THE APPLES AWARDS - JUDGING PROCESS & CRITERIA

Our judging panel is composed of New Food’s advisory board members. They represent experts from across the global airport and aviation community. They have been selected to ensure they can apply their knowledge, expertise and skills to the judging criteria and ultimately, to award the finalists.

We are committed to ensuring the judging process for The Apples is transparent, independent, fair and unbiased.

View the full list of judges here

IMPORTANT DATES:
DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES – 4 August
SHORTLISTS ANNOUNCED – 25 August
WINNERS ANNOUNCED AT AWARDS DINNER – 17 October

HOW THE JUDGES ARE CHOSEN
The panel of judges are selected in order to bring a diverse range of in-depth industry expertise to the judging process. All judges are required to agree to a disclaimer to keep all submitted information and the winners confidential. 

As part of the process no panel member will be asked to judge a category or entry submission that has a declared conflict of interest prior or where the panel member is part of the organisation or has a connection with the individual submitting the entry. Judges will be asked to recuse themselves if required. Any attempt to influence the judges will result in immediate disqualification from the awards.

HOW CATEGORIES ARE ALLOCATED TO THE JUDGES

Each judge is allocated a category or a set of categories, which are aligned to their specific market knowledge and designed to avoid conflict of interest. Each judge reviews and scores each submission independently. They have no access to the submissions or results of categories they are not involved in judging or of the other judges within their category to ensure a fair and unbiased approach. 

The judges read and analyse the submissions. Each judge allocates a score to each individual criteria per category, as well as a brief summary of their thoughts.The final scores submitted by the judges will be automatically collated for each award category. The final winners will be at the awards ceremony. 

If there is no clear winner a conference call will be held by the allocated judges for that category. A highly commended may also be rewarded in this instance.

JUDGING CRITERIA
The judges will be looking for evidence of clear and effective ways in which you share your successes and your story. Only entries citing examples from 2022 until 2023 will be considered to ensure the submission remains current and relevant. Your objectives must be set out so that it is easy to digest. You should use examples wherever possible. The Judges will also consider the structure, presentation, use of language (e.g. spelling and punctuation) and clarity of each entry.

Judges will read and score all shortlisted entries, considering any supporting materials submitted. These will be combined to give an overall score for each entry. All judges’ scores will then be automatically combined, and the highest scoring entries will determine the shortlists.

Organisations participating in the judging process are encouraged to enter the awards but will absent themselves from any discussion involving their organisation or any organisation in which they have an interest.

THE SHORTLISTING PROCESS
Awards will only be awarded in categories where two or more submissions have been received. The awards team will decide on the shortlist prior to the submissions being sent to the judges for final scoring.

THE JUDGES ROLE
Being transparent about our process with the awards entries and how the judges will carry out their duties, along with the judging process is key. We are providing the information below so you can gain a greater understanding of how your entry will be treated and how the finalists, and winners will be selected.

Every Judge will fully participate in the judging process and will:

• Bring knowledge, expertise and experience to evaluate all entries within their assigned categories
• Ensure every entry meets the set category criteria
• Score submissions against the category criteria and narrative where required
• Declare any conflicts of interest with entrants that they are reviewing within their assigned categories
• Attend the Awards Ceremony where possible