Voting Rules 

General

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• Global Excel Awards is organised by Global Excel Summit.

• The nomination and voting process takes place on the Global Excel Summit website only.

• Participation in the nomination and voting process is free of charge.

• Nominations and voting is decided by the public, but the judges panel determines which nominees become finalists.

• A person can nominate multiple times for each category. Voting is allowed only once using a valid email address. All other submissions from this email address will be disqualified. Nominations and votes sent from disposable email addresses will also be rejected.

• The organisers reserve the right to cancel votes they believe to be fraudulent.

• The organisers reserve the right to cancel any nominations/votes that don’t meet the criteria.

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Eligibility

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Category #1: Rising Star in the Excel Industry
This category is open to individuals who are reasonably deemed to have an emerging presence.

Category #2:  Best Microsoft Excel Add-in
This category is open to active free and paid add-ins compatible with Excel for Microsoft 365.

Category #3: Most Innovative Use of Excel
This category is open to any individual as long as their work is publicly viewable on the web.

Category #4: Training Provider of the Year
This category is open to individual educators and organisations providing Excel training at scale through courses, social platforms, or educational content.‍

Category #5: Best Global Excel Summit 2026 In-person Session
This category is only open to individuals who have a scheduled in-person session.

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Nominations stage

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• Nominations should be supported by a Linkedin profile or website of the person/add-in nominated to be considered.

• Nominations are open to everyone.

• Individuals can submit nominations for themselves or others.

• Nominations can only be submitted via the awards nomination forms.

• Do not submit nominations via email — they will not be acknowledged.

• Nominations must be submitted in English. We cannot consider non-English language nominations.

• You are not obligated to submit a nomination for every category.

• You are forbidden from nominating any of the judges named in the following section.

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Judging stage

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• The judges panel comprises five esteemed figures from the Excel industry.
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• The judges are Leila Gharani, Alan Murray, Danielle Stein Fairhurst, Celia Alves and Ian Pay.

• The judges panel serves as a quality control filter to maximise the integrity and legitimacy of the nominations.
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• The judges will apply the defined criteria to each category to ensure the nominees pass the required standard.
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• The judges will determine the finalists for every category except 'BEST Global Excel Summit 2026 In-Person Session'.

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Voting stage

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• You are not obligated to vote in every category.

• The person/organisation/add-in with the highest number of votes in each category will be deemed the winner.

• In case two or more nominees have the same number of votes, the one who had the highest number of nominations will take precedence.

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Key dates

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• The public nomination period runs from 14 January 2026 until 13 February 2026.

• The judges panel determine the finalists from 14 February 2026 until 3 March 2026.

• The finalists are revealed on 14 March 2026 during our Free Online Community Day.
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• The public decides on four of the category winners from 14 March 2026 until 30 April 2026.

• The winners are announced at the Global Excel Summit in-person event on 20 May 2026.