Maintaining the integrity of our Awards’ Ceremony is crucial to us as an organisation and we make sure that all aspects of the event are fully transparent.

Firstly we provide entrants with a summary of what we expect from them, along with details on how their entry will be judged including eligibility requirements, how the judges will assess the entries – criteria and weighting. The 14 categories are divided up amongst the judges so each judge is typically judging 3 categories.

Members of the judging panel are chosen because they are outstanding experts in their field, and this often means they are an active participant in the industry. It’s not uncommon for a judge to have a conflict of interest with the entry or entrant. Perhaps they were once a mentor of the entrant, or know them personally. They might also be a sponsor or work for a competitor of the entrant. The company they work for may have entered the Awards. Nominations for judges will not be accepted.

Given that Ireland in particular is such a small country we anticipate conflicts of interest and we encourage the judges to declare these before and during the judging process. In this case we ask the judge to recuse him/herself from the particular category. We encourage openness and honesty from the outset and find that this avoids any issues that might arise.

Keeping integrity at the forefront of our Awards’ programmes and processes is paramount to the programme’s success and longevity and it ensures that the outcomes are trustworthy.

The judging panel’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.