INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMITTING AN ENTRY TO MEA 2008 AWARDS PROGRAM

The Meetings & Events Industry Awards recognise excellent business practice in the Meetings & Events Industry. They encourage industry professionals to excel in the achievement of their business and personal goals, and reward those who achieve outstanding results. This reward is not only the personal satisfaction for those who have strived for improvement, but it also raises the overall standard of practice within the industry.

Entering the awards process provides members with a unique opportunity to review their goals, to benchmark against other professionals, and to assist each segment of the industry to gain recognition for the significant role they play.

All submissions MUST be completed on an official Awards Submission Template document.  This document is downloaded via the Categories and Criteria page of the Awards website, saved into your hard drive, completed and then uploaded on this page as your Awards submission.  Those submissions not completed on the official template can not be included in the judging process.

Award Entries MUST be submitted online. Before proceeding to the submission form, you will find it helpful to review the information that will be needed, specifically you will need to:

• Provide contact information of the nominated person to receive correspondence about the submission
• Provide contact information of the CEO or a senior management representative who has viewed the completed submission and confirmed that it is a true and accurate representation and also permit MEA to reproduce photographs and the profile, and to pass on contact details to official members of the media pursuing legitimate stories resulting from the awards
• Organise the method of payment for the submission. Credit card payments are processed online (secure etc) Payment by cheque or multiple payment amounts can be made via a downloadable payment form available to download on submission online form.
• Testimonials must be individual documents i.e. not included in a multi page appendix. These are to be uploaded onto the on-line submission form as separate documents.
• Have a minimum of two quality photographs of not more than 1MB in total. The photos must be a maximum of 600x480 pixels and in a jpg format. The photo file name must be of a standard format, containing your company or individual name eg. MEA1.jpg; MEA2.jpg; jbloggs1.jpg; jbloggs2.jpg. These photographs are not part of your submission to be judged, however they may be used by MEA during awards events if your submission is a finalist or winner.These must be separate images and not contained within an additional appendix or attachment.
• Provide a 50 word or less description of the submission subject. Again, this description is for the purpose of promotion of your potential success and does not form part of the actual submission to be judged.
• Attachments – Maximum of four attachments. Must not exceed 2MB in total
• Logos – EPS or jpeg only. Must not exceed 1MB each. Logos are not part of your submission to be judged, however they may be used by MEA during awards events if your submission is a finalist or winner. These must be separate images and not contained within an additional appendix or attachment.
• Have your statement of financial viability ready to upload. (not applicable to individual awards)
• Sign MEA Code of Ethics and upload at the time of submission.

Submissions are judged on the responses to a set of Criteria for each Category. The criteria is split into two sections: Business Criteria and Year in Review Criteria.

An independent consultant from outside the industry will judge the Business Criteria.  A panel of two judges, nominated by the MEA Board of Directors to represent each state, will judge the Year in Review Criteria.  These judges will be representatives from the industry as well as an independent professional from an educational facility.  All judges sign a confidentiality contract as well as a Conflict of Interest form.  Final scores are not debated by individual judges, and these judges are not informed of total scores.  A panel interview in your state may be necessary if submissions are scored above 80% and there is more than one submission with scores within 8 points of each other.  This is to ensure that the judging process is not totally reliant on ‘score only' winners when scores are very similar.  In this case, the submission score and the interview scores are added and averaged to determine the state winner.  Those requiring a panel interview will be informed by 13th February 2009. 

This year the Corporate Social Responsibility Award will be applied to all Award Submissions as a question, however the question will be judged as a stand alone and not part of the overall submission. It will be judged by an expert in sustainability. If you choose NOT to answer it, this will NOT downgrade your submission. From 2008 there will be 3 winners in this category based on the size of the company.

Entrants will receive an email acknowledgement after submitting their entries. (Please contact MEA if this does not occur.)

Conditions of Acceptance

• Submissions require all requested supporting documentation, including receipt of payment, to be considered complete.