We make changes to every Stevie Award program every year: categories are added or dropped, fees are raised (and occasionally lowered), entry requirements are tweaked, the schedule is adjusted, and so on.
It's rare, though, that monumental changes are made. But we've made some really important changes to The American Business Awards for their 2016 (14th annual) edition, and if your organization is in the U.S.A. and you're considering submitting nominations to the ABAs, you need to be aware of these changes.
The American Business Awards are the premier business awards program in the U.S.A., with categories to recognize achievement in every facet of work life, from management to marketing, human resources to new products and websites. There are two early-bird entry deadlines for the 2016 edition - November 19 and December 16, 2015. The final deadline for submissions is February 18, but late entries will be accepted through March 16 with payment of a late fee. Get your entry kit here.
That schedule itself is one of the big changes for the 2016 ABAs, because it's significantly different from entry deadline schedules of the past.
Here's a summary of all of the changes, large and small, we've instituted for The 2016 American Business Awards. Contact us if you have any questions about any of these topics.
Eligibility Timeframe
- Eligibility for the 2016 ABAs extends from January 1 2015 through March 16 2016, the last day that late entries will be accepted. Nominations should cite achievements during this eligibility window. Videos, publications, live events, and other media premiered since that date are eligible to be entered. There is no eligibility timeframe for app and web site entries - it doesn't matter when apps and web sites were first published.
New Categories
- There are several new categories for 2016 including Minority-Owned Business of the Year and Veteran-Owned Business of the Year. See the entire list of categories here.
Late Fee Increased
- Entry fees have not been raised from 2015, but the late fee charged for entries submitted after the final deadline has been raised from $45 to $55 per entry.
Shipping Fees Lowered
- The shipping fees which are payable if awards won are not accepted at the awards banquet (see the explanation in the terms and conditions of entry here) have been lowered: to $30 per Gold Stevie Award trophy, and $7.50 per shipment of Silver or Bronze medals, regardless of the number of medals won.
Schedule Changed
- The ABAs again feature four entry deadlines, including early-bird deadlines in November and December 2015. But the two deadlines in 2016 have been moved up to earlier in the year. While those deadlines used to be in late March and late April, the final deadline for 2016 will be February 18, and the last day that entries will be accepted with payment of a $55 late fee is March 16.
Pre-Announcement of Awards
- The most significant change for the ABAs in 2016 is that we will announce all of the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award placements before the awards banquet. In the past we pre-announced Finalists, and Finalists did not know whether they had won Gold, Silver or Bronze until the evening of the awards banquet. In 2016, we will announce all of the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie winners on May 2, and then present the awards during a gala banquet in New York on June 20.
Format of Awards Banquet
- Because we will now pre-announce all Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners in the ABAs, all Stevie-winning organizations that attend the June 20 awards banquet in New York will be called to the stage to accept their awards and make an acceptance speech. In the past, only Gold Stevie Award winners were called to the stage. As in the past, attendance of the banquet is not required to win.
Number of Awards Banquets
- There will be only one ABA awards banquet in 2016, on June 20 in New York. In 2012-2015 there had been two banquets each cycle.
New Websites
- We have a new mobile website for the ABAs, and we invite you to check it out at mobile.stevieawards.com/ABA. A new desktop website will debut in January 2016. Among the features of the new site will be the ability to schedule text-alert reminders about the entry deadlines, and the ability to add multiple points of contact to your entry-submission account.
Again, contact us if you have any questions about these changes to The American Business Awards for 2016.
