Are you paying to play? Let’s talk about awards, shall we?

Over the last few weeks, I've received some lovely emails saying that I've been nominated for awards. Brilliant, you might think- and you're right- but two of them had a sting in the tail. If I filled in the entry form and pressed 'submit', I HAD to agree that if I made it to shortlist phase, I would definitely pay to attend the awards. And some awards have very long shortlists. The tickets plus transport and hotel ran to hundreds of pounds, and I'd have to go back on projects committed to in order to enter. Which didn't seem right to me. 

Don't get my wrong, I know it costs money to run awards. And I know that award dinners cost money, but this pay to play concept feels odd to me. Especially when it's a sneaky pay to play. And that's what I talk about in today's podcast.

I love being able to say I'm multi award winning, and there are some incredible awards out there (huge shout out to Digital Women and Enterprise Nation!), but some have hidden costs that run into many hundreds. And then you have to ask yourself... is it worth it? Is the potential accolade worth the cost in time and money? I'd love your thoughts... here are mine on paying to enter awards, and hidden costs too...