Terms of service.
Last updated March 31, 2023
These rules are in place to protect your rights as well as ours. Along with our more general Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, they constitute the entire agreement. By entering The International Home Staging Awards, you are deemed to have read and accepted all aspects of the rules described on this page. If you have any concerns or questions, don’t hesitate to contact us – support@staged4more.com
About the Competition.
The International Home Staging Award (‘Award’) is hosted by Staged4more School of Home Staging. It is open to all home stagers (‘Entrants’) aged 18 years and over (or of the age of majority in jurisdictions in their respective country), and from all over the world.
Entrants must not be an employee, officer, or agent of Staged4more, nor an employee, officer, or agent of any person or organization involved in the running or judging of the Award, nor a family relation of any such person.
The applicable costs for entering the Award are set out on the website, and the prizes shall be as specified on the website.
There is no maximum number of entries to the Award per person.
The Award shall close for entries at the time and on the date specified on the website. We may extend the deadline without prior notice if needed.
Usage and Rights
Your copyright and moral rights
We respect your rights and do not claim copyright for photographs or text submitted to the Award. You will retain full copyright in each entry. In addition, your moral rights are respected.
Whenever your work is published on this website, you will be credited. Failure to publish a credit due to error or oversight shall not be deemed a breach of this condition. We will seek to correct any errors or oversights as soon as we are notified.
It is your (Entrant) responsibility to ensure that the images submitted respect the copyrights of the photographers. If you do not own the copyright of the images, you must receive written permission from the photographers to submit images to the Award. Staged4more is not held liable for any violation of the copyright when we republish and feature the photographs.
By entering your photographs into the Award, you grant Staged4more permission to republish the photographs.
Image eligibility
By entering the Award, you (as an Entrant) warrant to Staged4more that you created your competition entries, that you are the author of your work, you own all of the copyright in those entries, that it does not include trademarks, contract rights, or any other intellectual property rights of any other third person or entity and that the use by Staged4more of the entries in accordance with these terms and conditions will not infringe any person’s intellectual property rights or other legal rights. You must not submit to the award any material that is or has ever been the subject of any threatened or actual legal proceedings or other similar complaints.
You must have participated in the home staging project you submit for the Award. You should be the lead stager on the project submitted.
If more lead home stagers were working on the same project, you are responsible for getting their consent before submitting your entry.
You will be responsible for any claim made by any third party in respect of your entry and to fully indemnify Staged4more and its sponsors in respect of all royalties, fees, and any other monies owing to any person or entity because of your breaching any of the foregoing.
Staged4more reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify any entry that does not comply with any of the above, even after the entry is submitted on the competition website.
Virtual home staging photos are not eligible to win.
Only one person/representative from one company can enter the Award.
Any sort of gaming of the system or unethical activities to gain extra free entries or bribing the judges, etc. will result in automatic disqualification.
Use of works
By entering the Award, you agree that any work you submit may be used by Staged4more and any press outlets. You must also be agreed to be interviewed if requested.
Judging the competition
You hereby grant Staged4more a non-exclusive, royalty-free license in each entry throughout the world in all media for the uses described above.
You acknowledge your responsibility for protecting your entry against misuse by third parties, through means such as the embedding of metadata. Staged4more (and its partners) can assume no responsibility and is not liable for any misuse of your work by third parties.
Staged4more will never sell your work. You retain the copyright of the images.
Staged4more uses social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest to market the Awards. While Staged4more guarantees that the images submitted will be fully credited when posting on social media and through any of the other channels listed above, Staged4more cannot guarantee that others who copy or re-post images will do the same.
Judging
The images submitted will be judged blind, meaning that the judges will not be aware of any information about the home stager
Initial screening: submissions pass a minimum level of technical quality and follow the guidelines for submission
Scoring: The judge will go through the final round of submissions to judge the work based on the quality of the work presented (including the quality of the photograph), composition, styling, and overall impression.
Each category has at least three jury members scoring the category.
In the event of a tie, both will be named as winners.
If a judge has to withdraw their involvement for any unforeseen reason, Staged4more reserves the right to find an alternative judge.
Images submitted will be treated completely anonymously throughout the whole process to ensure total fairness. The judge will have the sole discretion of his or her selection and attempting to contact any judge directly to influence them will result in disqualification of the Entrant.
Staged4more will announce the winner in the closing session of StagerCon.
The winners shall receive the prize listed on the current website.
The winning and finalist Entrant will have 90 days from the email date to claim their prizes (they will be notified of their prize and any further instructions in the email). Failing to do so will result in the loss of the prize. Winners and finalists are accountable for costs associated with the award acceptance, such as any applicable federal, state, provincial, and local taxes.
Staged4more reserves the right to change, or modify the prize at any time before the end of the Award, but will make sure to inform all Entrants.
If a competition Entrant does not meet the eligibility requirements or is subject to any entry restrictions, that Entrant shall not be entitled to be judged a winner, and will not be entitled to a prize under any circumstances.
Judges' decisions are final.
How to Submit Your Home Staging Project(s)
All working home stagers are welcome to take part in submitting their home staging work to the Award. We want to feature as many talented home stagers as possible!
To submit:
Decide what home staging project(s) and categories you would like to submit to
You can submit multiple projects to the same category, simply pay for each staging project you would like to submit. The payment form is on the submission form.
You will receive an email confirmation after your submission for each staging project.
To qualify, you must:
Be a working home stager
Participate in the home staging project you've submitted and you must be the primary owner and contact of said home staging project.
Adhere to the guidelines for each category
To submit to the Best Home Staging Transformation category, we require one before and one after photo of the same room. We recommend you submit photos that are photographed from the same angle (or as close as possible).
To submit to the Best Vacant Home Staging Project category, you can submit up to 10 photos. The project submitted must be 100% vacant before the home staging project.
To submit to the Best Occupied Home Staging Project category, you can submit up to 10 photos. You must submit one before photo for each after photo you submit. For example, if you submit 4 after occupied home staging photos, you must include 4 before occupied home staging photos. 90% of the occupied home staging project submitted must utilize homeowners’ possessions. We recommend you submit photos that are photographed from the same angle (or as close as possible).
To submit to the Best Luxury Home Staging Project category, you can submit up to 10 photos.
To submit to the Best Vacation Home Staging Project category, you can submit up to 10 photos.
If you do not own the copyright to the images you submit, you must have written permission from the images’ owner(s). It is Entrant's responsibility to check and comply with the copyrights of all images you submit.
The quality of photos will also be judged. The photos submitted should not be pixelated.
Photos should depict rooms in their entirety (as much as you can fit in)
Pay submission fees.
The judges will judge the images blind, meaning they will not know who had submitted the photos. All images submitted to the contest cannot be branded. This means that you may not have any type of watermark on your photographs or mention of your company in the captions, which can be used to identify who you are.
Virtually staged photos are not qualified.
Only one person/representative from one company can enter the Award.
Any sort of gaming of the system or unethical activities to gain extra free entries or bribing the judges, etc. will result in automatic disqualification.
Image Specifications
Your images must be:
The file type must be JPG or PNG
Please make sure the photo is sharp and remove any watermarks to avoid automatic disqualification.
While it is not required, we highly recommend you submit photos that are high resolution, at least 1500px on the long side. This will ensure the jury can see the details of your photos.
You must own the copyright or have permission from the photographers to enter into the Awards. Staged4more will not be responsible for any copyright violation from submissions.
Timeline
Early Bird Submission opens on April 1st, 2023
Early Bird Submission closes on 11:59 pm PST, April 30th, 2023
Regular submission opens on May 1, 2023
Submission closes on 11:59 pm PST, May 30, 2023, and two-round of blind judging will commence
No late submission will be considered
We will announce the winners in the final session of StagerCon
Entry Fees
The Early Bird entry fee is $20 per project. After the Early Bird submission expires, it is $25 per project.
You can enter as many categories as you wish, as many project entries per category.
Please note that once you’ve submitted your entries, they are final and cannot be altered.
Right to cancel
Staged4more reserves the right to cancel or suspend the Award at its discretion if not capable of continuing as planned for any reason that is beyond its control.
If the Award is canceled, Staged4more will refund the entry fees for all Entrants and will not reserve the right to use any of the submitted photographs.
Entrants must not provide prizes, discounts, or any kind of incentive to encourage jury members to vote for them. We reserve the right to disqualify any entrants found to be using such tactics.
Refunds
Staged4more does not provide refunds, except due to cancellation of the Award as outlined under "Right to cancel."
If the Entrant made a mistake in the submission during checkout, there will be no refunds given. Staged4more also will not fix or alter the entries in any way to ensure the fairness of the competition.
Modification of competition rules
Staged4more reserves the right to change the competition rules. If this happens, all Entrants whom the changes affect will be notified by email.
Legal responsibility
Staged4more will take no responsibility for the repercussions of any photograph submitted to the Award, nor any problems incurred by the Entrants while participating in the Award.