Please contact our sponsorship team to discuss how you can get involved in 2024 and be part of the most prestigious awards for Opticians.

Darren Ward

Sales Manager

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7501 6668

Email: darren.ward@markallengroup.com

For more information please visit our sponsorship page here: Click here

Our entry deadline is Friday 30th August 2024 at 11:55pm.

Any individuals, practices or organisations who meet our category criteria can enter the awards. We only accept entries from UK and Ireland practices and professionals. However, we also accept entries from overseas companies that supply products to the UK market.

It is free to enter the Optician Awards.

A practice can enter a maximum of THREE of the practice awards. This does not include the individual awards.

Entries for the same individual, practice or organisation who have previously entered the Optician Awards may enter this year, provided it can be evidenced that further improvements to performance have been achieved since the last submission.

If you are writing your entry in Word to then paste into our online portal, please note that Microsoft Word counts words differently from the web. For instance, it ignores bullet points which are counted online, so your word count may differ. If you have trouble copying your answers into our online entry form, try removing formatting such as bullet points. If that doesn't work, please contact us on: awardsteam@markallengroup.com.

If you are having any issues with using our online entry portal, please contact awardsteam@markallengroup.com and we will be happy to assist.

The main component of your entry is your 1000 word answer to the main entry question. All key information listed in the criteria for the category needs to be within this text and not in the supporting material.

Supporting material is optional and may be submitted to enhance what you have already outlined in your 1000 word answer. It should be used to illustrate/demonstrate what is already listed within the entry document. Examples include photographs, testimonials, charts, PDFs of any printed materials (adverts, brochures, news articles etc.).

Whilst supporting material is important and helpful to the judges (particularly photos), we ask that you keep these documents relevant to the written element of your submission.

IF AVAILABLE, PLEASE UPLOAD:

1. Entry Photo: Upload a photo that best represents you, your team, your practice or your service.

2. Company Logo: Upload your official logo.

GUIDELINES:

- Photos must be uploaded as a high-resolution JPEG or PNG file.

- A resolution of at least 1MB is best.

- If you are uploading your files from a phone, please ensure that the photo is sent as ‘actual size’.

Please Do Not:

- Attach ZIP files in the file upload fields.

- Upload photos taken from websites that are not the original size.

- Exceed the limit of 40MB within each file upload field.

Our system only allows for a maximum of five files to be uploaded per entry. These file upload fields can only hold one document per field. Examples of supported file formats include JPEG, PNG and PDF.

Once you have submitted your entry/entries, it is not possible to cancel any submissions from your profile. If you no longer wish to be put forward for a category, or if your circumstances have changed (e.g., change of jobs) that would make it inappropriate to continue with your application, please email awardsteam@markallengroup.com and we will un-submit your entry for you.

Once the entry deadline has passed, in most cases we will not be able to accept late entries, unless there are extenuating circumstances.

These circumstances may occur if:

- You are very close to submitting your entry and you need a bit of extra time.

We will be able to judge if this applies if we can see that almost all of your entry has been filled out on our system. If this is the case, we will agree on a revised extension deadline. If this deadline passes and we do not receive your entry, we will not be able to provide further support. If you are only just starting your entry when the deadline passes, we will not be able to accept your submission.

- You have a completed entry, but you have forgotten to complete the remaining steps to submit your application.

If your entry is completed but it is still in your basket or saved items on our system, these entries will not be officially submitted. You will not be able to submit an entry once the official deadline has passed. We will be able to support you if you alert us as soon as possible that your application is finished and only needs to complete the final steps. 

In both of these extenuating circumstances cases, please reach out to us on awardsteam@markallengroup.com and we will assist each entry on a case by case basis. Fees will not incur for any entries received after the deadline has passed.

The Optician Awards will be judged by a panel of experts specialising in different areas of optometry and the optical industry.

The aim of the Optician Awards is to recognise excellence, innovation and impact. The judges will be looking for examples of excellent projects, services, teams, and individuals. For the best chance of submitting a successful entry, it is best to be concise, clear and to the point in your 1000 word entry answer.

The judges are mainly looking at your written answers to formulate their decisions. It is crucial to write all the relevant necessary information for them to be aware of within your submission. This is so that our judges have a full picture of the individual/practice/organisation that is being put forward for an award.

Once you have submitted your entries, they will be processed by the Awards Team ready for judging. Judging takes place in September and the shortlist will be announced shortly after.

The full shortlist will be published on this website in October.

The announcement of the winners will be made at the Optician Awards Ceremony at The Ballroom, Grosvenor House Hotel, in London on Friday 22nd November 2024.

The Optician Awards 2024 ceremony will take place on Friday 22nd November 2024 at The Ballroom, Grosvenor House Hotel, in London.

Details as to how to secure your seats and tables will be published once the shortlist has been announced.

The room will be filled from the front with VIP's, sponsors and premium tables, following which the guests who have booked standard tables and individual seats will be allocated spaces.

Please note that any guests who purchase fewer than 10 seats will be placed with other groups to make up tables of 10 guests.

Please click here to read our booking terms and conditions.