Welcome to the 2016 Channel Awards

We have five new categories this year and they should be more compelling and easier to enter than ever before

Despite it feeling like only yesterday that we were celebrating the winners of the 2015 Channel Awards, it is now time to officially launch the 2016 awards.

With 25 categories, five of them brand new, the emphasis is very much on excellence and innovation this year as we hope to encourage as many as possible of you to enter and share your successes over the past year.

Due to take place at the home of the Channel Oscars - Battersea Events Arena - on 17 November 2016, we are working hard to make sure these awards are as memorable as the ones that have gone before.

Please remember the deadline for the awards is Friday 15 July - there will be no deadline extension, we have launched two weeks earlier than normal to give you even more time. Please do have respect for the companies that have hit the deadline by not expecting an extension and give yourself plenty of time to submit your entry.

This year we have launched a ‘Rising Star Award' in our reseller category - aimed at giving those start-ups and smaller players a real chance at impressing the judges and positioning their company as one to watch in the future.

For vendors, there are two new categories to choose from - the 'Vendor Innovation Award', and also the 'Emerging Vendor of the Year' - we all know how many new vendors appear on the channel scene each year, so now they have a chance to really shine against their more established peers.

And for distributors, we have the brand new ‘Distribution Innovation Award' and ‘Emerging Technology Distributor of the Year' category. So many changes are happening in the distribution space, with consolidation continuing at pace, that we have seen some real innovation happening at every level, and many distributors who pride themselves in ‘incubating' new technology.

Now you have the categories to really share your successes with the CRN judges.

For a full list of the categories, see the separate article in our specially launched Awards Hub.

This year we are hoping to make it as easy as possible to submit an entry by offering guidance and help into writing your entries and explaining what the judges are looking for. But in a nutshell it is very simple. We are looking for passion, honesty, humour and a desire to win.

Size does not matter, nor does how much a company has spent with CRN over the year. These are independent awards and we are very proud of that fact. The entry criteria have been tweaked and rewritten to make it as simple as possible and are outlining what exactly the judges are looking for in an entry.

Again the full criteria are listed in our Awards Hub to make it as simple as possible to enter. Short of writing it for you there isn't much else we can do, if you follow the criteria, hopefully the process will be as stress free as possible. Please do include facts and figures - there are never too many to include, and please do make it UK relevant.

These awards cover the UK market only - so judges are not interested in what is happening in Europe or further afield - just the UK market. Vendors especially, please do remember that.

We should also emphasise that while we encourage creativity with entries, and PDF/Video entries are welcomed, this is not a requirement, so a normal text entry is just as likely to win if that is what you prefer to submit.

Content is the key to winning. All we ask is to make sure the entry is well spaced out and easy for the judges to read.

Please do read the criteria and Ts&Cs fully before starting your entry, and if you cannot write a different entry for each category, perhaps it is better focus on just one or two.

Best of luck, and keep your eyes peeled on our brand new Awards hub, there will be plenty more to come!