Don’t Panic Events are Award organisers who deliver awards that are ethical, transparent and highly respected. Our Awards truly value the expertise, creativity and innovation that digital industries around the world deliver on a day-to-day basis.
Ethical and transparent
Our Awards are judged by international leading, industry experts who understand the digital industry which means Award accolades are not only industry recognised but they are legitimate and can be trusted by clients, business partners and employees. Our Awards are driven by merit and judged by peers. They are not a popularity contest!
Judges follow a robust, two-step judging process that involves pre-scoring of all entry forms and examination of any supporting materials. Scores for each question on the entry are combined to give an overall score and the highest scoring entries determine the Shortlist. Judges meet to discuss in detail the highest scoring entries and agree, although this can sometimes become heated, an overall winner.
Confidential
Our judges agree to our judging code of conduct to ensure confidentiality and to provide peace of mind for entrants. All judging discussions are confidential, and material will not be shared with anyone outside of the judging panel before or after the ceremony. Judging papers will not be shared with any third parties and will be deleted immediately after the judging period. Judges can only access entries they have been asked to score.
Progressive
We are passionate about Awards and their need to reflect excellence. In 2020 we began working in partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University and David Edmundson-Bird, Principal Lecturer in Digital who is our Judging Panel Chair of Standards. David and Don’t Panic will be working together on continual improvement – in the design of categories and criteria as the digital landscape advances into the future, the development of the judging process that can be applied objectively to ensure consistency and with the selection and coaching of judges.
From Sept 2020 anyone entering a Don’t Panic owned award receives qualitative feedback on their score, alongside honest constructive feedback from the judges. Each awards scheme has several Head Judges who are responsible for reviewing and approving feedback before it is given to ensure validity and authenticity, agreed by the panel.
Community
Don’t Panic have been delivering Awards for over 15 years with the intention of shining a spotlight on the digital industry. We welcome feedback from our entrants: if you cannot see an award category that suits your work let us know, our team and the judges will look into it; If you have problems with entering, let us guide you through the process; if you feel you can help us ensure the future of Awards is valid, respected and trusted then talk to us. We are in this together.
Don’t Panic are proud to display the Awards Trust Mark, an independent accreditation programme which validates the ethical process operated on all their awards.