About the SIGUCCS Communications Awards

comm awards winnerThe SIGUCCS Communication Awards represent a unique opportunity for IT professionals to be recognized by their peers for excellence in something IT has a reputation for doing rather poorly. Jokes about nerdy, awkward IT folks abound, and not entirely without cause – some of us probably got into this profession just to avoid people! Turning technobabble into something useful and helpful for our customers is an area where many IT organizations – both inside and outside higher education – fall short. Skilled communication can make or break our relationship with our campus community, and for this reason SIGUCCS wants to recognize those IT professionals who are consistently striving to teach, train, and communicate in engaging and thoughtful ways.

The awards span a wide range of topics, some of which you might not think of as “communication” at first, like training materials and documentation. Some segments incorporate a little bit of marketing, like social media and websites, and some even recognize our student workers for their contributions. Across the categories, we want to see your efforts to connect with your customers, through traditional or cutting-edge means. SIGUCCS knows you’re not a professional PR guru, so don’t sell yourself short thinking that your project is boring or not snazzy enough. Did it work? Did you get the results you hoped for? We want to hear about it!

star StatuetteEven if your project doesn’t win in its category, you’ll still get helpful feedback from the judges – a panel of previous winners from the category. Judges’ feedback is a wonderful way to expand your mindset beyond what your institution likes and expects from your work, and can give you fresh ideas for another project.

Visit the SIGUCCS Communication Awards webpage today for a full list of categories, criteria, and instructions for entering your project.

~ Becky Cowin

 

 

About SIGUCCS Editor

The Special Interest Group on University and College Computing Services (SIGUCCS) is an association of professionals who support and manage the diverse aspects of information technology services at higher education institutions. SIGUCCS is one of 36 special interest groups of ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, the world's largest educational and scientific computing society. SIGUCCS focuses on issues surrounding the support, delivery, and management of those services, and provides professional development opportunities for its members and the other individuals in the field.