FAQ

1. What is the basic requirement for undertaking as Leading Organiser (LO)?

Any non-profit organisation, like professional body, trade association, and social service agency, can apply to become a LO of any one of the 8 Categories of the HKICT Awards 2024 and 2025.

2. What are the major duties of Leading Organiser (LO)?

LO is responsible to plan, organise, manage and run the award category. The duties include devising the rules of award competition, receiving and processing entries in particular to assure the eligibility of the entries, appointing the assessors and judges, arranging the adjudication to select the winning entries, and holding its Category Awards Presentation Ceremony, and be responsible for handling complaint concerning the entries and the assessment and adjudication processes. For details, please refer to the Judging Manual upon appointment.

3. Are there any procedural guidelines for a Leading Organiser to follow when organising the Category event?

Yes. Usage guidelines and templates on promotional, enrollment and other awards related materials will be provided. Overall event schedule, adjudication rules and procedures will also be provided.

4. Is there any sponsorship fund available from the Government for Leading Organiser (LO) to organise the Category event?

Yes. A sponsorship of $250,000 at maximum for each edition is available for each LO to organise its Category event of HKICT Awards 2024 and 2025 on the areas such as manpower, equipment and promotion. Detailed scope as well as terms and conditions for using the sponsorship fund can be found in the Request for Proposal and Proposal Form which are available from the Secretariat Office of the HKICT Awards.

5. Is there any venue available for holding Category Awards Presentation Ceremony if a Leading Organiser (LO) has difficulty in finding a suitable location?

There are two types of Awards Presentation Ceremony (APC) in the HKICT Awards. The first type is Category APC to be organised by LOs on their own for their respective Categories. The other type is main APC cum dinner. This main APC cum dinner is the pinnacle of the whole event of the HKICT Awards where winner of the Award-of-the-Year would be announced. If a LO has difficulty in finding a suitable venue for its Category APC, or a LO wants to share the ambience of the main APC, dedicated venue adjacent to the venue of main APC cum dinner can be used for free by the LOs in the morning as well as afternoon on the date of the main ceremony.

6. Regarding entry enrollment, can a contestant switch Category after submitting an application to the Leading Organiser (LO) of a particular Category?

Different Categories of the HKICT Awards are led by different LOs.

Before deadline of enrollment, a contestant can raise a request of Category change to the LO of the applied Category (original LO), withdraw the application there, and then submit a fresh application to the new Category. Please note that the request for Category change must first be made to the original LO, otherwise subsequent re-submission to the new Category will not be allowed if the enrollment deadline is passed.

In case enrollment deadline has already passed, switching Category is still possible within the entry screening period of around 7 working days following the enrollment deadline. For this situation, request for Category change must be

(i) raised by the contestant through the LO; or
(ii) raised by the LO who considers there is another Category more suitable for the contestant, and the LO must obtain consent from the contestant before raising a switch Category request to the Secretariat Office.

7. Regarding entry enrollment, the application must be submitted by Hong Kong registered entities or residents in Hong Kong. What is the meaning of “Residents in Hong Kong”?

“Residents in Hong Kong”, in the context of HKICT Awards, include both permanent and non-permanent residents. If an entry is submitted by more than one person, at least half of the members of the group must be Hong Kong resident at the time of closing for entry enrollment.

8. Is English the only language allowed for a contestant to present its entry?

An applicant can choose to present in English, Cantonese or Putonghua. However, applicants are required to indicate their choices of presentation language in the application form so that Leading Organisers could have sufficient time for necessary arrangements including to arrange suitable assessors and judges.

9. How many prizes would be awarded under the HKICT Awards 2024 and 2025?

The prizes include Gold, Silver and Bronze awards as well as Certificate of Merit.

For each Category of the HKICT Awards, there is a Grand award winner selected from among Gold award winners of its streams. The 8 Grand award winners so selected will compete for the Award-of-the-Year of the HKICT Awards.

In a bid to foster the innovative use of artificial intelligence (AI), each of the eight categories will establish a new distinguished accolade: the "Best Use of AI" award, magnifying and honouring outstanding achievements in harnessing the power of AI in respective areas.

Except for those awards mentioned above, no other awards are included in the HKICT Awards.

10. Regarding the Supervisor for eligibility vetting on entries, are there any requirements or restrictions for this "supervisor"? Can it be a volunteer or must be a paid staff of the Leading Organisation (LO)?

According to Section 3.1(e) of the Request for Proposal, "For eligibility screening, in addition to the screening staff, there must be a supervisor to address problems encountered and to sample check screened entries. Upon completion of the assessment round of adjudication, and except for the Student Innovation category, this supervisor has to review and reconfirm on eligibility for all entries that are to be recommended to the judging panel. Due care and diligence must be exercised, and clarification must be raised for any doubt identified. Procedural guidelines are provided in Annex F. ". Besides, according to Section A (I) Manpower of Schedule 5 of Proposal Form, "All outsourced and staff resources must only be dedicated to the administrative work of assessment / judging only, rather than involving in the process of assessment / judging itself, such as screening of eligibility of entries.".

11. What documentary proof is required at time of proposal submission?

Non-profit organisations are invited to submit proposal to take part in the Hong Kong ICT Awards 2024 and 2025 as Leading Organisers. According to Section 1.1(a) of the Request for Proposal, "The proponent shall provide supporting documentary proof such as memorandum of article, business registration certificate or other document as appropriate.".

12. Is there any restriction in Streams to be proposed?

According to Section 3.1(b) of the Request for Proposal, "The proponent shall propose multiple streams (with maximum of THREE streams in general, and a maximum of FOUR streams for students in primary, secondary and tertiary education for Student Innovation Award) under the Award Category.". Besides, according to Section 3.1(c) of the Request for Proposal, "All proposed streams can only target at products, solutions, applications, schemes, service programmes, technologies, or startup companies directly related to ICT.".