2020 Awards of Excellence

Can NBBQA Board Members Enter?

Yes, NBBQA board members may enter. 

The board members are successful members of the BBQ industry, often who have previously won AOE recognition. They volunteer their time, money and energy to the betterment of the industry. With sacrificing so much already, it is felt that no additional sacrifice is needed through exclusion to the AOE.

Steps are taken to ensure no conflict of interest or bias can occur through the following key measures in 2020

  • The board formed an Awards of Excellence Committee that consists of board members not submitting entries into the awards, this being Mark Lambert and Jason Bauer, they have a delegated joint authority to make decisions regarding the Awards of Excellence. 
  • Categories that allow a double-blind judging process, one is implemented, e.g. sauces, rubs, photography and similar
  • Categories that can't achieve a double-blind ensure that at least 50% of the judges are outside the barbecue industry, e.g. publications, products and similar

Why do you only announce the top 5 and not give a full list of results?

Winning an industry award can create significant recognition and growth for the brand; losing also can have a significant impact in the negative direction.

In line with other industry awards issued by similar 501(c)(6) associations, the results beyond the top announced 5 are not publically released so as to not shame or draw attention to non-winning brands and possible associated negative press.

Although it is acknowledged that in the barbecue sector and many of the sanctioning bodies in competitive cooking have the tradition of releasing all the results. This is not deemed to be the best option in the commercial sector which is very different from these events.

In 2020 we will email each entrant with their individual results.

How many categories may I enter?

There is no restriction on how many categories an individual or business may enter, however you may only enter one entry per category, and one category per entry.