The deadline for this year’s UC Awards ceremony is looming, and we’ve already received a huge number of entries from some amazing brands. Every year, this awards ceremony allows us to celebrate some of the biggest and brightest stars in the Unified Communications world. That could include you.
This year, we have a host of categories to choose from, so more brands and people than ever before can earn the attention they deserve with a UC Award.
So, how exactly do you become a UC Award winner?
While there’s no secret recipe to convince our panel of expert judges to suit you, there are some things you can do to boost your chances of success. If you want to make sure you have the best possible shot of coming out on top this year, we’re here to help.
Step 1: Choose Your Category
First things first, you’ll need to decide which UC Awards you’re going to apply for. You can send in a submission for more than one category or focus all your attention on winning the award best suited to you. This year, we have a vast selection of categories to choose from, including:
The People Awards
Our People Awards are designed to celebrate the innovative, forward-thinking, and creative experts in the Unified Communications space. You can apply for either the “UC Leader of the Year” award or the “Collaboration Leader of the Year” award.
Both of these awards recognise industry success, strategic influence, leadership, and individual contribution to a company. Do you know someone who deserves one of these awards?
The Rising Star Awards
Rising Star awards highlight the up-and-coming people and companies in their space. Here, we’re focusing on standout individuals and groups demonstrating exceptional promise in their industry. Last year’s rising Star organisation winner was Neat, with its phenomenal meeting technology.
You can enter either as an individual or as an entire organization.
The Innovation Awards
Our innovation awards focus on outstanding platforms, products, and providers with a true eye for the future. Each of these awards focuses on a specific area, with options to choose from like:
- Most innovative product: Celebrating the most exciting products in the industry.
- Best UC platform: Showcasing the more comprehensive tools for unified communications.
- Best CPaaS platform: Highlighting API-centric platform solutions.
- Best Service Management platform: Celebrating the leaders in service management.
- Best Work from Home products: Pinpointing solutions for the new age of work.
You can see the full category list here.
Step 2: Get to Know the Judging Criteria
Decided on your category? Now it’s time to start planning your application. Every year, our carefully-chosen panel of industry-leading judges sort through submissions based on three primary criteria.
The most important things you’ll need to showcase in your application are:
- Ability to improve the experience: We’re living in an experience-driven world, so what do you or your solutions do to enhance that experience? Did you provide a new high-impact feature that empowers teams and delights customers? Where did the idea for this innovation come from, and how have you ensured it has the right impact?
- Ability to innovate: We’re looking for the most creative and impactful companies and people in the UC Awards. We want to celebrate people who break the mould – so show us how you’re doing things differently. Tell us about your breakthrough service or product and how it impacted your business, people, customers, and stakeholders. Share the details of your high-performing and innovative company culture.
- Ability to execute: What fuelled your business to be a true market leader this year? What were the priorities you needed to focus on when developing your new solution, and what challenges did you face? We’d love to hear about the data and analytics you collected along the way and the insights you were able to generate. Tell us how you took steps to boost performance and how you managed the project each step of the way.
This year’s judges are just as phenomenal as ever, including market-leading names like Irwin Lazar, Blair Pleasant, Zeus Kerravala and Tim Banting. So you’ll need to ensure your application is as impressive as possible.
Step 3: Submit Your Application
Once you’ve downloaded your application form from the UC Awards website, chosen your categories, and assessed our judging criteria, story sharing your story is the only thing left to do. Convince us why you’re the business or person we should be celebrating at this year’s UC Awards 2022 event.
Don’t be afraid to share details to help us understand why you should be a UC Awards winner this year. We always love reading great excellent narratives here at UC Today. Not sure whether your application has “winner” material? Check out our list of 2021 winners for a little bit of inspiration.
You can find some fantastic videos showcasing some of the best companies from last year to learn what made them worthy of a UC Award. You can always take a little time to brainstorm the points you want to include in your application with your team. Remember, submissions will close on the 17th of June, so you’ll need to finish writing as fast as possible!
Don’t worry; we won’t be judging you based on grammar or punctuation – though you might want to proofread quickly before you click “send”.
Are You Our Next Winner?
Once you’ve submitted your application and paid your small entry fee for the category you want to be included in, all that’s left to do is sit back and relax. There’s no need to worry about booking any plane tickets or hotels, as you can attend our event online!
Remember to check back on the 8th of July to check whether you’ve reached our list of finalists for your category, then join us on the 28th of July for the full Awards ceremony!
We can’t wait to see you there!
