15 May is the entry deadline for The 2013 (10th Annual) International Business Awards, the world's premier business awards competition. (If you miss the 15 May deadline, late entries will be accepted through 12 June with the payment of a late fee per entry.)

If you haven't already done so, you can request your entry kit here and it will be emailed to you right away. The entry kit contains all of the information you need to successfully submit entries.

The International Business Awards recognize achievement in every facet of the workplace. All individuals and organizations worldwide -- public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small -- may submit nominations to the IBAs. Categories include:

• Management Awards
• Company of the Year Awards
• Customer Service Awards
• Human Resources Awards
• Information Technology Awards
• Marketing Awards
• New Product Awards
• Public Relations Awards
• Web Site Awards, Smartphone and Tablet App, and other media awards

See the full list of international business awards categories.

Stevie® Awards are conferred upon top-scoring nominations in each category, as chosen by an international judging panel of more than 200 business leaders. Nominations should cite achievements during our eligibility period: January 2012 through 12 June 2013, the last day that late entries will be accepted. There is no eligibility timeframe for web site entries - it does not matter when the web sites were first published.

Because the 2013 awards banquet will take place on 14 October in Barcelona, Spain, all organizations in Spain may submitted an unlimited number of entries to the IBAs free of charge this year. Organizations in Spain should submit the promotion code "Barcelona" where indicated in the online entry process to have their entry fees waived.

Have questions regarding the 2013 IBAs? Don't hesitate to contact us with your questions or call us at + 1 703-547-8389.

Monday, 6 May, is the entry deadline for the 21st annual IPRA Golden World Awards, the top international public relations awards competition.

The entry kit for the 2013 GWA is available online.  Late entries will be accepted through 20 May with payment of a £50/entry late fee.

The IPRA Golden World Awards for Excellence offer world-wide recognition and acclaim to world-class public relations programmes. The 2013 competition, conducted by the International Public Relations Association, is open to local, regional, national or international public relations programmes carried out or completed in 2012/2013.

Entries submitted to the Golden World Awards competition will be judged by an international panel of senior practitioners. In considering entries, the judges may grant one, several or no awards in each category. Entrants may submit any number of nominations to any number of categories, which include:

• Community Relations
  For community relations campaigns not conducted by government / local authorities.
• Corporate Communications
  For excellence in enhancing a company’s overall reputation through corporate communications.
• Crisis Management
  Example of excellent communications management during a crisis.
• Digital Media Relations
  For the successful use of digital media relations in a PR campaign.
• Event Management
  For the planning and delivery of a successful event with a public relations dimension.
• Internal Communications
  For a creative internal communications campaign that engaged and informed personnel.
• Launch of a New Product
  For well-planned PR activities around the launch of a product.
• PR on a Shoestring 
  For an imaginative PR campaign done on a small budget.
• Publications
  For PR publications such as newsletters or magazines that showed excellence and imagination in communicating with stakeholders. This can be in a print or electronic format.
• Social Media for PR
  For excellence in the use of social media as a public relations tool.
• Technology
  For the effective use of public relations in the technology sector, including business-to-business and consumer campaigns.

For a full list of categories, visit the GWA website at www.ipra.org/gwa.

To submit your entries, review the entry kit and website for complete instructions on how to choose your categories and prepare your entries. When you are ready to submit your entries, begin here.

The 2013 GWA are managed on behalf of IPRA by the Stevie® Awards, which organizes the world’s premier business awards programs including The International Business Awards and The American Business Awards.  Questions about IPRA’s Golden World Awards may be directed to GWA@thestevies.com.

Please don't hesitate to contact us with your questions about how to participate in the 2013 edition of IPRA's Golden World Awards for Excellence.

Joe Gillette, CEO and Chairman of Stage 2 Networks in New York, NY, will Chair the Committee for Final Judging of the management awards categories in The 2013 American Business Awards, the top business awards competition in the USA. (Entries for the 2013 ABAs are still being accepted; request your entry kit here. Finalists will be announced on May 8.)

With his background in telecommunications, we asked Joe about where he thinks the industry is heading.

What new developments in communications do you think will most impact businesses in the next few years?

1. I think the continuing trend is towards mobility: businesses will increasingly seek cloud-based solutions that allow employee mobility, corporate control over information systems, and better disaster recovery preparedness.
   
   
2. Continued growth in bandwidth solutions (fiber, copper, and coax) will result in more desktop video.  Service providers who can successfully unify the user experience across these technologies will win the day.

What item of news recently caught your eye and why?
North Korea’s test missile launch and the U.S. response with public demonstrations of military might.  I am deeply concerned that a 30-year old leader about whom we know so little is creating such a potentially volatile situation.

What is your favorite business app?
I am pretty old school and still love my Blackberry for its ability to permit me to send and receive emails from anywhere.  I also love my iPad as it has largely eliminated the need to carry a laptop. And I love to use LinkedIn for researching people on the Internet.

What career advice would you give to young people starting out in business?
Learn as much about an industry as you can: Look for what’s changing, or what is lacking in terms of customer satisfaction, and gain a clear vision of how to improve that industry.   Understand what kind of business leader you want to become.  Be mindful of your own strengths and weaknesses, then partner with—or hire—someone who can make up for the weaknesses.

As someone at the top of your profession, what keeps you inspired or makes you hit the ground running in the morning?
I’ll be the first to admit I really need my coffee in the morning—but my inspiration comes simply from the joy of meeting the challenge of building a successful company and all the ways in which lives are positively impacted as a result.

About Joe Gillette:
Joe Gillette has twenty-five years of experience in the telecommunications industry and is a recognized industry pioneer and visionary leader. Following seven years as a top performer in sales and sales management at Executone Information Systems, Joe founded his first company, Gillette Global Network, in 1995. GGN quickly became one of New York’s most successful competitive local exchange carriers. (CLEC)

In December 2000, Joe merged GGN with Eureka Broadband to create Eureka Networks and ran the combined entity for four years; shortly thereafter, Eureka was sold to Broadview Networks for $100 million. Joe founded Stage 2 Networks in late 2004 and launched operations in early 2005. Since then, Stage 2 Networks has emerged as a leading provider of hosted voice, unified communications, and network services in the New York Metro area and other leading US cities.

About Stage 2 Networks:
Stage 2 Networks provides customized, scalable voice and data communications solutions to businesses throughout the U.S. and abroad. Founded in 2004 by Joe Gillette, it is a fast-growing leader in hosted business phone systems, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and premium Internet services. Its cutting-edge network provides built-in redundancy, security, and disaster recovery.

Today, April 24, is the final entry deadline for The 2013 American Business Awards, the top business awards competition in the U.S.A.

If you haven't yet done so, you can request your entry kit here and it will be emailed to you right away. When you're ready to submit your entries, you can begin here; the website will be open all night to receive your entries.

All individuals and organizations in the U.S.A. are eligible to submit nominations – public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small. The ABAs feature categories to recognize achievement in every facet of worklife, including:

• App awards,
• Company / organization awards,
• Customer service awards,
• HR awards,
• IT awards,
• Management awards,
• Marketing awards,
• New product awards,
• PR awards, and
• Website awards.

See the full list of business award categories.

2013 ABA nominations should cite achievements during the eligibility period: January 2012 through April 24, 2013, the last day that late entries will be accepted. There is no eligibility timeframe for web site entries - it does not matter when the web sites were first published.

The 2013 ABAs will also feature the 5th edition of the People's Choice Stevie® Awards for Favorite New Products, a nationwide vote in which the general public will get to choose one favorite product in more than 30 categories. All Finalists in the new product awards categories of The 2013 American Business Awards will automatically be included in the People's Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite New Products, a public vote that will commence in July. Finalists in the Best New Product or Service categories will have an opportunity to win two awards: a Stevie® Award, as voted by peers, and a crystal People's Choice Stevie Award, as voted by customers.

Finalists in The 2013 American Business Awards will be determined in preliminary judging to be conducted through early May by volunteer professionals nationwide. Final judging, to be conducted by panels that will be formed by the newly appointed committee chairs, will take place from late May through early June. In total, more than 200 executives across the U.S.A. will participate in the judging process to determine the 2013 Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners.

ABA Stevie Award winners will be announced at two award banquets: the first will take place on June 17 at the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago, Illinois; and the second will be held on September 16 at the Julia Morgan Ballroom in San Francisco, California and will honor Stevie Award winners in all tech-related categories. Details are available at www.StevieAwards.com/ABA.

If you have any questions about the 2013 ABAs or how to enter, please email us at help@stevieawards.com or call us at + 1 703-547-8389.

Stevie® Awards to Be Presented This Fall in Barcelona

Fairfax, VA – 23 April 2013 – The Stevie® Awards today issued the call for entries for The 10th Annual International Business Awards, the world’s premier business awards competition, which last year attracted nominations from more than 50 nations and territories.

All individuals and organizations worldwide – public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small – may submit nominations to The International Business Awards.  The final entry deadline is 15 May.  Late entries will be accepted through 12 June, and results will be announced in mid-August.  Entry details are available at www.StevieAwards.com/IBA.  

Stevie Awards will be conferred at three levels of distinction: Gold, Silver and Bronze.  New for 2013, several Grand Stevie Awards will be conferred as best-of-competition prizes.  The Stevie Award trophies, made by the company that makes the Oscar and other major international awards, are among the world’s most coveted prizes. Stevie Award winners will be selected by an international judging panel of more than 200 executives.

The International Business Awards recognize achievement in every facet of the workplace.  Categories include:

• Management Awards
• Company of the Year Awards
• Customer Service Awards
• Human Resources Awards
• Information Technology Awards
• Marketing Awards
• New Product Awards
• Public Relations Awards
• Web Site Awards, Smartphone and Tablet App, and other media awards

For a full list of categories visit: http://www.stevieawards.com/pubs/iba/awards/171_695_3021.cfm.

The 2013 International Business Awards will include the People’s Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite Companies, in which the general public worldwide will vote for their favorite companies. Each company honored with a Gold, Silver or Bronze Stevie Award in The International Business Awards’ company of the year categories will automatically be included in people’s choice voting.  Voting will open on 15 August.

Because 2013 Stevie Award winners will be celebrated on Monday, 14 October at the W Hotel in Barcelona, Spain, all organizations in Spain may submit an unlimited number of entries to the IBAs this year without having to pay the entry fees.

The 9th Annual International Business Awards were presented in October 2012 in Seoul, South Korea.  Stevie winners included A.P. Moller Maersk AS, Accenture, Coca Cola Turkey, Delta Air Lines, Inc., Etisalat Group, HSBC, Hyundai Motor Company , Infosys, Lenovo Group, Qualcomm Incorporated, Samsung Electronics, TATA Power, and Unilever, among others.  2012 results are summarized at http://www.stevieawards.com/pubs/iba/awards/408_2219_21728.cfm.  

About The Stevie Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.  A fifth program, the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, will debut later this year.  Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide.  Learn more about The Stevie Awards at www.StevieAwards.com, and follow the Stevie Awards on Twitter @TheStevieAwards. 

IPRA Golden World Awards Deadline Is 6 May

London – 22 April 2013 – The 21st annual IPRA Golden World Awards, the top international public relations awards competition, has issued a call for entries.  The entry deadline is 6 May.

The entry kit for the 2013 GWA is available online.  Late entries will be accepted through 20 May with payment of a £50/entry late fee.

The IPRA Golden World Awards for Excellence offer world-wide recognition and acclaim to world-class public relations programmes. The 2013 competition, conducted by the International Public Relations Association, is open to local, regional, national or international public relations programmes carried out or completed in 2012/2013.

Entries submitted to the Golden World Awards competition will be judged by an international panel of senior practitioners. In considering entries, the judges may grant one, several or no awards in each category. Entrants may submit any number of nominations to any number of categories, which include:

• Community Relations
  For community relations campaigns not conducted by government / local authorities.
• Corporate Communications
  For excellence in enhancing a company’s overall reputation through corporate communications.
• Crisis Management
  Example of excellent communications management during a crisis.
• Digital Media Relations
  For the successful use of digital media relations in a PR campaign.
• Event Management
  For the planning and delivery of a successful event with a public relations dimension.
• Internal Communications
  For a creative internal communications campaign that engaged and informed personnel.
• Launch of a New Product
  For well-planned PR activities around the launch of a product.
• PR on a Shoestring 
  For an imaginative PR campaign done on a small budget.
• Publications
  For PR publications such as newsletters or magazines that showed excellence and imagination in communicating with stakeholders. This can be in a print or electronic format.
• Social Media for PR
  For excellence in the use of social media as a public relations tool.
• Technology
  For the effective use of public relations in the technology sector, including business-to-business and consumer campaigns.

For a full list of categories, visit the GWA website at www.ipra.org/gwa.

The 2013 GWA are managed on behalf of IPRA by the Stevie® Awards, which organizes the world’s premier business awards programs including The International Business Awards and The American Business Awards.  Questions about IPRA’s Golden World Awards may be directed to GWA@thestevies.com.

About IPRA
IPRA strives to be the world’s most relevant, resourceful and influential professional association for senior international public relations executives. The association provides both intellectual leadership in the practice of international public relations and makes available to its members the services that will help them meet their professional responsibilities and to succeed in their careers, thus enabling the association to increase membership, grow financially and create a virtuous circle of success.
 
IPRA works at the academic level with universities as well as with global organizations such as the United Nations.  Learn more at www.IPRA.org.

About the Stevie Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.  A fifth program, the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, will debut later this year.  Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide.  Learn more about the Stevie Awards at www.StevieAwards.com.

Next Wednesday, April 24, is the final entry deadline for The 2013 American Business Awards, the top business awards competition in the U.S.A.

If you haven't yet done so, you can request your entry kit here and it will be emailed to you right away.

All individuals and organizations in the U.S.A. are eligible to submit nominations – public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small. The American Business Awards honor organizations and individuals in a wide variety of categories, types of business awards categories include: app awards, company / organization awards, customer service awards, HR awards, IT awards, management awards, marketing awards, new product awards, PR awards, and website awards. See the full list of business awards categories.

The 2013 ABAs will also feature the 5th edition of the People's Choice Stevie® Awards for Favorite New Products, a nationwide vote in which the general public will get to choose one favorite product in more than 30 categories. All Finalists in the new product awards categories of The 2013 American Business Awards will automatically be included in the People's Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite New Products, a public vote that will commence in July. Finalists in the Best New Product or Service categories will have an opportunity to win two awards: a Stevie® Award, as voted by peers, and a crystal People's Choice Stevie Award, as voted by customers.

2013 ABA nominations should cite achievements during our eligibility period: January 2012 through April 24, 2013, the last day that late entries will be accepted. There is no eligibility timeframe for web site entries - it does not matter when the web sites were first published. Finalists will be announced on May 8, 2013.

ABA Stevie Award winners will be announced at two award banquets: the first will take place on June 17 at the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago, Illinois; and the second will be held on September 16 at the Julia Morgan Ballroom in San Francisco, California and will honor Stevie Award winners in all tech-related categories. All entry details are available online, at www.StevieAwards.com/ABA. 

Have last minute questions? Please email us at help@stevieawards.com or call us at + 1 703-547-8389.

Today is the early-bird entry deadline for the 21st annual IPRA Golden World Awards, the top international public relations awards competition. You'll save £50 per entry if you submit your nominations through today.

If you haven't yet done so, you can get your entry kit here.

The IPRA Golden World Awards for Excellence offer world-wide recognition and acclaim to world-class public relations programmes. The 2013 competition, conducted by the International Public Relations Association, is open to local, regional, national or international public relations programmes carried out or completed in 2012/2013.

Entries submitted to the Golden World Awards competition will be judged by an international panel of senior practitioners. In considering entries, the judges may grant one, several or no awards in each category. Entrants may submit any number of nominations to any number of categories, which include:

• Community Relations
  For community relations campaigns not conducted by government / local authorities.
• Corporate Communications
  For excellence in enhancing a company’s overall reputation through corporate communications.
• Crisis Management
  Example of excellent communications management during a crisis.
• Digital Media Relations
  For the successful use of digital media relations in a PR campaign.
• Event Management
  For the planning and delivery of a successful event with a public relations dimension.
• Internal Communications
  For a creative internal communications campaign that engaged and informed personnel.
• Launch of a New Product
  For well-planned PR activities around the launch of a product.
• PR on a Shoestring 
  For an imaginative PR campaign done on a small budget.
• Publications
  For PR publications such as newsletters or magazines that showed excellence and imagination in communicating with stakeholders. This can be in a print or electronic format.
• Social Media for PR
  For excellence in the use of social media as a public relations tool.
• Technology
  For the effective use of public relations in the technology sector, including business-to-business and consumer campaigns.

For a full list of categories, visit the GWA website.

If you can't make today's early-bird entry deadline, 6 May is the entry deadline, and late entries will be accepted through 20 May with the payment of a late fee of £50 per entry. All entry details are available at www.ipra.org/gwa.

Please don't hesitate to contact us with your questions about how to participate in the 2013 edition of IPRA's Golden World Awards for Excellence.

We're pleased to share that the full-text of the Gold Stevie® Award-winning entries in the 2013 Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service, the world's top business awards for contact center, customer service, business development, and sales professionals, is now published online. (Entries for the 2014 edition of the customer service awards, contact center awards, and sales awards will open in July. You can join the mailing list here and the entry kit will be sent to you by email when entries open.)

We encourage you to read the 2013 Gold winning entries for three reasons:

1. Read inspiring successful business stories.  
   Learn how other companies and individuals are achieving success and confronting challenges.
   
   
2. Review past winners' entries to help you make the most out of your submissions.
   The full-text of business award winning entries are great models for how you should write your entries. The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service feature more than 125 sales awards, customer service awards, and call center awards categories honoring sales excellence and best customer service practices for individuals, teams, and departments, plus categories for products and service and solution providers.
   
   
3. Get an inside look of successful companies and individuals from across the world.
   All individuals and organizations worldwide are eligible to submit nominations – public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small. Find out how these award winning companies are achieving success.

The 2013 Stevie Awards winners were announced at our annual awards gala at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas, NV, on Monday February 25.  Learn about the event and read all Gold winning entries here.

Leave us a comment and let us know what you think about the entries submitted in 2013.

Today is the early-bird entry deadline for The 2013 (10th Annual) International Business Awards, the world's premier business awards competition. Take advantage of discounted entry fees for those entries submitted by 10 April, request your entry kit here.

All individuals and organizations worldwide -- public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small -- may submit nominations to the IBAs, recognized as the world's top honors in business and the only completely international business awards competition.

The International Business Awards recognize achievement in every facet of the workplace. Stevie® Awards are conferred upon top-scoring nominations in each category, as chosen by an international judging panel of more than 150 business leaders.

Our business award categories include:

• Company/Organization Awards
• Customer Service Awards
• Human Resources Awards
• Information Technology Awards
• Management Awards
• Marketing Awards Categories
• New Product Awards
• Public Relations Awards
• Support Awards 
• Web Site Awards, Smartphone and Tablet App, and other media awards

See the full list of international business awards categories.

Nominations should cite achievements during our eligibility period: January 2012 through 12 June 2013, the last day that late entries will be accepted. There is no eligibility timeframe for web site entries - it does not matter when the web sites were first published.

If you miss the early-bird entry deadline, the entry deadline is 15 May and late entries will be accepted through 12 June with payment of a late fee per entry. Results will be announced on 14 August. 

Because the 2013 awards banquet will take place on 14 October in Barcelona, Spain, all organizations in Spain may submitted an unlimited number of entries to the IBAs free of charge this year. Organizations in Spain should submit the promotion code "Barcelona" where indicated in the online entry process to have their entry fees waived. Entry details are available at www.StevieAwards.com/IBA.

Have questions regarding the 2013 IBAs? Don't hesitate to contact us with your questions or call us at + 1 703-547-8389.