Eligibility
1. Entry implies acceptance of these rules.
2. Entries must be submitted by the employer organisation.
3. A senior representative from the organisation must authorize the entry.
4. Entry is open to organisations of any size in any sector and in any country.
5. The project entered can have been delivered at any location, within the UK or outside.
6. The entered programme must have been implemented, improved or completed within 2011/13. The programme can have ended in this time period, or it can still be ongoing. It can be something that is not yet implemented, but the focus will need to be such that it can satisfy the judging criteria (such as being able to demonstrate impact and provoke some insights).
7. The programme should not have been presented for that category in the previous Peer Award year. It may be resubmitted under a different category and with a different focus. It may be resubmitted with new material for the same category more than one year later. However, Peer Award winning entries may not be resubmitted.
8. All facts and assertions within the submission are assumed to be accurate and honest. However if the organisers believe there is evidence that the content is either incorrect or deliberately misleading the submission may be disqualified. This is at the sole discretion of the organiser, and no correspondence will be entered into by way of explanation.
9. The organisers reserve the right to contact the entrant or their senior representative (3 above) to validate any statements made within the submission.
Entry
1. Appropriate payment may be required in full before an entrant can be confirmed as a conference finalist/speaker.
2. We do not intend to extend deadlines, nor to consider entries received after the final deadline has passed.
3. All entries are to be submitted online. We will take all reasonable care in handling entries, but accept no responsibility for loss or damage, however caused.
4. On the entry form we may simply truncate additional text where an entry exceeds the maximum length stated.
5. The category to which a candidate is assigned is ultimately the decision of the Peer Awards organisers, and may be different from that proposed at the outset, in response to the submissions received. With this in mind, it is acceptable to submit more than one entry for the same category, and it will then be at the discretion of the shortlisting panel to select between these, or to select both and place them in different categories, or to feature them in the same category.
6. A good quality high resolution picture of the Key Speaker and printable-quality graphic of the entrant’s company logo may be required. Any image submitted may be cropped and used by the Peer Awards organisers for publicity purposes.
Inclusion
1. Conference presentations must not be promotional in any way, and not have an intention of engaging new clients for a product or service, paid for or otherwise.
2. You must own the copyright or have the necessary rights for any content that you include in your conference presentation.
3. The content and graphics in your talk and visuals should be appropriate for a business audience. For instance, do not feature sexually explicit content, abuse, violence, hatred, racism, sexism and so on. Any such content in visuals will need to be removed ahead of time at the request of the organisers. Any such content in the talk can result in disqualification from the awards.
4. To help maintain a high level of energy and quality for all our conference presentations, we request that all visuals by “visual” – which means that any slides you include should have little or no text. By way of a guideline, we request that you have no more than ten words on any one slide, and no more than a hundred words across your entire presentation. You may bring copies of a double-sided A4 handout to accompany your presentation, and this can have all the text you require. We reserve the right to not accept slides or presentations that exceed these guidelines.
5. All visuals to accompany the conference presentation must be submitted to the conference team in good time, and any requested alterations implemented and resubmitted in good time. It will not be possible to bring a new or updated version of a presentation to the conference on the day.
Selection
1. Entrants being considered for the shortlist may be invited to attend a call to briefly discuss their project and presentation.
2. The decision of the organisers as to which entries to shortlist is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
3. If an entrant contacts the organisers to discuss selection decisions prior to the Peer Conference, this may result in disqualification.
Judging
1. Finalists and their associates are not able to vote for their own entries.
2. Where the organisers suspect anomalies in the voting that seek to take unfair advantage of the Peer Awards’ uniquely democratic form of voting, they reserve the right to make adjustments. The decision about this is confidential and final and no correspondence will be entered into.
Confidentiality/Publicity
1. All entries and submissions will be viewed by the Director of the Peer Awards, assisted by the panel of advisers where necessary.
2. Personal contact information provided by the entrant, within the entry form, or in additional ways, may be disclosed at the discretion of the Peer Awards organiser, subject to the permissions provided by the entrant on the entry form, and exclusively for the purpose of the Peer Awards. Information relating to the submission itself may be used by the Peer Awards and by its parent company informatology Ltd. and its associates, for instance in publicity regarding the Peer Award.
3. The identities of the shortlisted entrants, candidates, finalists and winners may be published at the www.thepeerawards.com website and may be published elsewhere.
4. The www.thepeerawards.com website may include links to third party websites that are controlled and maintained by others. Any link to other websites is not an endorsement of such websites and informatology Ltd. is not responsible for the content or availability of any such sites.
5. None of the www.thepeerawards.com or the www.informatology.com website content may be downloaded, copied, reproduced, transmitted, stored, sold or distributed without the prior written consent of Director of the Peer Awards. This excludes the downloading, copying and/or printing of pages of the website for personal, non-commercial use only.
Awards
1. Each prize will be awarded to a named person and/or a named organisation, as requested by the entrant, and may also take the form of a suitable certificate and/or trophy (both of which may attract a fee), and recognition at the www.thepeerawards.com website.
2. No cash alternatives or variations are offered and prizes are not transferable.
3. The awards ceremony place fee is waived for each Key Speaker, to ensure that they attend the awards ceremony. The fee for the winner’s plaques is also waived, so that all winners are able to receive a plaque, at which time they may be asked to provide a brief (90 seconds) overview of their winning project.
3a. If a Key Speaker accepts this complimentary offer but is nevertheless not present at the awards ceremony, and does not provide the requested notice, then that finalist will be required to fund their booked place.
3b. If a winning entrant is not represented at all at the awards ceremony and does not cancel their winners’ plaque within the required time, then the standard fee to cover the cost of their plaque (+ postage & packaging) will be required.
Acceptance/Cancellation
1. Every entry form should receive an automatic notice of receipt. If you do not receive such within an hour of submitting, please email us at entry@informatology.com
2. You may withdraw your entry at any time. To do this, email stephen.citron@thepeerawards.com clearly identifying your entry and providing the reason for your withdrawal. A fee may still be due however…
2a. If you email your withdrawal before 1 February, then no fee applies.
2b. If you email your withdrawal after 1 February but before 1 May, then the only fee that applies is a £100 entry processing fee, which will be deducted from any fees you may have paid, or will be due if no fees have been paid.
2c. If you email your withdrawal after 1 May but before 11 June then the full Standard Fee is due, plus any Premium fee for greater media coverage that was requested. You may still take your booked places at the conference and at the awards ceremony.
2d. If you email your withdrawal after 11 June then the Standard and any Premium fees are due. You may still take your booked places at the conference and at the awards ceremony.
3. The place at the Peer Awards Ceremony that is included in your Standard Package is for your Key Speaker only. If you do not wish to take up this offer, then you must inform us by no later than the conference that this is the case. If you do not inform us by the date of your conference that your key speaker will not be attending, then we will go ahead and reserve a place for your key speaker at the ceremony. If your key speaker will not or does not take up this place, then a charge of £150 for this (otherwise complimentary) reserved place will apply. This paid-for place could then be taken by anyone else you nominate that is associated with your entry.
4. If your entry is a winner then we would want to present your key speaker or a representative with a plaque at the awards ceremony. If your entry is a winner and you are not represented at the ceremony then a fee of £150 will apply (for the plaque and postage and packaging), for us to send you the plaque that we will have prepared for you. You may let us know by no later than the conference if you will not be represented at the ceremony and do not want us to produce a winner’s plaque for you if your entry is a winner.
Publicity
1. All the parties involved in the organisation or promotion of the awards reserve the right to publicity concerning any entry.
2. Candidates and winners are able to use the respective “2013 Peer Award” logos indefinitely, but the logo cannot be materially changed, and must include the hyperlink.
Changes
1. Where a candidate’s Key Speaker changes employment between the entry and the conference, the Key Speaker may still represent the original entry. This is at the discretion of the Director of the Peer Awards if he/she has moved to an organisation that has a promotional interest in the project.
2. Please note that it may be necessary for reasons beyond the control of the organisers to alter the venue or the date of any Peer Award event, or the Peer Conference or Awards Ceremony. In the event that an event is cancelled by the organisers, a full refund will be made of any booking fees paid. However, if the event is postponed for reasons beyond the direct control of the organisers, all bookings will be transferred to the revised date of the event and all these Terms and Conditions shall apply to any such transferred booking.
3. You are advised to take out appropriate travel insurance, as the Peer Awards and the organisers will not accept any liability for travelling, accommodation or other expenses incurred as a consequence of a possible event cancellation or postponement. The Peer Awards and informatology will not accept liability for any loss, including incidental or consequential damages etc.
We reserve the right to change any aspect of the Peer Awards, Conference or Ceremony without notification or notice.
The Peer Awards are devised, organised and run by informatology Ltd., a not-for-profit membership organisation. The fees paid for Peer Awards participation include informatology membership.
This version published 3 May 2013.