Terms and Conditions

Terms & Conditions

We’re delighted you want to participate in the Bendigo Business Excellence Awards.

This page details our ‘terms and conditions’, and if you want to participate in the awards program, you’ll need to adhere to a few things that we’ve outlined for you below.

As with any fair competition, if you don’t comply with these terms, we have the right to disqualify you or declare your entry ineligible so it’s important to take note of these terms.

Nominating or entering the awards

Instructions on how to nominate and enter the Awards categories are set out at www.bbea.com.au. These sections also form part of the terms. Entries must be submitted by 11.59pm Sunday 1 June, 2025 via the category specific online form, and anything you include in your entry form must be true and correct to be eligible. To determine eligibility please head to https://bbea.com.au/award-categories

Terms of reference

‘Awards’ refers to the Bendigo Business Excellence Awards entity.
‘We, us, our’ refers to Be.Bendigo, and the Awards sub-committee.
Any reference to ‘you’ or ‘your’ includes you within your personal capacity, as representative of the business, and as the business being entered into the Awards.

Rules of entry:

1. Minimum entry standards

In order to enter the Awards, the business must:

Be located within the Greater Bendigo Local Government Area
Have an Australian Business Number
Be more than 60% Australian owned, with the owners or founders responsible for making the key management decisions
Earn more than $50,000 in annual revenue (or $20,000 for the Emerging and Energised award)
Both individuals and businesses must have been nominated during the nomination period to be eligible for entry as a category applicant.

2. Business entrant criteria

All businesses must have been operating for a minimum of 12 months as of 1st April, 2025 to enter any award category.
If a businesses has been trading for between 1 and 3 years, they are only eligible to be considered for the “Emerging and Energised” category and will not be considered for Business of the Year.
To be eligible for Business of the Year, businesses must have been operating for at least three years as of 1st April, 2025.
If a business has changed ownership within the past three years, the prior operational tenure of the business is considered in determining eligibility.
Businesses may enter as many categories as they like, however:
- They can only be selected as a finalist in two categories, based on scoring.
- They are eligible to win only one category. (we want to delete this all together)
If a business enters a category that does not align with its core operations, Be.Bendigo may consult with the entrant to suggest a more appropriate category.
Additional individual category criteria also apply and will be outlined in each category description.

3. Individual person entrant criteria

Any individual person entering for an individual category must have worked within the business for a minimum of 12 months to be eligible.
Additional specific criteria for entry eligibility for each category also applies.
Nomination, or submitting an application for a business award category does not automatically qualify an individual from that business to enter an individual award category; they must be nominated separately to be eligible.

4. Additional entry criteria

Not-For-Profit Category: to be eligible, the entity must be a not-for-profit, social enterprise or profit for purpose organisation that contributes a minimum of 10% of their profits back to the cause.
Emerging and Energised Award: must have been operating for at least 12 months and less than 3 years as of April 2, 2025.
Any business that has an employee who has judged the Awards program in 2023 or 2024, must declare this prior to entry, and seek approval to participate.
2025 sponsors of the awards are not permitted to enter the category they sponsor, and must seek approval to participate from the Awards Committee.

5. Entry exclusions

The following businesses are excluded from entry:

Commercial supplier of the Awards
Have filed for bankruptcy in the past 5 years
Have been subject to court proceedings in the prior 12 months from the close of entry date including the owner or founder’s personal capacity
Were not nominated during the 2025 nomination period.

6. Categories

As part of the award categories in 2025 there are 2 additional awards to be won. The‘Climate Leader’ award and ‘Social Procurement’ award. These awards are optional for any business category applicant to enter as an addition to their specific category submission. Optional climate related questions and optional Social procurement questions are added to all of the 17 business categories; these additional questions are not mandatory to complete, and non-completion will not effect the judging of the original category segment.

7. Judging and scoring

The judging process is held over two stages:

Written application review and scoring
In person interview process

Three judges per category are allocated, judges will review each of the written applications and provide a score for each question between 1-10 points. This score is calculated in consideration of how accurately each question is answered compared to the criteria provided, the business excellence displayed within the answer, and the overall quality, depth and value of the information provided by the entrant.

The total score will then be tallied, and any written applications achieving a total score of 70% or more will automatically advance as a Finalist within that category; with a maximum of five finalists per category, who hold the top 5 scores above 70%.

Applications who do not achieve a total score of at least 70% will not be considered as a finalist within their category and will not proceed to the next stage.

Each category must have a minimum of two finalists to proceed. Should any category not have at least two applications that have achieved a minimum score of 70%, two additional category specific questions will be presented to every applicant within that category to submit additional answers for judging; scored between 1-10 points each. If after this process there are still not at least two applications that have achieved a 70% minimum judging score, the category will not proceed to finalist status or provide an award winner.

Businesses who chose to enter the “Climate Leader” category by completing the optional climate related questions, will have these specific climate answers judged separately by Greater Bendigo Climate Collaboration representatives.

Businesses who chose to enter the “Social Procurement” category by completing the optional social procurement related questions, will have these specific answers judged separately by social procurement specialists/judges.

The judging of these optional climate and social Procurement related questions have no effect on whether a business will or will not be classified as a finalist with their business category. The scoring of these additional questions is not added to the business category written application score.

A business who does not achieve the required finalist score of 70% or more, is still eligible to win the Climate Leader award or the Social Procurement award, based on the quality of their related answers; businesses who do not answer the climate related or social procurement related questions will not be penalised.

Finalists within the Climate Leader award and Social Procurement award will be notified at the same time as all other category finalists announcements, and the awards will be presented at the Gala Dinner event on August 14.

8. Finalist allocations

Both category finalists are announced, and unsuccessful applications are advised on a specific date set for each annual awards period. Following the announcement, all finalists will be invited to attend the official Finalists and Sponsors networking event. The second stage of judging then commences; where in-person interviews, and in some cases site visits are undertaken to verify any final questions that the judges may have.

All finalists are encouraged to attend the Gala Awards Event, where the winner of each category will be announced.

Businesses can only be finalists in a maximum of two categories, where a business has entered multiple categories and achieved a score of more than 70% in more than two, the top two scores will be used to determine which two categories they will be declared a finalist in.

1. Privacy and data collection

Our privacy statement will apply for your involvement in the Awards. As part of your participation we collect all kinds of information relating to you and your business, including your responses to the entry forms which are then used to generate a Judges report, as well as at site visits and in-person interviews. We may share this information with our related entities, business partners, sponsors or other third party service providers engaged to help us with the Awards, and may continue to do so, even after you have participated in the Awards. By submitting an application, you consent to those parties with access to your information to use it to administer the Awards, send you marketing, invite you to be part of our initiatives including case studies, polls/surveys and to improve any products and services of ours, our related entities and our Sponsors. If you would like to access or correct the personal information that we hold about you, or wish to withdraw your consent to receive Awards material call the Be.Bendigo team on (03) 5442 7816.

2. What we expect from you

If you choose to submit an application and enter the Awards, you will need to ensure that anyone important to your organisation such as business owners, founders or officers are available to attend Award events and associated activities such as workshops, finalist events and the gala dinner, as well as the more serious requirements like judging days, meetings and site inspections.

If you become a finalist and have a bricks and mortar business, a visit to your premises may be required, and if not, you will be required to attend an in-person interview at the times and dates advised within the entry process.

It is expected that you will support us and our sponsors to publicise the Awards. When attending any events related to the Awards, if requested, you or your representative must verbally endorse the Awards or the relevant sponsor as applicable.

If you’re a finalist or a winner, the business owners, officers or founders may need to be available for promotional appearances for the Awards or for our Sponsors. Where possible, seven calendar days’ notice of the time, date and location each time you’re required will be provided.

You agree that we may use your logo, business identity, details about your business or personal identity in any way in any material which promotes the Awards or the products or services of us or our Sponsors.

You agree to allow us and the Sponsors to contact you to provide comments about the Awards and to take photos or video footage of you, your business and your representative(s), and use any of the material collected as part of your participation. If we do use any of the materials listed above, you grant us a royalty free, perpetual and irrevocable licence to use the materials for promotional purposes.

3. General terms

We reserve the right, at any time, and in our sole discretion to:

request entrants to provide proof of identity and/or proof of valid entry
disqualify any entrant who we have reason to believe has breached any of these conditions or engaged in any unlawful or other improper conduct or any conduct calculated to jeopardise the fair and proper conduct of the promotion.

Entries are accepted at the time of receipt by us. We will not be held liable for any entries not received for any reason during the promotion period.

4. Prizes

You are only eligible to win one prize, with the exception of the Business of Year, who must win their own category to be considered for the overall award.

We reserve the right to withdraw a prize if there are no eligible entrants to receive that prize.

By accepting a prize, you agree to participate in and co-operate as required with all reasonable marketing activities relating to the prize including but not limited to being interviewed and photographed. We reserve the right to use your comments, image and name for advertising and publicity purposes in any media in perpetuity without compensation.

A prize, or any unused portion of a prize, cannot be transferred, exchanged or redeemed for cash. All other expenses associated with the prizes are the responsibility of the winner.

We are not liable for any prize that may be lost, stolen, forged, damaged or tampered with in any way after it leaves our possession.

We are not responsible for any variation in the value of a prize.

If we are unable to provide a winner with a prize (or part of a prize), we will supply an alternative prize (or that part of the prize) of greater or equal monetary value and/or specification.

If a prize has not been claimed it will be distributed at our absolute discretion.

If for any reason, we are not able to conduct the promotion as planned, including due to tampering, unauthorised intervention, fraud, any technical difficulties or any other causes beyond our control, which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of this promotion, we reserve the right in our sole discretion to take any action that may be available.

We exclude all warranties in relation to the quality, suitability or merchantability of a prize, except those that cannot be excluded by law. To the fullest extent permitted by law, any liability of the Promoter or its employees or agents for breach of any rights a consumer may have which are unable to be excluded under Australian Law, is limited to the payment of the costs of having the prize supplied again.

To the extent permitted by law, we are not liable for any loss (including indirect and consequential loss) or damage or personal injury suffered or sustained in connection with the promotion including the supply of goods or services by any person to the prize winners, and where applicable to any persons accompanying the prize winners. We accept no responsibility for any tax liabilities that may arise from winning the prize.

5. Intellectual property

All intellectual property rights related to the Awards, including the information and data we collect, belong to us or our Sponsors. Don’t worry – you’ll still own any intellectual property rights you already owned prior to entering the Awards. You also assign, including by way of a present assignment, and assignment of all rights that may arise in the future, all intellectual property rights related to any and all materials that arise in relation to your participation in the Awards.

6. Indemnity

To the extent permitted by law, we will not be liable for any loss or damage or personal injury suffered or sustained in connection with the Awards. You will indemnify us and our officers, employees or agents against any loss or liability from any claim or action that arises as a result of a breach of these terms by you, or your use of the materials or information supplied by you under these Terms. You irrevocably and unconditionally consents to all acts being done that would otherwise breach your Moral Rights.

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