Put someone forward.
Most of the people who deserve this will never enter themselves. They are too busy doing the work. So the work falls to you. Tell us who has earned a place on stage, and why, and the panel will read it in full.
Nominations for the next edition are not open yet — check back soon.
Recognition is judged on merit, and never bought.
From a name in your head to a name in front of the panel
Judged on merit, always
An independent panel reads only the evidence, mapped to the published criteria. Recognition here is earned, not arranged, and it cannot be bought. The only currency the panel reads is the work itself.
Who you can put forward
A colleague, a peer, a mentor, a supplier, a team, a company, a product or a community you value. Self-nomination is welcome and judged on exactly the same terms as any other entry.
Choose the category
There are five individual and five organisation categories, each with its own published criteria. Pick the one that fits the work, and read the criteria before you write, so the nomination answers what the panel asks.
The evidence to include
Set out what the nominee did, over what period, and what changed because of it. Name the work, the outcome and the people who saw it. Where you can, point to something checkable: a public talk, a shipped fix, a measured result.
Submit before the deadline
Nominations close on the published date for the current edition. Send yours with time to spare, and the panel will read it in full alongside every other entry in the category.
What makes a nomination land
The panel reads a lot of entries, and the ones that go furthest share a habit. They make the nominee the active subject of every sentence. A SOC analyst caught the intrusion at two in the morning. A team rebuilt the response runbook after a hard week. A small vendor shipped the patch before the proof of concept went public. Say what the person did, and the panel can weigh it.
Keep the claim and the proof together. If you write that someone raised the standard for a whole team, follow it with the thing that shows it. The strongest nominations would survive a stranger checking them, because everything in them is real.
Why the result can't be bought
The programme is funded by sponsorship of the ceremony and the events around it. That funding pays for the night. It does not buy a place on a shortlist, and it never reaches the judging room. Sponsors see no entries and hold no vote. The point of this whole exercise is that the trophy means the work held up, not that someone had budget. An independent panel that reads only the evidence is how that stays true.
Nominating, answered
Can a nomination be bought or influenced?
No. Every nomination is read by an independent panel against the published criteria for its category. Sponsorship funds the ceremony, not the judging, so no payment influences whether an entry wins.
Can I nominate myself?
Yes. Self-nomination is welcome and judged on exactly the same basis as any other entry: the evidence, read against the published criteria for the category.
Who can I put forward?
A colleague, a peer, a mentor, a supplier, a team, a company, a product or a community. There are five individual categories and five organisation categories in the current edition.
What evidence should I include?
Describe what the nominee did, over what period, and what changed as a result. Keep claims next to proof, and point to checkable detail where you can. The panel scores the work, not the wording.
When is the deadline?
Nominations close on the published date for the current edition. Submit ahead of that date so the panel can read your entry in full. The closing date for the live edition is shown on the contact page.
Each category publishes its own criteria. Match the nominee, then write.