Initial Call for Nominees  (June 29)

We put out our initial call for nominations. People get excited, and our inboxes fill up. We love it!  We see all sorts of nominations come in: bosses recommending employees, colleagues recommending each other, members of the community recognizing incredible individuals, and we even see some people throwing their own names into the hat. We collect them all, and we marinate in their awesomeness, reviewing each candidate closely here in house.

Nominations close (August 23)

Last day for submitting nominations. 

All applications due (September 3)

Last call for all applications for those who've been nominated.

Selection & Announcement of Finalists (September 16)

Our editorial team deliberates, and we decide which candidates become finalists by evaluating the nomination letters and candidate’s CV/resume. We announce the finalists via press release.

Selection of Winners (before October 26)

Once we have our selection of finalists, we use the applications the nominees provide and strip everything. The only thing that gets passed along to our external panel of judges is an encrypted application to avoid any possible bias. We remove any qualifying information such as name, company, photographs, LinkedIn profiles, and gender data. And at this stage, the application the nominee completes carries all of the weight.

Announcement of Winners (October 26) 

The judges then decide, announcing the winners live in person and online on Facebook streaming. We send a press kit to each winner to use on social media and then work with each winner to tell their story.