How winners are chosen.
Scored against published criteria. Read in full by an independent panel. This page exists so the result can be trusted, and quoted, by anyone who asks how it was reached.
From a name put forward to a name on stage
Nominations open
Peers, colleagues and the wider community put people and organisations forward. Self-nomination is welcome, and every entry is read on the same basis.
Evidence, not adjectives
Nominees submit a record of what they actually did, mapped to the published criteria for their category. The panel wants the work, not the brochure.
Independent judging
The panel reads each nomination in full and scores it against the criteria. No sponsor can place a name, weight a score, or remove a result.
Finalists announced
The highest-scoring entries in each category become the shortlist, published before the ceremony.
Recognised on stage
Winners are named at the ceremony, and added to a Hall of Fame that now runs a full decade.
What the panel scores against
Each category publishes its own criteria, and a nomination is read against those, not against the others in the room. A Rising Star is judged on trajectory and the work already shipped. A Leader is judged on the standard they set for a whole team. A Product is judged on what it measurably changed for the people who deploy it.
Three things hold across every category. The evidence has to be real and checkable. The impact has to belong to the nominee, not to a press release. And the result has to be defensible to anyone who asks how it was reached.
How independence is protected
The programme is funded by sponsorship of the ceremony and events. Sponsors make the night happen. They do not enter the judging room. No sponsor can buy a place on the shortlist, and no commercial relationship turns into a trophy.
Where the programme’s editors cite a company’s research in their writing, that company is named among other sources and never ranked or endorsed by the awards. The wall between funding the event and choosing the winners is the point of the whole exercise.
How judging works
Can a company pay to win?
No. Sponsorship funds the ceremony and events only, and sponsors have no role in judging. The panel scores each nomination against published criteria, so no commercial arrangement can influence the result.
Who is on the panel?
An independent panel of practitioners and recognised voices in the field, separate from the programme’s commercial side. Panellists score nominations against published criteria.
Is every nomination actually read?
Yes. Every nomination is read in full and scored against the criteria for its category before any shortlist is drawn.
Can I nominate myself?
Yes. Self-nomination is welcome and judged on exactly the same basis as any other entry: the evidence, against the criteria.
What stops a sponsor influencing a result?
Sponsors fund the event, not the judging. They cannot place a name on a shortlist, weight a score, or veto a winner. That separation is fixed.