Entering this years’ awards couldn’t be easier. First and foremost, the Tech4Good Awards are free to enter and is open to anyone anywhere in the world, all we need is for entries to be written in English.

Now onto the important bit – How to WIN a Tech4Good Award. We hosted a webinar recently that asked this question to our judges and previous award winners and there was a resounding answer – it’s all about the story you tell.

Robin Christopherson MBE, AbilityNet’s Head of Digital Inclusion and one of our judges delved into this deeper and shared his tips. “It’s more about the story that you can tell – we’re not necessarily looking for cutting-edge and breakthrough technology. If you’re approaching a need in a slightly different way and showing how it’s impacting individuals, then it’s important to tell the story of who it’s impacting. If the technology has been around for a while, then give us numbers about who it’s impacted. If it’s in the development stage, then give us a story of who it will impact.

“What is your idea? Think about how it can be presented and the story it can tell, the connection it can make. Describe what it would mean to you if you won the award or became a finalist. Some people find the connections they make and the support they receive through the awards are the most helpful. Go into detail about what it would mean to you if you were successful – it will really make your entry stand out.”

Our previous Community Impact Award winner Power to Connect, also concurs with Robin’s advice, Isabel Chapman commented, “The most important thing is to tell a story. You know the organisation that you represent more than anyone else…be confident in the way you tell your story and make the project real. What does this project look like on a day-to-day basis?” Isabel also mentioned how they described all elements of their project within their award entry from the volunteers to Battersea Power Station and Wandsworth Council, to help bring their story to life.

We gathered further insights from our Accessibility 2019 Award winner Digit Music, where Si Tew discussed, “Get an application in…if it’s a good idea and you really think that it can make an impact then you’re in for a shot of winning.” Also echoing previous comments, “What is the story and what is the difference it can make? Ours wasn’t new technology it was the adaptation of existing technology that helped us get over the awards line. I recommend to get the entry in early because you can always go in and amend the entry at any point up to the deadline. Through entering the awards, we were able to attend TechShare Pro with all the other wonderful partners, are were able to network and garner relationships with other industry experts that we are still working with today.”

 

Those are some really fantastic insights into winning the awards, and we wanted to share a short summary to get you on your way into creating a winning award entry:

  • Focus on a specific project and describe the impact that it has or will have
  • Keep it simple and concise by focussing on the main reason why your project is worth winning an award
  • Shout about what you’ve achieved and don’t be afraid to tell us specifically what you have achieved so far
  • Enter more than one category – if your project fits across two categories then feel free to enter more than one. Sometimes our judges will advise you that your project will be stronger in another category so we will liaise with you on this to shuffle it around
  • Check out previous winners – all our previous winners are listed on our website over the years so take a look at previous winners’ stories for inspiration

Visit www.tech4goodawards.com/enter-now to enter now. You can enter and amend your entry up to 5th May 2021 at 5pm. Don’t forget that you can include up to 3 supporting images, documents, or videos to support your entry.