The Virtuoso Awards program is open to all communications, PR, marketing and creative professionals in southwestern Ontario, including IABC members, non-members and students.
Quick Facts
- Choose from four divisions and 25 categories.
- The entrant listed on the entry form must have had direct and primary involvement in implementing the project submitted.
- You may submit multiple projects and in multiple categories. You may submit as many entries as you wish, but a separate entry form and fee is required for each.
- Trained evaluators will review your entry and provide you with meaningful feedback.
- Evaluation is based on IABC’s Global ‘Seven-point Scale of Excellence’ for strategic planning and execution.
- Scores for Communication Management, Communication Research, and Communication Training and Education entries are based equally on the required work plan and work sample.
- For entries in Communication Skills, the score is based on the work sample’s creativity, professional execution and alignment.
- Entry scores for awards:
- Award of Merit: 5.00 to 5.11 out of 7
- Award of Excellence: 5.12+ out of 7
Timeframe
All eligible work must have been produced, implemented, published or broadcast between January 2022 and the day of submission.
The 2024 Virtuoso Awards entry deadlines are as follows:
- Standard Deadline: Tuesday, March 26, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. ET
- Extended late Deadline: Monday, April 15, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. ET
Rules
Entry fees are paid on a separate secure payment page. You must both upload your entry and pay your entry fee before the corresponding deadline to take advantage of any monetary discounts (e.g. standard deadline pricing). No entries will be accepted if submitted or paid for after the late deadline on April 15, 2024.
Divisions 1-3: A work plan and work sample are required for entries in Divisions 1, 2 and 3. Work plans are limited to four 8.5×11 inch pages using a font size no smaller than 10-point and margins no less than 0.5 inch (1.27 cm). Your work plan must be submitted in PDF format and cannot exceed a file size of 5 MB. A template is available for your use. We recommend reviewing the “How-To Guide for IABC Awards: The Midas Touch Divisions 1, 2 and 3” before preparing your entry.
Division 4: For the Communication Skills division, you will be required to submit a work sample and answer eight questions with character limits for each answer. The questions are available for download. You will have the option of submitting these answers using text boxes on the entry form or by uploading a PDF (cannot exceed a file size of 5 MB). We recommend reviewing the “How-To Guide for IABC Awards: The Midas Touch Division 4” before preparing your entry.
You may upload a maximum of five (5) work sample files for each submission. Your work sample files must be in PDF, PNG, JPG, GIF, MP4, WMV, M4V formats. If you have more than five (5) files, please combine them into fewer PDF files. Each file is limited to 5 MB in size.
Files should be saved using the following recommended naming conventions:
- Work plan (Divisions 1-3 only): WorkPlan_Div#Cat#Lastname(ProjectName)
- Division 4 answers (if uploading the optional PDF): Answers_Div4Cat#Lastname(ProjectName)
- Work sample: WorkSample#_Div#Cat#Lastname(ProjectName)
Award submissions must be in English. Unfortunately, we cannot accept entries in other languages at this time.
If you are submitting from an agency, you must include client permission for your entry. A sample permission letter is available for your use.
Entries may be disqualified if:
- Either the entry or payment is received after the final deadline.
- The entry form is incomplete or inaccurate.
- The work plan, entry form or work sample does not adhere to the outlined specifications.
- Your entry is the work of another person and you had no direct involvement.
- Any element of the project violates the IABC Code of Ethics.
- The entry depends mainly on syndicated, borrowed, reprinted or stock material.
- The electronic files contain viruses; disable or require disabling of any part of the computer system used during evaluation; or cannot be viewed by evaluators.
- The entry is submitted by an agency without permission from the client represented.
Terms & Conditions
- Entries will not be accepted past the late deadline (April 15, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. ET).
- Evaluators may move entries between categories if deemed appropriate.
- Entries will be scored at the discretion of the evaluators. If there are any objections to the scores received, the entry will be re-evaluated by two senior evaluators (every effort will be made to ensure they have evaluated Gold Quill entries in the past). The decisions following this second review will be final.
- Should your entry be selected as a winner, IABC London requests that you grant rights, title and interest to reproduce your work in the chapter’s print and electronic communication vehicles.
Student Entries
A student or a group of students are eligible to submit to any division and category. Student work is evaluated using the same criteria but on a level comparable to student skills and relative experience.
At the time the work was created, the student must have been attending school full-time or part-time, working toward a degree at a college, university or other educational institution. Entrants who were enrolled as a student but have professional communications experience or are employed in the communications profession must submit their entry as a professional member or non-member.
Work produced for educational courses, a club or volunteer association, an internship, or commercial and non-commercial activities, including work for an IABC chapter or region, is eligible for submission.
If the assignment was not fully implemented, please make note of this to the evaluators. It will not disadvantage your entry, but you must show how the program would have been evaluated, had it been implemented in practice.
Professors, lecturers or advisers may not enter on behalf of a student.