One of my favorite things about this program is how the winners are displayed (pdf and jpeg files) on the TABPI website, so winners (and non-winners, too) can see the kind of great journalism that is taking place in b2b. This also allows editors, designers, publishers, etc. the opportunity to look back and see what kind of competition they'll be up against if they enter the Tabbies. (And maybe even learn something from the winners!)
I invite all the judges to weigh in on this year's competition, as well as any of the 2007 entrants or winners.
Posts: 77 | Location: Cleveland, Ohio, USA | Registered: 17 August 2006
The quality of this year's entries was the best I've seen so far, making the contest especially difficult to judge. While judging a contest like this is always somewhat subjective, the cream of the cream of the crop do stand out and earn the top honors. Two of the articles I especially enjoyed offered humor as well as practical advice and analysis. One was about how to "survive" a big trade show in Las Vegas, something just about everyone faces, no matter what industry they work in. The other article was about "escaping (computer) services addiction" and went through 12 steps to recovery...a very entertaining way to write what could have been a very boring article. I believe this use of humor, when appropriate, can really add a lot to b2b journalism.
This year was the first year I was a judge for the TABPI awards. I have judged the ASBPE design awards, the Maggie’s and the Ozzies for FOLIO. The experience was great and the designs blew me away!! The designs were bold and showed emotion through the images and type. The layouts have voice!! The designs had images that grabbed your attention, had great placement of text and a nice composition. All the designers did a fantastic job! Congrats to the winners!
The elements that win awards are timeless: clean writing, good use of sidebar material, compelling leads and hooks that show some human interest element. In B2B publishing, where we're often dealing with topics that can be dry or technical, leading with a real person's experiece can pull your reader--or a Tabbie judge!--right into the text. From there, your clean writing and sidebars will keep the reader with you to the end. The key to producing award-winning material is to remember you're crafting a whole piece, not just writing a story.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Paul J. Heney,
This was my first year judging as well. I found the process, at first, overwhelming. How would I discern between submissions to come up with the top ones (technical articles)in the field? But once I got going, I realized fairly quickly that the most outstanding of the bunch really stood out in memorable and compelling ways. Technical articles can often be dry and uninviting; you might find yourself "sludging" through them. But the ones that caught my attention most drew me in right from the start. They shared real-life experiences - a story within the necessity of explaining a "technical" function, product or process. I also was drawn to the ones that offset generic text with simple yet interesting and information graphics and sidebars. Something to break up the monotony (yes, I'm afraid so) of delving into minute aspects of what I was reading. Since I do more and more layout and design in conjunction with my writing, as well as editing of a couple of magazines, I felt these elements were extremely important to selecting the best of the best.
I thought that the feature articles submitted last year where better overall than the ones received this year. There were still a few great ones, but the overall quality was not as high. It bothered me a little that magazines would submit articles laden with errors as their "best" work.
Thank you for your message. We post our annual Call for Entries around January first each year, and the deadline for the Tabbies is generally sometime during the first week of March. The CFE contains the entry forms for the competition.
If you send your contact information to info@tabpi.org, we can put you on our database, so you'll receive the CFE when it becomes available.
Posts: 77 | Location: Cleveland, Ohio, USA | Registered: 17 August 2006
