How to apply

We know you detest rules. Heck, you've broken quite a few limiting business myths along the way to here! But for some semblance to sanity, here are a few guidelines for the nomination process.

1. To be eligible for these awards, the nominated business (or its nominated branches) need to have a trade licence, and an annual revenue not exceeding AED 250 million. You need not be an SME to qualify for the "SME support partners" category. Large enterprises can also apply.
2. Nominees must be:
   a) businesses based in the region (see point 3), or
   b) regional branch(es) of multinational businesses with an annual revenue not exceeding AED 250 million.
3. For the purposes of these awards, the regional countries included are: UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, and Palestine.
4. Nominees have to specify the award nomination category.
5. Nominees can submit their application for more than one category, but must provide relevant details for each category.
6. Fill up the form on this site - click here. Submitted forms must be complete.
7. As the questions are detailed, we suggest you take your time and answer the questions offline, save them as a document, and when you're ready, please copy-paste your answers onto the online form. [click here] The form could time out if you leave it idle for too long.
8. There is an option to upload supporting documents at the end of the online form. These can be in Word, .pdf, .ppt or .jpeg format, with a total file size not exceeding 1 MB. Please note: these are not to be considered a substitute for the completed online form.
9. All nominations should give precedence to fact-based information and should not hold marketing messages or branding information.
10. Achievements detailed in nominations should not be older than 18 months. Those older than that might not be considered.
11. For questions or clarifications, please e-mail ketaki@cpidubai.com or mikeb@cpidubai.com with the subject line "2011 awards".

What Next?

Nominees will be shortlisted by the CPI editorial team and a panel of industry experts, who will be pre-selected to work with us.

All shortlisted nominations will be sent to the judging panel. They might also be used in SME Advisor or CPI group magazines as part of a feature, an article by itself or as part of the Awards feature.

Each entry will be judged based on how it compares with all other entries submitted in its category.

Based on the details provided in the application and substantiating facts, the judges will select finalists for each category.

The judges might verify the information provided in the nomination form by calling the individual/company that has been nominated.

In case of any disputes, the decision taken by CPI will be considered final.

Shortlisted candidates will be notified by e-mail.

The awards will take place on 28^th November 2011.