As Told to Us by Our Judges
We have a wonderful line up of industry experts waiting to judge both The Startups and The Sports Technology Awards the majority of whom are either potential advocates, customers or investors in your business. So how do you impress them?
When entering an award – any award – you should always think about an entry as an investment in your brand. Cost to enter is one aspect but ensure you take the time to make your answers the best you can – the returns are invariably worth it.
Each year we ask our judges for feedback and usually they are full of praise for the innovations they are seeing – but here are the most common observations…
What Do You Do and What Is Your Tech?
It sounds incredible but often people get so excited about their work they forget that what they are doing isn’t immediately or clearly apparent to other people. Often – usually when the submission has been given to someone junior or very short of time to do – we see big chunks of cut and paste from websites. The reason this is risky is that if the copy there isn’t clear either, you are no better off! You’d be surprised at how many ‘dynamic solutions’ are out there but people then forget to say what their ‘dynamic solution’ actually is. Be clear and your entry has taken its first step to being award-winning, not bewildering.
They Said This Already. They Said This Already. They Said This Already.
Avoid repetition! Judges appreciate that young businesses may not have the experience of entering the awards but they know good work when they see it. What gets in the way of this is where someone has given the same answer several times – either to fill in a blank or to hit the word count. Just answer the question and if you feel you covered the point fully elsewhere, direct the judge to that. Judges love fewer well-chosen words much more than identical paragraphs.
They Said This Already. They Said This Already. They Said This Already.
Avoid repetition! Judges appreciate that young businesses may not have the experience of entering the awards but they know good work when they see it. What gets in the way of this is where someone has given the same answer several times – either to fill in a blank or to hit the word count. Just answer the question and if you feel you covered the point fully elsewhere, direct the judge to that. Judges love fewer well-chosen words much more than identical paragraphs.
Something’s Missing
Worse than woolly or hard-to-believe information is no information at all. Entries that do well are invariably well-evidenced with clear and concise explanations.
Know Your Numbers
This tends to be more of a pitching issue than one we see in submissions but still, if it is part of the process then learn your figures! We’ve all seen contestants on Shark Tank or Dragon’s Den not know the difference between revenues, margins, gross and net, or just have the maths badly wrong. (Good) businesspeople sweat the spreadsheets and any commercial questions usually relate to so basic, standard numbers so learn yours and make sure they add up! If you are thinking of participating in any awards this year, hopefully this helps. If you’d like more information about The Sports Technology Awards, please contact Tanya Power, who will be delighted to help.
