Judging & Awards Process

Many of the judges are invited, and are former Stevie® Award winners.  Other professionals apply to judge on the American Business Awards web site, and if accepted are assigned categories by Stevie Awards staff, based on their industry, function, and experience.

Judging of entries will be conducted over two months, from February to April, by judging committees focused on the main category groups.  Each committee will have 10-30 members.  Judges will be both volunteers and invitees.  Judges’ average scores will determine the Stevie Award winners.  Every category in which there is at least one nomination with a final average score of at least 7.75 out of a possible 10 will have a Gold Stevie Award winner.  Otherwise, the nomination with the highest average score in a category will win the Gold Stevie Award trophy in that category.  Every other nomination in the category with an average of at least 8.0 will win a Silver Stevie Award medal.  Other nominations with an average score of at least 7.75 will win Bronze Stevie Award medals.

During judging, each entry is reviewed and rated by no fewer than five (5) judges. All entries are viewed and rated at the judges' convenience online. Rating is done on a scale of 1-10.

All judges' comments on entries will be available in entrants' entry-submission accounts when Stevie Award winners are announced.

The veracity of claims made in winning entries may be audited.  Any entry found to contain false or misleading information will be disqualified.  Gold Stevie-winning entries will be published on The American Business Awards® web site.   Winners will have the opportunity to redact any confidential or non-public information from their entries before publication.