Innovation 2020

Technology and customer interests and expectations continue to develop at a rapid pace; the bus industry needs to embrace these changes, and react to the challenges coming from a changing mobility and social landscape. The New Horizons Award is intended to be a showcase for creativity and innovation. As such, a successful nomination for this Award needs to demonstrate development of an original or novel idea, or the application of a technological solution, that achieves one or more of the following:

• improves the image of the bus
• stimulates interest in, or desire for, the bus product
• improves the viability or efficiency of the industry

This Award will be made for the innovation or technological application which, in the opinion of the judges, most contributes to the improvement of the bus product. Evidence of quantification of the benefits achieved or expected is essential.

Please note that schemes which are designed to reduce or mitigate the environmental impact of the bus should be entered for the Environment Award.

Who can be nominated?

This category is open to industry suppliers, operators and authorities either separately or in conjunction with one another.

… and by whom?

Nominations will be welcomed from all eligible organisations and self-nomination is acceptable.

Criteria and Entry Requirements

• Entries will be judged on the basis of the quality of the submissions which need to:
• Provide a full description of the project, describing how it works and how it was introduced
• Explain how has it made a difference

Supply evidence of the overall trend(s) affected by the project, as appropriate, in:

• patronage/revenue
• customer satisfaction
• cost and efficiency levels
• State whether the results are likely to be sustainable
• Describe any future plans for further development
• Include any relevant supporting material
• Describe how the impact of the project was measured
• Describe how staff were informed and trained and the impact, if any, that the project has had on their jobs State whether any partners were involved and, if so, describe their roles
• Describe the mechanisms put in place for public consultation (where appropriate) and for dealing with comment and feedback.

Entries should address each of the above criteria to assist with the judging process, because non-transferable marks will be allocated for each of these criteria.

Entrants should note that judges will be expect to be able to view and try any technological solutions or applications for themselves as part of the evaluation process where practicable, and provision should be made in the entry for them to do so.

SENDING IMAGES

Please ensure that you send JPEG files. PDFs, pictures in Word files and in PowerPoint presentations are NOT acceptable.

For people categories, it is nice to see the person in a work environment – in a driving cab, by a vehicle or with colleagues, for example – but please ensure that the nominee is clearly recognisable. A head and shoulders shot is also useful. For other categories, please send pictures of your project or your company’s activities, and send one of the team involved.

These photographs may be used by us in a variety of ways, on the Bus Awards web site, in video presentations and in souvenir brochures and other printed material including the trade press.So that we can make the most effective use of the pictures you send us, please try to ensure that they are high-resolution JPG images (300 dpi) and at least 1200 x 1600 pixels in size. This implies a file size of at least several hundred KB – more is better. If you are using a mobile phone, please select the highest quality/most mega pixel/highest file size setting.