How Amber Prize got off to a great start with minimum manpower and efforts thanks to Evalato

Find out how Amber Prize (former Baltic Event Awards) got off to a flying start thanks to Evalato

Amber Prize gathers leaders of event agencies, corporate event directors, esteemed representatives of event associations, and media professionals from over 15 European countries. It acknowledges the most remarkable events of the previous year and serves as a crucial assembly for all professionals engaged in the Live Communication Industry.

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Major pain points

First-edition awards

As first-edition awards, the Amber Prize faced a number of challenges. The organizers had to build a positive brand image in a short period of time and that left no room for old-school practices. They also had to deal with: 

• Lack of enough manpower — the combination of a small team and free entries meant too much workload; 
• Blending complex assessment with simple voting — they had to accommodate the specifics of the Baltic region into the evaluation process while leaving the voting method simple.   

As a judge in international awards, the founder and CEO of Amber Prize — Maria Kirillova, was well aware of all that. That’s why when she first encountered Evalato as a judge at Eventex Awards, she knew that this awards voting system will be a crowd-pleaser for the top-notch jury members she wanted to attract to her awards.

“I was instantly impressed by how much effort and time the system saves the judges. That’s crucial when you want to attract top-notch judges for your awards. Then when I signed up to test the platform in my role as an awards organizer, I had no doubt that this is the best solution for the Amber Awards.“

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What they did

Amber Prize trusted Evalato for its inaugural edition and they weren’t wrong to do so, since the awards management software streamlined their whole process and helped them: 

• Enjoyed a quick and stumble-free start — Evalato was so intuitive and easy for the team to use from the start that it took them less than an hour and the awards were already all set up and live on their website.

“Setting up our awards with Evalato was quite simple and took us less than an hour. Integrating the system into our website was a piece of cake too. We could manage and monitor the voting process in real-time which obviated a lot of inconveniences from us.”

Evalato’s intuitive interface makes setting up an awards program a breeze, while the embeddable registration form ensures a seamless experience for applicants, boosting conversions in the process. 

• Provided a convenient experience for applicants — Being extremely intuitive and convenient for the applicants, the Evalato online awards program software helped the Amber Prize gather a great number of entries. That was a truly impressive start for the first-edition awards.

“Applicants were able to submit several entries at the same time because the entry submitting process was simple and did not take much time. Everything was very clear and easy.” Maria Kirilova, Founder and CEO of Amber Prize

Evalato features a customizable application form, along with a next-gen portal for applicants to work on their entries, save as draft, and submit only when ready, making for a user-friendly application process. 

• Handle a vast number of entries by a very small team — the big overload of entries was a true challenge for the small team. Luckily, implementing Evalato helped them handle the entries in half the time. 

The Evalato awards management software enables the easy management of applications, including with one-click entry approval and shortlisting. The email automation meanwhile handles most of the communication with applicants, as well as judges, including confirmations, requests for resubmissions, and timely reminders. 

• Provided a simple and easy voting process — making the voting process of a complex competition simple and easy is a hard task especially when it’s a first for you. Evalato made that part stumble-free for the Amber Prize team.

“With Evalato it was easy to create and implement the evaluation process we needed!” Maria Kirilova, Founder and CEO of Amber Prize

Evalato’s evaluation features, including unlimited rounds and 6 voting options allow awards organizers to build their unique judging process to perfectly match their program’s requirements, be it simple or complex. 

• Attract and build long-lasting relationships with top-notch jury members — the impeccable judging experience helped Amber Prize not only attract top-drawer jury members but also build long-lasting relationships with those professionals.

Evalato’s judging portal, accessible from any device, ensures a seamless experience for jury members, keeping them happy and making it more likely that they would return for the next edition of your awards. 

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The results

The debut of the Amber Prize turned out to be a great success. Thanks to Evalato: 

• The team established the Amber Prize as a factor in the region and managed to build long-lasting relationships with both applicants and jury due to the time-saving and user-friendly platform they provided. 
• Over 70% of their applicants and jury members rated the system with 4.7 out of 5 points when asked for feedback.
• They built a professional and positive brand image from the get-go. 

“I can tell you just one thing – next year we will stay with the same software. I have never met a more comfortable and easy system for the voting process.” Maria Kirilova, Founder and CEO of Amber Prize

Bonus tips for other first-time award organizers

“We live in a world where quality content is particularly valued. However, any content is lost without a convenient form. Evalato adapts to any of your requirements, remaining professional and giving opportunities for anything, even the most courageous experiments, such as the largest awards of the region, for example.” Maria Kirilova, Founder and CEO of Amber Prize

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Running your first awards program like Amber Prize?

Let the Evalato awards software handle the heavy lifting — with features that save time and impress judges from day one.

Use this awards program checklist (with a free template) to stay on track from start to finish.