How IWMF Competition Works?
One of the highlights of Iran Web and Mobile Festival is a competition annually held between top Iranian startups and knowledge-based companies.
Two sets of winners are picked through public vote and expert vote. There are also special categories, winners of which are elected by a penal of judges or co-founders of IWMF.
Public Vote
Everyone can participate in this round of IWMF competition they would only need to create an account on IWMF website and vote for their favorite online services.
Businesses are grouped in different categories on IWMF website. Public voters can review the contestants and vote for their favorites. Participants in the competition can also share a link on their websites, by clicking on which users can view the list of businesses competing in the same category as them and vote for the top contender.
As you would expect, businesses which have a wider range of audience usually win the Public Vote. But in many occasions the winners of the Public Vote awards are not the ones picked through the Expert Vote.
Expert Vote
Every year, IWMF reaches out to business insiders and specialists, and enlist their help to pick top online service providers in Iran. This year 2,400 business insiders have participated in the process.
Initially online services are grouped in 62 categories (List of contestants in Persian). The number of categories in which the online services are listed has grown over the years. In 2007, when IWMF was launched there were only 17 groups. Over the years, as number of contesters grew, the number of categorizes was also increased.
Winners of the Expert Vote awards are picked in three steps. Expert voters review the list of participants and vote “yes” or “no” for each service indicating whether it is qualified to participate in IWMF competition or not. These votes translate into scores. Only the top 12 services in each category scoring the highest approval rate remain in the competition.
Then IWMF panel of judges (List of judges in Persian) review the 12 services in each category and pick five. Once again, the expert voters review the candidates, picking the winner from the five.
The panel of judges includes business veterans who have years of experience in fields of ICT, startups, arts and public relations, programmers and journalists. Based on their record each judge’s vote is weighted as well. For instance the votes of judges who have participated in previous rounds of IWMF carry more weight.
Special Category
In addition to winner of Public Vote and Expert Vote, every year IWMF hands out Special Category awards. Winners of this sector are directly picked by the penal of judges or co-founders of IWMF.
Special Category awards include, best app, best business, best innovation, best book, best movie released online, and best digital advertising campaign.
This year and considering the spread of the Covid-19, IWMF has introduced a new awarded for the business which played a significant role in raising awareness about the novel Coronavirus.
