The 4th annual German Stevie Awards is now accepting entries. Companies and organizations from all industries can now enter nominations free of charge for their best projects and achievements, to compete for the coveted Stevie Awards trophies.

Early-bird entrants will benefit from a reduced winners fee until December 6, 2017.

Since the founding of the International Business Awards in 2003, the Stevie Awards have become firmly established in the global economic world. Since 2014, the German Stevie Awards have been offering companies operating in the German market a competition platform for national benchmarking.

The special feature of the Stevie Awards: “They are not just another industry award for the big players,” says Michael Gallagher, president and founder of the Stevie Awards. “Certainly, many of the world’s largest and best known companies are among our winners. But most winners of the Stevie Awards are small and medium-sized companies that are still growing and are still building their brands.”

The entrants may choose from a great variety of categories, such as awards for entire companies and organizations, that honor the achievements of for profit and non-profit organizations, large and small, private and public. New at the German Stevie Awards in this year are the categories “Entrepreneur of the Year” in 34 industries as well as the title “Solo Entrepreneur of the Year”.

The entry kit and a complete overview of the categories and subcategories are available at www.StevieAwards.com/Deutschland.

There are many other categories to recognize achievement in every major business function, including product development, marketing, customer service, human resources, public relations, technology, and more.  Michael Gallagher adds: “Many categories of the German Stevie Awards also honor great achievements in the field of business-related media and publications.” This includes awards for live events, annual reports and publications, app development, videos and websites.

This year, participating organizations can expect a slightly different way to submit nominations. For the first time, the German Stevie Awards will waive the general entry fees and replace them with a special winners fee. This means that entrants can submit unlimited nominations in unlimited categories free of charge. Instead of paying an entry fee for each submitted entry, entrants will only pay a winners fee per successful nomination.  Each nomination that wins a Gold, Silver or Bronze Stevie Award will be assessed a winners fee of 400 euros. Companies submitting their nominations through the first entry deadline, December 6, 2017 will benefit from a reduced winners fee of 375 euros per winning nomination.

“We have decided to take this step to encourage more organizations to participate in the German Stevie Awards,” said Michael Gallagher. “With the new model, companies will only be charged if their nomination is recognized as a winner by the jury”

The payment of the winners fee will unlock the right to publicly claim Stevie-winner status and the winner will be listed in the official winners list. There are more benefits, including access to all judges’ comments about all of their entries and the right to receive their award on stage at the awards ceremony.

If entrants miss the December 6 entry deadline, they will still be able to submit their nominations through January 24, 2018.

Several juries of leading German business executives will determine the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners.

On April 27, 2018, the Gold, Silver and Bronze winners will be celebrated and honored with their Stevies at a festive awards ceremony in Berlin. New this year: Each award winner will receive a trophy according to his level in Gold, Silver or Bronze. (In the past, only the Gold Stevie winner automatically received a trophy.)

A complete list of all 2017 Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners by category is available here. For high-resolution photos of the Stevie Award trophy or the German Stevie Awards logo, visit http://stevieawards.com/gsa/photos-and-logos. We are happy to provide you with more press photos from previous winners and awards shows on request.

Learn more about the German Stevie Awards 2018 at www.StevieAwards.com/Deutschland.

The Stevie® Awards have announced the winners of the Best of the IBA Awards in The 2017 (14^th annual) International Business Awards, the world’s premier business awards competition.

Nominees in the 2017 IBAs were not able to apply for the Best of the IBA Awards directly. Winners were determined by a points system based on the total number of awards won in the IBAs with a Gold Stevie win counting for three points, a Silver Stevie for two points and a Bronze Stevie win for one-and-a-half points. 

This year’s Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners in The International Business Awards were announced on 10 August. The winners of the Best of the IBA Awards will be presented with Grand Stevie Award trophies at The 14^th Annual International Business Awards banquet at the W Hotel in Barcelona, Spain on 21 October. 

Winners of the 2017 Grand Stevie Awards are:

Most Honored Organization: With 120 award points earned by Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie-winning entries submitted by affiliated agencies and offices around the world, the global communications consultancy MSLGROUP is the winner of the Grand Stevie Award trophy for Most Honored Organization of the year. MSLGROUP earned Stevies for the work done by offices from Canada, China, India, Japan, the USA and other nations, for clients as diverse as home improvement retailer Home Depot, Chinese electronics giant Huawei, and Indian consumer goods manufacturer Marico Ltd., among others.

Most Honored Public Relations Agency: With a total of 77 points earned by Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie-winning entries submitted by their agencies and offices in Latin America, Spain and the USA, communications consultants LLORENTE & CUENCA is the winner of the Grand Stevie Award trophy for Most Honored Public Relations Agency of the year.

Most Honored Marketing Agency: With a total of 38.5 points earned by Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie-winning entries on behalf of clients, South Korean marketing agency HANAROADCOM is the winner of the Grand Stevie Award trophy for Most Honored Marketing Agency of the year.

Most Honored Interactive Services Agency: With 23.5 points for Stevies won on behalf of clients including L’OCCITANE, Sino Hotels and Watsons Water, Hong Kong-based PRIZM is the winner of the Grand Stevie Award trophy for Most Honored Interactive Services Agency of the year for the second year in a row.

Top 10: These are the top Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie winners among all other organizations honored in the 2017 IBAs. They’ll also be presented with Grand Stevie Award trophies.

1. CallidusCloud—Dublin, CA, USA (84 points)
2. Telkom Indonesia—Jakarta (72.5)
3. Cisco Systems—worldwide (67)
4. ASDA'A Burson-Marsteller—Dubai, United Arab Emirates (56.5)
5. Deutsche Post DHL—worldwide (55.5)
6. Weber Shandwick—worldwide (53)
7. PT Petrokimia Gresik—Gresik, Indonesia (42.5)
8. PJ Lhullier Group of Companies—Makati City, Philippines (35)
9. Odea Bank A.S. —Istanbul, Turkey (31)
10. Ooredoo—worldwide (30 points)

“Of all the outstanding organizations and achievements that were recognized among this year’s record-breaking number of IBA nominations, these 14 organizations stand out as the ones with the widest breadth of achievement,” said Michael Gallagher, president and founder of the Stevie Awards. “The Best of the IBA Awards are intended to honor organizations that show an especially strong dedication to honoring the work of their employees, the commitment of their clients, and a sense of innovation, and we look forward to celebrating these firms with Grand Stevie Award trophies at our gala event in Barcelona on 21 October.”

The International Business Awards feature a wide variety of categories to recognize achievement in every facet of work life, including management awards, new product awards, marketing awards, PR awards, customer service awards, website awards and more.

Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award placements in the 2017 IBAs were determined by the average scores of more than 200 professionals worldwide in the three-month judging process.

For more information about The International Business Awards, including a complete list of all Stevie Award winners in the 2017 competition, visit www.StevieAwards.com/IBA.

The Stevie Awards have a made a significant multi-year financial contribution to the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the School of Business at George Mason University, the largest public university in the State of Virginia in the USA. 

Michael Gallagher, Stevie Awards president and a 1994 MBA graduate of the university, has been actively involved with Mason for more than 20 years. So much so that he was honored with the university’s 2015 Alumni Service Award.

In 2005, he worked closely with the School of Business Alumni Relations staff to create the first Annual Business Alumni Celebration, the School of Business' premiere alumni event. In 2009, he became active with the School of Business Alumni Chapter, serving as vice president of events and then led the group as president for the next two years. After completing his tenure as president, he served as an at-large member for another year and most recently led the chapter's fundraising committee.

Gallagher regularly contributes time and money to the School of Business’ annual Deans’ Business Plan Competition and often serves as a mentor to student entrepreneurs.

Still, he wanted to do more.

“I feel strongly about encouraging people to become entrepreneurs,” said Gallagher.

Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

“It’s important to ask people face-to-face to do something because it’s hard for them to say no,” explained Gallagher. That’s what happened to him when asked to be involved with Mason, and he’s had “a lot of fun doing it.”

Having already volunteered much of his time and financially supported several of the entrepreneurial activities the School of Business offered, Gallagher saw a natural alignment with his interests and the school’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

He learned through a conversation with David Miller, director of Mason’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, that the center didn’t lack for ideas and projects, it lacked time to properly run and grow the initiatives already created. Gallagher immediately pledged that the Stevie Awards would contribute $195,000 to give the center the gift of time, which comes in the form of a program manager that will help run the center’s programs.

“Entrepreneurs are the babies of the business world. If people don’t have babies there won’t be much of a human race,” he continued. “The same is true for the economy. If you don’t have entrepreneurs, you won’t have economic and job growth.”

With current opportunities for students ranging from field trips, mentor programs, a maker space, business plan competition, an innovation lab, student support groups, and more, Miller found it challenging to provide each initiative the attention it needed to fully serve students. The new program manager funded by the Stevie Awards will be fully dedicated to expanding and resourcing existing opportunities.

This will provide Miller more time to nurture student entrepreneurs and hopefully, increase their success.

“If you have 100 entrepreneurs, maybe one will be successful. That’s the reality of entrepreneurship. I’d like that to be five or six at Mason,” said Gallagher

“Everyone has an expertise in something, and I would like to see Mason, and the USA as a whole, to encourage people to start their own businesses. You don’t have to be Mark Zuckerberg or Sergey Brin. You just need to support yourself and be able to look at yourself in the mirror. You can be a company of one.”

Learn more about Mason’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship or contribute to its success by making a gift.

The 12^th annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business is now accepting entries. All female entrepreneurs, executives, employees, and the organizations they run, worldwide, are eligible to be nominated.

A new feature for this year's competition is an Entry Kit Brochure. The PDF brochure details all the information you need to submit nominations.

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business Entry Kit Brochure includes:

• A letter from the President and Founder of the Stevie Awards, Michael Gallagher
• The 2015 Program Calendar
• What Past Stevie Winners Have to Say About Their Award
• Information About Judging
• The Top 5 Awards
• How to Submit Entries
• Entry Fee Information
• List of Awards Categories

The program will be especially useful to those who are new to submitting entries to the Stevie Awards for Women in Business. In just a few short minutes of browsing the Entry Kit Brochure, you will find out which categories best suit your organization and how to submit entries.

Get the Entry Kit Brochure now:

• A PDF of the Entry Kit Brochure (2.6MB)

The Entry Kit Brochure is not a replacement for the Webpage Version of the entry kit. The Brochure Entry Kit instructs you how to submit entries through the Webpage entry kit.

How to Submit Your Entries

After you have chosen your categories and prepared your entries according to the requirements per category, do the following:

1. Visit the website at www.StevieAwards.com/Women and click on the ‘ENTER’ button on the top navigation bar.
2. Follow the instructions to complete the registration form for your organization, which will create your entry-submission account.
3. Within your entry-submission account, choose the first category you want to enter, and complete the entry form for that category.
4. Repeat the process as necessary for additional entries.
5. When you’ve created all of your entries, select all of them and click ‘SUBMIT SELECTED NOMINATIONS’ to begin the submission process.
6. Review and agree to the Terms and Conditions of Entry, and choose to pay your entry fees by credit card, bank check, or wire transfer.

There's also a webpage version of the entry kit available to you.

The early-bird entry deadline, offering reduced entry fees, is July 22. The final entry deadline is August 26, and late entries will be accepted through September 23 with payment of a late fee. Winners of the 12th annual competition will be announced at a gala awards dinner at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York on November 13, 2015.  Attendance is not required to win.

This year the Stevie Awards for Women in Business will honor women in more than 85 categories including, among others, Entrepreneur of the Year, Executive of the Year, Maverick of the Year, Mentor or Coach of the Year, Lifetime Achievement Award, Employee of the Year and Most Innovative Company of the Year.