Award deadlines coming up (scroll down below text for a list of awards organised by industry) 

Welcome to my overview of upcoming awards to look out for during July and August.

This time of year is ‘silly season’ for awards as it gets so busy, with July and August featuring important deadlines in many major schemes. As ever, contact our team here at Boost if you need help with your entries or further guidance on which awards to enter, but please bear in mind that we work on a first-come-first-served basis – and our capacity is filling up fast so don’t leave it until the last minute. 

General business awards

Some of the highest-profile general business awards have now passed but there are a couple I would like to mention still open for entry. Specific details about many of these, and which might be most suitable for you, can be found in our guide to ‘general business awards’. 

You will need to be quick to meet the 5th July deadline, but The UK Business Awards (The Dons) are definitely worth considering. Read our full guide to everything you need to know about these awards.  

If you’re looking for more global recognition, then do consider The International Business Awards (The International Stevies). These US-based awards feature well over a hundred categories, so there is something for everyone, from apps, websites, teams, departments, products, services and the business as a whole. Deadline here is 18th July. 

Customer Service awards 

In the Customer Service space, The European Contact Centre and Customer Service Awards (the ever-so catchy ECCCSAs) are still open until 12th July. Also be aware of a really great new global scheme, The International Customer Experience Awards, which have their event in Amsterdam this year and will be open until 7th August.

The International Engage Awards are seemingly unique in that they are the only awards scheme that recognises both customer and employee engagement. This year they include 20 categories, nine of them brand new to the programme. The current advertised deadline is 15th July. They also provide an ideal bridge from customer-focussed awards to our next section…

HR awards and training awards

I wanted to share a quick summary of all the many HR awards on the horizon; it really is ‘HR season’ so I wouldn’t want you to miss out. Our more detailed guide is here – ‘Which are the best HR awards to enter?‘

The Recruiter Investing in Talent Awards are highly credible and feature a number of new categories this year including Diversity and Inclusion Champion, Most Engaging Social Responsibility Programme, Best Onboarding Programme and the highly desirable accolade, Best Recruitment Team of the Year. These have just extended their deadline until 12th July.

Two other awards on the horizon are The Stevie Awards for Great Employers (17th July deadline) and The HR in Hospitality Awards for Excellence (26th July deadline).

The Investors in People Awards are now open. These are a superbly-run scheme and highly credible, so we are very proud to be partnering with them this year. Make sure to enter before 26th July deadline.

The European Diversity Awards by Twin Media are open until 30th July and host their event in London. We are seeing a rapidly increasing demand for diversity awards and diversity categories within industry-specific awards, and these are great scheme to consider. 

You have until 31st July to get your entry in for The CIPP Annual Excellence Awards. While these UK awards focus on ‘payroll’ there is some overlap with employee benefits.  

The In-house Recruitment Awards for Excellence are UK awards sponsored by Saba and Lumesse and have a deadline of 31st July. Run by the 10,000 strong In-house Recruiter network community.

A relatively new addition, The Inclusive Companies Awards reward those championing diversity and promoting inclusion for all. These UK awards close on 9th August. The Rewards are also UK hosted, but are open to global entry until 30th August. This year’s categories include Best Business Award and Recruitment Provider Award, alongside ever-popular categories such as Best Leader Award and Rising Star Award.

Financial services awards, banking awards and insurance awards

A very interesting new scheme just launched is called Culture in Finance, which aims to recognise those rebuilding public trust in the financial services sector and create positive work cultures. A great new addition but you will need to be quick –  deadline is 5th July.

The Banker also has two of their flagship schemes coming up, both sharing a 15th July deadline. The Banker Investment Banking Awards and the self-explanatory The Banker – Bank of the Year Awards.    

Some of the biggest finance awards are approaching. The Insurance Times Awards (deadline 23rd July) are understandably prestigious within the industry, while The Financial Innovation Awards (7th August) have a great selection of categories that are difficult to find in other schemes. If you are involved in the world of fintech, then it’s definitely worth considering The Banking Technology Awards (31st August). 

Technology awards

Talking of tech, there are some stalwart awards of the technology and IT industry coming up.

The UK IT Industry Awards are undoubtedly one of the biggest schemes around. Entry closes 5th July but there might be a further extension if you request it. Nominations are being accepted until 6th July for The Sunday Times Tech Track 100, recognising Britain’s fastest-growing private technology companies.

The UK Social Media Communications Awards are open until 12th July, with a whole raft of categories for agencies, in-house teams, campaigns and paid social. Coming up hot on its heels, we’ve The CRN Channel Awards (deadline 13th July), featuring a whole host of new categories and, as is often the case with some of the more innovative awards, this year they’re going with a funfair theme to reflect the rollercoaster ride of the past 12 months in the UK channel industry. Also worth recommending, The Comms National Awards are open until 31st July.  

Marketing awards and PR awards

The PRCA National Awards are very prominent in the world of PR, being run by the world’s largest PR and communications professional body. The deadline for this year is 12th July. Categories are divided between Campaign, Individual and Team Awards, and a notable new addition is the Diversity Award for both PR agencies or in-house PR teams.
Plenty of marketing awards on the horizon so I will be brief with these. The Sales and Marketing Technology Awards (The Sammy) are open until 19th July, followed by The Drum Content Awards (2nd August) and The CorpComms Awards (9th August). 

Two sister schemes that are open to international entry are The GlobalTrend Marketing Awards and The GlobalTrend Video Awards. Deadline for both is currently advertised as 30th August. 

CSR awards

Our final section is for environmental and sustainability awards, with a few really great schemes to consider. The Green Apple Awards for Environmental Best Practice were launched in 1994 and are a very popular scheme with multiple winners and overall awards. The Green World Awards have been more recently launched as the top tier of the Green Apple Awards – enabling companies and organisations to win environmental recognition not only for themselves, but also for their countries. Both of these international awards have a deadline of 31st July. Please also consider a brilliantly-run scheme in the US, The SEAL Awards – honouring Sustainability, Environmental Achievement and Leadership. Entries close 16th August.

Hopefully these highlighted awards have provided some insights to help you plan which awards to enter – I wish you the best of luck during this busy awards season. Below you will find all the awards in the next two months, organised by industry sector. Remember, do please contact Boost if you need a helping hand entering any of these – our in-house team of experienced award writers have won over 1,300 awards and can increase your chances of a win significantly.

You can also sign up for our email deadline reminder service, so that the next two months of deadlines arrive in your inbox – completely free of charge. Handy, I think you will agree!  

Chris.