I am a Destination Management Professional

Achievement Awards

FAQs for Entry Process

Here is the list of questions and answers received about the Award Entry process. As questions are received and answered, they will be posted here, most recent first. If your question isn't answered, please email us at info@adme.org and we will reply promptly.

My file is too large to email to you - what can I do!

We suggest that you use www.yousendit.com. You can upload your files and send ADME an email all from their website. ADME will acknowledge when we receive your email and download your entry.

Can the client quote/accolades be part of the support materials, vs. being included in the 1000 or 100 word descriptions. For example can it be on the word document that includes pictures and other support materials.

Yes, as long as your company name is NOT listed in the description that will be used for judging purposes... that would disqualify your entry.

In "Best Overall Program" Category, "Inclusions" state that event budgets need to be submitted for all "Best Innovative Event Awards." Those being the entries in the various listed budget breakdown categories. Does "Best Overall Program" category requires a budget as well?

Yes it does - it helps to define the scope of the project. Judges may give more credit to an overall program with a smaller budget that demonstrates more creativity.

Question regarding support materials. ADME lists potential support items to include "linen samples". In one of our entries we have 2 table photo shots that highlight beautiful linens, napkins, etc. and also show place settings. Because these are close up table shots, they don't show people or the workings of the actual event like some of our other photos do. Question is - can those 2 "table shots" with linens count as "linen samples" in our support materials section or do they have to count as 2 of the 12 max photos?

Yes, you may label these as "linen samples".

For the description of the Destination Management Professional of the Year, are we allowed to mention the nominee at all? The directions say you cannot mention the company name, but doesn’t say not to mention the nominee’s name.

For these entries, the names are an important part of the entry. It is only for the Achievement awards that the entries do not include the company name.

Am I correct in understanding that a fee is not necessary for Recognition Awards, even though the Entry Fee instructions say there is a fee for all company entries. Could you please clarify?

There is no fee for NOMINATION. Once you submit an entry form, there is a fee of $125.00

Where do I include the 1,000 word description?

This should be included in the file on a separate page. The publicity description MAY include your company name; the description for the judges may NOT include your company name.

If we are submitting more than one entry, how do we number our entries?

Please number them sequentially, no matter how many entries you are submitting for your company. If you are submitting five entries, number then 1 - 5. We will be renaming the files to remove your company information for the files that are sent to the judges.

We have an event that we only billed a management fee and the invoices were passed through to the client and paid directly. In this case, we’d like to clarify. The overall event budget was $79K (including the amounts the client paid directly to vendors), but we only invoiced for a management fee of less than $25K. Can we submit this in the lower category?

No. The overall event budget of $79K included all fees paid by client, including your management fee. Use that figure to determine the category for your entry.

We noticed last year that there were companies that were finalist in multiple award types, however, no one company won multiple awards. Is it possible to win multiple awards? We understanding the judging is unbiased, but thought the judges were possibly trying to include more companies as winners.

The different categories are judged by separate judging teams in separate cities... so that the team judging the Teambuilding doesn't know what the judges are doing for the BIE category.

May I use my client's name in the entry?

Yes, you can. However, please be sure that your company's name does not appear anywhere in the entry, as this will cause your entry to be eliminated from the competition.

Also, please be sure that your client is willing to have its name used. If they do not, we will accept "Hospital" rather than the specific client name and will respect their anonymity.

Can the support photos be placed at the end of the entry document?

Yes. If you want, you can include a link from the description to the photo at the end of the document.

Is there a limit on the size of the photos?

While there is not a specific limit, we ask that you incorporate the photos into a regular page (8.5 x 11) layout. You can include more than one photo on a page. The judges may choose to print out your entry. Also, please do what you can to keep the entire document a reasonable size so that it can be easily accessed.

How can I keep the entire entry document a "reasonable size"?

In Acrobat, you have two choices: Save and Save As. By using Save As, all the elements are condensed, resulting in a smaller file size. There is also the option Reduce File Size that can sometimes further reduce the size with no significant loss of quality. Leter versions of Acrobat are better at condensing files.