Ruth Findlay
What makes you want to judge these awards and why?
It’s such a fantastic opportunity to see the best of our profession, and always great to be able to team up with fellow judges from different organisations.
What are you looking for when you judge an entry?
I personally like it when the purpose and impact are really clear. Setting out the aims and objectives clearly and showing how these were met or exceeded. I also like a sprinkling of creativity and innovation – anything which sparks curiosity is always good.
What's your top piece of advice for someone on how to make their entry a potential winner?
Sounds obvious, but make sure the measurement is really robust and ties neatly into the objectives. Also making sure to clarify the context the work was delivered in – this helps us when judging work from organisations we aren’t familiar with.
Alison Harmer
What makes you want to judge these awards and why?
I work on my own, so judging the awards is an invaluable opportunity to see what company and agency teams are doing, keep myself sharp and ensure I’m up to date.
Allison Cary
I love to see entries that capture the joy of the creative process, but balance this with really robust measurement! The strongest entries showcase the impact of excellent Internal Communication practice by demonstrating outcomes and what has been achieved.
Claudi Schneider
What makes you want to judge these awards and why?
What is so brilliant about judging the IOIC Awards is the breadth of entries and variety of approaches taken by different organisations. It’s so interesting to see how different organisations have approached their IC and the impact this has had on the organisation.
What are you looking for when you judge an entry?
As judges we have clear guidance on what we are looking for to meet criteria and of course different projects and initiatives will involve different elements but what I think is most important is to understand the purpose of the work, clearly see where and how it has succeeded by adding value, and understanding the impact it has had on the target audience.
What's your top piece of advice for someone on how to make their entry a potential winner?
Think about your entry as a story and make it really clear and obvious what you needed to do and wanted to achieve, how you executed the work – with really clear visuals to bring it to life for the judges - and then what the impact was – not just the number of hits or views – but what happened or changed as a result of this piece of work / initiative / campaign / story etc.
Eduvie Martin
What makes you want to judge these awards and why?
As IC professionals, we work so hard to deliver results for our organisations often behind the scenes rarely taking the time to celebrate our achievements.
It gives me great joy to be able to play a small part in putting a smile on the faces of fellow comms professionals who do take the time to put in some very outstanding entries. Such a highlight to watch people take the stage with so much glee. And I often leave the sessions energerised and inspired by other organisations as well.
What's your top piece of advice for someone on how to make their entry a potential winner?
Document everything. Showcase outcomes alongside your outputs. Don't feel like you have to present a perfect picture to win. Take us on the journey with you and use storytelling to draw the judges in.
Heather Armond
What makes you want to judge these awards and why?
Being a judge is a fascinating process! Although deciding the winning entry is tough – what I like most is that you see the best of the best our industry has to offer, from across a range of companies. It inspires me, gives me ideas, and makes me proud to be a part of an industry that can produce such high quality work, and highlights the amazing professionals who are a part of it!
What are you looking for when you judge an entry?
A good entry is like a recipe. When all the individual components are there, in the right combination – you have success! I’m looking for a good story, great examples of how it was delivered, and backed up by solid metrics that show real and tangible benefit or impact to the organization. A dash of creativity and a flair for presentation also do not go amiss!
What's your top piece of advice for someone on how to make their entry a potential winner?
Don’t be afraid to give us judges the hard sell! An award entry is not the time to be self deprecating, low key or share soft points. Yes, of course tell a good, human story – we’re communicators after all, but give us the detail too – metrics, stats, facts and figures, the more the merrier.
Laura Colantuono
Judging the IoIC Awards is one of the highlights of my year! I love diving into the incredible work internal communicators are doing and seeing how IC keeps evolving. It’s always so exciting to see the innovation, passion and impact that shine through the entries. Every year, it’s a reminder of why I love this profession and how much amazing talent we have shaping its future.
Melanie Hinds
What makes you want to judge these awards and why?
It is a privilege to judge the hard work of colleagues who often face numerous challenges to deliver valuable internal comms work, to understand how they overcame those challenges and where the project journey took them, and see the success of it.
What are you looking for when you judge an entry?
Clarity on these key things: the problem they were trying to solve; the methodology used and what led to that approach; key milestones; demonstratable value and measured success.
What's your top piece of advice for someone on how to make their entry a potential winner?
Tell the whole story from beginning to end, what did you do and why? How did you do it and why? What did it achieve and how was that measured? What did you learn for the future?
Melisaan Foster
What's your top piece of advice for someone on how to make their entry a potential winner?
Follow the brief! Ensure you have clearly stated your objectives and how you intend to measure them. Then at the end of your entry, demonstrate the impact you have made by recapping those objectives and the metrics hit against those measurements. Be creative with your metrics – internal communication stats are helpful but consider other ways you can measure the effectiveness of your campaign and don’t forget to share the baseline you’ve started from!
Nicola Lally
What's your top piece of advice for someone on how to make their entry a potential winner?
Remember to check you’re giving us your aims, your flames and your evidenced claims! So be clear about what you were aiming to do, why it was a hot-to-trot idea, and give us the data to proof it worked and you achieved that original aim.
Shalini Gupta
Make your awards entry stand out by telling a compelling story that takes judges on a journey. Keep it simple with SMART objectives, no jargon, and back it up with real results—specific outcomes will always outshine vanity metrics!
Tracy Keates
What makes you want to judge these awards and why?
I've been privileged to judge these awards for several years and love the opportunity to collaborate with a diverse group of judges from various industries. The shared excitement and agreement over entries is unique, a chance to celebrate creativity and excellence across different fields.
What are you looking for when you judge an entry?
I'm looking for something fresh and innovative that has energy and passion behind it. It's not about the budget but how they are addressing the challenges and the tangible benefits achieved.
I value entries that demonstrate a genuine commitment to their people and their mission even if they aren't perfect. It's about recognising and celebrating the right efforts and impactful results.
What's your top piece of advice for someone on how to make their entry a potential winner?
My top advice is to tell your story authentically. Tell us about you and your team if applicable and provide context about your organisation and the challenges you've faced. Highlight the results you've achieved. Most importantly let your passion for internal communication shine through. Show us not just what you've done but why it matters and how you plan to build on your successes in the future.
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