Two more empty homes award categories announced - submissions please

    We are looking for submissions for two more categories in the Empty Homes Awards 2017.  These are new categories which are being sponsored by the Empty Homes Network itself this year.     Best before-and-after photos This Award is now being sponsored by Cromwood Social which is a part of the Cromwood Group. This category is self-explanatory. A picture speaks a thousand works, and nothing is more powerful in underlining the value of the work that empty homes practitioners do than before-and-after pictures. And the good news with this award is that you don't have to write anything. In judging the submissions, we will primarily be interested in the quality not the quantity of the pictures. In that vein, please limit your submissions to a maximum of four properties, with no more than six pictures of each, but don't in any way treat this as a target! We don't expect people to have this many pictures available. Special considerations We are feeling our way with this new category.  We want the pictures to be available for reproduction by EHN, which involve special conditions:

• you must hold the copyright to the pictures
• you must tell us who has the copyright (i.e.. you personally or your employer) so that we are able to acknowledge it in any reproductions
• by submitting pictures to us, you warrant that the copyright holder is granting the Empty Homes Network ('EHN') and all fellow members in EHN an indefinite licence to copy and reproduce the pictures in any medium with or without minor adjustments such as cropping or colour adjustments or conversion to grey-scale but without distortion or other effects and provided that your copyright is acknowledged in any such reproduction
• you undertake to supply the photos in jpeg format to a suitable resolution after the judging of the submissions is completed

If any of this is unclear then please do contact us at events@ehnetwork.org.uk as soon as possible. Formats Please submit all your pictures embedded in an MS Word Documents laid out with two photos - before and after - per side. We will then request original photos in jpeg format after the judging is completed. Excellence in Information Award This award is now being sponsored by Destin Solutions Ltd. With this award we are looking for examples of best practice in obtaining or using information to support your empty homes work. This could include best practice in how you collect information about empty homes or their owners, how you process it or protect it, your internal or external partnerships and ways of working ... and so on. How to apply Submissions should be clear and to the point and no more than two sides of A4, maximum 1200 words or the equivalent in an email, per award. You can send us more if you want - e.g. sample forms, process diagrams etc - but in evaluating your stated reasons for deserving the awards we will only look at the first 1200 words of the first two pages (which should therefore be self-contained). Further information about these awards Sorry but we can’t offer free or discounted Conference attendance fees to the winners. However, there will be a photo opportunity during the Conference and we publish and make available pictures of winners receiving their awards. The winning submissions are also featured in news stories after the event and we would hope to build case studies from the Excellence in Information Award submissions. Please send your nominations to events@ehnetwork.org.uk Closing date The closing date for submissions for this award is midnight, Sunday, 7th May. Thanks also to our main Conference sponsor Ad Hoc Property Management Ltd.