10 Things Every Awards Admin Can Relate To
Planning and executing a successful awards program can be a herculean task, as all awards admins can attest to. You’ve got to find the perfect judges, market your program effectively, get your call for entry ready in time, plan the gala, and deal with entrants. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
During the awards process, there are moments of elation and frustration (though, hopefully not too much of that!). We get it, awards admins. We feel your pain. So we compiled a list 10 things that happen throughout the awards process that anyone running an awards program has felt and probably had to deal with.
1. When it’s time to start planning your awards again
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Because there’s so much to do, beginning to plan your program can seem scary and daunting. You’re kind of excited and kind of freaked out as the to-do list starts growing in your mind. But before getting carried away, it’s important to sit down and make a detailed plan of all the essentials so you don’t forget anything, like setting a firm budget, and coming up with a content calendar for your marketing strategy.
2. Trying to find the time to get all your work done
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There’s so much to do to prepare and execute and awards program, that it sometimes seems impossible to get it all done. Instead of running yourself ragged, allow social media and awards software take care of some of those marketing and administrative tasks that eat up your time. By using tools like social sharing you can let your applicants take over part of your social media marketing. And instead of tracking submissions and updating an excel spreadsheet every 10 minutes, let awards software handle it so you’ve got time to take care of the big stuff.
3. When your Call For Entry opens
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After months of planning, budgeting, training, and everything else, it’s finally time for your call for entry to open. And how do you feel? A little excited, a little relieved, a little scared. After all, you’ve done so much work already and now things are just beginning! But don’t worry, if you’ve planned out your program thoroughly you know what’s coming and will be able to handle it effortlessly.
4. Trying to keep up with your inbox and spreadsheets when submissions start coming in
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After you CFE opens and submissions start coming in, your inbox can easily become a mess, not to mention the spreadsheet where your tracking all these submissions! It quickly becomes more and more difficult to stay organized, and making sure you’re not missing anything can end up taking more time than you’ve got.
5. Continually reminding everyone to meet their deadlines
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Entrants, judges, and even you and your award staff have deadlines you’ve got to stick to, whether that’s applying to the program, scoring entries, or finding a caterer for the gala! Making sure that everyone involved in your program is meeting those deadlines comes down to communication. You and your team constantly send emails to keep up to speed and remind everyone about their tasks. Talk about exhausting.
One way to decrease this task is to ensure that your awards website an CFE have detailed information for your entrants and that judges are properly trained and prepared for scoring entries.
6. Seeing the last minute surge of entries before you call for entry deadline
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One headache all awards admins face is a surge of entries right before the call for entry closes. It’s great, because you’re getting more submissions, but this can also lead to various other problems, like the payment gateway not processing late entries, or your site going down. However, instead of steeling yourself for this surge, you can be proactive. Time zone differences are often the cause of this issue. Instead of setting your deadline for midnight, try setting it for 3 a.m. And don’t forget to include the appropriate time zone when listing your deadline on your website i.e. 3 a.m. EST.
7. When judges don’t finish judging all their assigned entries
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Dealing with your awards judges can be quite a hassle sometimes. They don’t always follow rules, one scoring on a numbered scale, while another gives long, descriptive responses, even though you asked for neither! Some don’t even finish scoring their entries! Before you turn into the hulk and start smashing things on your desk, take a breath.
Training your judges and communicating with them regularly can help decrease the likelihood that they’ll score entries incorrectly or forget to score some. It also helps to use an online system with specific criteria already set up for the judges so all that they have to do is log in and get scoring.
8. When entrants get upset with you because they didn’t win
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It seems hard to believe, but some entrants are just convinced that they deserved to win and can’t handle it when they don’t. I mean, yeah it’s disappointing, but what are you going to do? Some people just won’t accept it.
For example, one of our customers had an entrant who was convinced that their entry hadn’t been judged, because if it had it would totally have won. And they weren’t letting it go. Yikes. Luckily, our customer used OpenWater to export all of the judges’ notes on all the entries, proving the entrant wrong.
It’s a tough situation that can be frustrating, but it helps being able to have proof to resolve these situation without too much of a headache.
9. Discovering that awards software exists
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Awards software is pretty great. All of those hassles you deal with every year, like communicating and monitoring judges, tracking submissions, collecting entries, and analyzing the data can all be done for you in one system. Awards software streamlines and simplifies all steps of the awards process for admins, entrants, and judges. Nope, we’re not kidding.
10. Pulling off yet another great awards season
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ou’ve made it through planning, your CFE, judging, the gala, and even analyzing your program. Now’s the time to take a moment, sit back, and give yourself a pat on the back. You did it! Great job, you.
Bonus!
When you have to answer the exact same question about your applications to entrants
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It can get frustrating (and boring) having to continually answer what seems to be a pretty simple question. One way to avoid this is making sure your call for entry contains all the necessary information.
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