that create pricing strategies perfectly tailored to your awards program.
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Online forms vs. Submission management platforms
While many event organizers start with a simple online form, as competitions grow in scale and complexity, a dedicated award management platform can provide a more structured and streamlined experience. Many organizers struggle with resource constraints, needing a solution that doesn’t eat up so much of their time, but how do these two options compare?
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Choosing the right awards management platform for staff recognition awards
Managing Employee Recogition Awards can be overwhelming without the right tools. This article introduces 7 tools that simplify submissions, judging, and voting to help you focus on creating meaningful events.
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Real engagement begins when your open call ends
Hosting an open call is truly an enriching experience. It allows for you to discover new talent and support them, create connections, and foster creativity. However, once the opportunity is over, the real challenge—and the true potential for impact—emerges. This can allow for the nourishment on meaningful relationships and the growth of your community.
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Increase submissions to your awards through trust
If you are launching an award, it will be essential for you to build trust with anyone who might consider submitting to you. The longer your process and the bigger the submission fee, the more vital it will be to convince candidates you are legitimate.
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How to approach judges for competitions
Getting partners involved and securing high-level individuals to help you select winners is no easy task. But having someone recognisable on your panel is a big perk for candidates who want their work seen. Here are our top tips to appeal to judges you would like involved in your programme.
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Establishing the perks for your competition
The only reason applicants will take the time to submit is that there’s something in it for them. Defining what’s in it for those selected, and understanding what you have available to you, could allow you to run a competition on a very tight budget, and still make a great success of it.
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Defining the purpose of your programme
Purpose is powerful. It allows you to inspire people to take part and measure your goals effectively once your program ends. Without a clearly articulated purpose, marketing your offering and getting candidates to submit will be an uphill struggle.
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Creating opportunity in adversity
our months ago, the rules that governed society turned inside out. This left communities isolated, lead to freelancers losing their income and forced organisations to reinvent themselves. Cambridge City Council Supporting communities by commissioning talent With schools closed, parents working from home and the elderly under lockdown, families have either found themselves alone in isolation…
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Creating purpose in isolation
This is our time to prove that arts organisations are there for them even in the most adverse of times. Here’s how running a competition can help support our communities now in isolation, give our team a shared purpose and ensure, that when our doors open once again, our audiences return to us and our…
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The best sites to list your art competition on
Getting your art competition seen by as many people as possible is always key to bringing in more submissions. Taking a little time to list it on external sites is always a great way to increase exposure. To save you time here are the top sites you can market your call on. (Updated Jan 6th…
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Imagery to get your competition attention
In an increasingly fast-paced world, getting attention to your competition is difficult. Using the right imagery plays a huge part in making users notice you and eventually submit to your opportunity. This guide will take you through 6 tips that will help you get you the most exposure you can from the imagery you use.
