Time to be recognised at the Channel Awards 2013

The 20th anniversary of the Channel Awards will have several new categories and more chances to shine

Entries have opened for this year's extra-special CRN Channel Awards - and there are three new opportunities to take home a prize, including a category focused on cloud services providers, one for mobility vendors, another for services distributors, and even a talent competition.

What's more, we are delighted to announce that 2013 marks the 20th anniversary of the Channel Awards, which has gone from strength to strength in the years since 1994 - and only widened its lead on the pretenders and other rivals in its second decade. We're all going to be there this year on 14 November in London to celebrate in force, and we really hope you will be there too.

The deadline for entries is 5pm Friday 19 July - and we're sorry but absolutely no extensions can be given or late entries accepted.

Sara Yirrell, editor of CRN, notes: "In the interests of fairness to all competitors, and in respect for the time contributed by our hardworking panel of judges, we do insist that all candidates submit their entries on time.

"This will ensure proper and impartial attention being paid to each and every entry - something that matters greatly in a competition of this kind, as I'm sure you will agree."

Of course there will be the Editor's Choice Award for industry achievement to look forward to as well - and something very new for this year's event: a The Channel's Got Talent competition.

All dancing dogs, Psy parodies, X Factor contenders and similar must email a short video clip to [email protected] to participate. We hope entries for The Channel's Got Talent will start trickling in soon but the closing date is 14 September.

Entries will be posted on ChannelWeb and judged using social media, and the winners will get their very own five-minute slot, entertaining their peers, on Awards night. Go on, we dare you to get involved.

Nearly 2,000 guests, including many leading lights of the industry, are expected to attend the glitzy Awards night for dinner, drinks, dancing and the ceremony itself at Battersea Park Arena - and it will of course wrap up with the traditional lively after-party.

We might also suggest that, being the 20th anniversary, it will really be the year to be there if you've always meant to attend but haven't - or if you have not been able to secure a ticket in the past couple of years.

Fujitsu and Comms-care have already signed on as sponsors with more to be announced in due course, and all our sponsors will certainly help to make the 20th anniversary of the Channel Awards, this November, the proverbial night to remember.

Entry and general event enquiries
■ Steve Brown on 020 7968 4547 or
[email protected]

Sponsorship enquiries
■ Colin Logan on 020 7316 9484 or
[email protected]

Full category criteria are available at
www.channelweb.co.uk/awards. Please read before starting your entry.

■ Vendor categories to enter
Mobility vendor of the year - New for 2013!
Cloud services vendor of the year - New for 2013!
Channel services provider of the year
Storage vendor of the year
Networking vendor of the year
Software vendor of the year
Systems vendor of the year
Security vendor of the year
Specialist vendor of the year
Vendor of the year

■ Distributor categories to enter
Services distributor of the year - New for 2013!
Storage distributor of the year
Security distributor of the year
Software distributor of the year
Systems distributor of the year
Specialist distributor of the year
Networking distributor of the year
Distributor of the year

■ Reseller categories to enter
SMB reseller of the year
Mid-market reseller of the year
Enterprise reseller of the year
Managed services provider of the year
Specialist reseller of the year
Reseller of the year