Colorado event industry organizations are invited to submit their best events and event services to compete for a coveted ICON Award via the awards website. Each entry must be completed and paid for by the final registration deadline to qualify for judging. CEA uses an awards entry platform website that is managed and maintained by a third party. The site is customized by the CEA staff for the type of entry – Achievement or Recognition. The individual at the organization who creates the entry is responsible for ensuring that company names and entry names are correct.

After the final deadline, CEA’s Awards Committee does a quick review of all paid entries and disqualifies any for the reasons listed in the awards entry instructions document. This document can be found on the CEA website under the CEA ICON Awards section.

Judges from around the country and familiar with the events industry (non-profit and corporate planners, hoteliers, venues, photographers, production companies, DMCs, etc.) are then divided into teams and assigned a category to judge. All judges are from outside of Colorado and are not permitted to judge a category that they may have a local connection to. Judging is anonymous -- judges do not see any company specific information - only what was submitted via the awards website.

Judges are instructed to eliminate a company from consideration if they find any indication of the company name in the supporting documents, including photos.

Each judge logs on to the awards website, has 2 weeks to review the materials presented, and assigns point values for each answered question.

The awards website then generates a list of finalists to CEA based on the points earned in each category. Based on number of entries received per category and baring any ties, the top 3 in each category is generated automatically by the awards platform (potentially top 5 for Best Overall Program). The CEA office then notifies the finalists for each category.

This third-party awards platform generates all of the documents CEA uses during the awards notification process. CEA will review the final list for misspellings and accuracy, checking with the person who completed the entry if there are any questions.

When judging is complete, all entrants are notified via email if they are a finalist or not. Finalists are announced by CEA via email blast, social media and the list is posted on the CEA website. Press releases are sent to industry trade publications.

The CEA ICON Awards Gala night arrives, finalists are celebrated and winners are recognized!