by Lindsay Nash | Jan 11, 2024 | Articles
With in-and-out lists popping up across social media, we couldn’t help but step into the role of professional prognosticator to talk about what we talk about best: awards management!
More and more organisations are turning to awards programs to recognise excellence in their industry, improve their marketing efforts and engage their communities. So, what’s in this season? What’s out? Let’s dive right in.
Humans have a natural psychological need for recognition. The acknowledgement of efforts and a job well done creates a sense of fulfilment, achievement and belonging. Recognition lights a fire within us and drives us to attain greater heights. Whether you want to recognise an employee, a leader in your industry, or your next-door neighbour for their gorgeous roses, just go for it this year.
It’s time to X out of your Zoom screen and hold real, live events again. Plan a gala for your awards program, and take time to celebrate in person. Make it engaging, and offer your guests the opportunity to network and make true connections with people in their field.
It’s past time to green up your awards program. This could mean finally making that move to remote operations. Or ditching your printer. Or carbon offsetting. Or finding environmental sponsors and partners. It’s 2024, not 2004, and the world is moving on.
Sure, it’s all about AI these days. But when it comes to true creativity, human-powered efforts demand celebration. So send ChatGPT out for some milk (full, 2%, oat or soy— if it can) and spend some time in your own head to create and think outside the box this year. And check out our blog on how to avoid and detect AI-generated content in your own submissions program.
It’s more important than ever before to protect your data—both your program data and your users’ data. You simply can’t afford to ignore this. Why? In 2022, 493 million ransomware attacks were detected by organisations worldwide. Phishing remains the most common cyber attack, with some 3.4 billion daily spam emails. And, the global average data breach cost was $4.35 million in 2022. You, your organisation and your participants are not immune.
Anyone can win an award, which is why your awards entry form should be accessible to everyone. Accessibility is closely linked to usability for all because accessibility improvements benefit everyone. This means adding captions to videos, making your entry form screen-reader friendly, providing minimum colour contrast requirements, and more. At least 15% of the world’s population have a recognised disability and they have an estimated annual disposable income of $6.9 trillion. That means it is simply good business to be inclusive to all.
Regular form tools just don’t cut it anymore. It’s time to invest in awards management software. Why? You’ll save time and money in the long run, grow your awards, streamline your judging process, and, we promise, every participant in your program will thank you!
Limited seats for software is officially out. This only inspires shared passwords, which invites security breaches and disorganised awards management. Choose an awards software that provides unlimited access for your entire team, and manage your users and permissions in a way that protects your program, your data and all your participants.
It’s time to delegate your mundane program management tasks to automation, and use your human power for more creative and strategic endeavours (see Ins, above). This means creating automated notifications and communications for regular program updates. And creating intelligent forms with formula fields. And setting up automated review flow tasks to move awards entries along their lifecycle without any additional effort. Work smarter, not harder this year.
It’s 2024, and your software solutions should play nicely with one another. Not to mention, Zapier just opened up unlimited “zaps”, meaning with a free account you get as many operations as you want. Connect your awards software to all your work apps, and let your software do the heavy lifting.
We can already tell—this year is going to be a great one. Lean into what’s in this year. Your awards program will only come out stronger, more secure, and more sustainable.
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