Tips for Judges

Tips for Judges

• Be Communicative: While your nominees are expected to contact you, you can be proactive and contact them with a short introduction message and ask for dates and times of their preferences for your demonstration.
• Be Professional: Remember that you are representing an international and prestigious awards system. As a judge you need to avoid the temptation to become too informal with nominees. Some informality is good; it allows the presenters to loosen up so you can experience their best efforts, but your interaction with nominees before, during and after the demo should be respectful and professional.
• Be a Problem Solver: There may be times when you run into situations where you aren’t quite sure what to do in your judging process. Contact CODiE Awards Director, Jenny Baranowski, immediately if you are uncomfortable or confused about what to do.
• Be Respectful of Time: Make sure you are clear and reconfirm when your demo begins and how long it will go.
• Complete your Evaluations Immediately: Don’t wait for days afterwards to enter your presentation scores! Plan to take 15-20 minutes to enter them when they are fresh right after the demo. Your scores determine to a large part whether the nominee’s product makes it to the decision round. Be thorough in your comments so nominees receive high quality constructive feedback.
• Ask Questions: Ask each assigned nominee how they would like clarifying questions handled throughout the presentation. When you ask questions it is a good idea to review the explanation of what product you are evaluating and ensure your questions are appropriate for the product and the category they are in. We also recommend reviewing the judging criteria with the nominees before the presentation begins so everyone is on the same page.
• Check Requirements Before the Demo: Check to make sure you have the appropriate software to view the demo/ presentation.
• Follow Up: After the demo, thank the nominees and ask for any additional supporting materials you may need.