Eligibility and Guidelines for the International Splash Awards at DrupalCon Rotterdam 2026
The Splash Awards celebrate the outstanding successes built on Drupal, one of the largest and most popular open source content management systems in the world.
The International Splash Awards is open to all organisations and individuals involved in designing, building, managing, maintaining or using Drupal websites and digital platforms.
This page contains the competition rules and some helpful guidelines for making sure the event (starting with the submission of a project, to the nomination, and including the award ceremony) process goes smoothly.
The following rules are meant to maintain fairness and consistency for all Splash Awards, but they apply specifically to the International Splash Awards 2026 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Terms and Conditions of Entry and Use for the International Splash Awards
- You can submit any website or digital platform built on Drupal project between January 1, 2024 and July 1, 2026.
- The submission fee is €349 incl VAT per project per category. A project may be submitted to multiple categories. This fee also includes 2 tickets per submission to the International Splash Awards Ceremony.
- The deadline to submit and pay the submission fee is June 16, 2026. Any unpaid submission will not be considered.
- A case is submitted on behalf of an organisation. An organisation can be of any type as long as it is a legal entity with a financial system to support its submission and consequently pay for incurred expenses, i.e. the submission fee.
- All submissions must be original and the submitter either owns the work or has permission from a client or other appropriate party to enter the work, with all rights granted therein. In the event that an entrant without such rights submits an entry, the entrant will not be eligible for the competition. The International Splash Awards are not liable for any copyright infringement on the part of the entrant.
- If a project has won an International Splash Award at a previous event, it can not be submitted again to another International Splash Award event. If it has won a Regional Splash Award, then we encourage you to submit to the International Splash Awards.
- The project is required to be accessible. Members of the jury should be able to evaluate cases, as would any user of the website or system. For tools and platforms that require a login, submissions should also contain login credentials consistent with the experience of actual users. They can be granted access to a test system with anonymized data, but that test system should contain realistic test data such that the project can be properly evaluated. If access credentials are not provided, the case will be judged on the screenshots and case video that is submitted.
- Submissions must have been in general use for at least part of the current calendar year, 2026, and must have been launched no earlier than January 1, 2024.
- Submission of any project acknowledges the right of the International Splash Awards to use it for exhibition, promotion, and publication purposes in any medium, in order to promote the Splash Awards and Drupal. The person(s) submitting the project hereby declare their submission and the holders of corresponding trademarks approve.
- Submitting a case does not guarantee that the event will be held. In case the International Splash Awards and/or the International Splash Awards Ceremony during DrupalCon 2026 in Rotterdam are cancelled, your submission will be annulled and the nomination fee will be refunded.
- A submission must be made via the official submission portal, and you are encouraged to submit your case study on drupal.org.
- All cases are to be submitted in English.
- All text submitted for the cases need to be anonymous, meaning company names and individual names should only be entered in the appropriate field and not in the case description.
- The Splash Awards organization reserves the right to modify, clarify, request evidence, or disqualify a case if it does not, or does not fully, comply with the rules of the competition (e.g., anonymizing the case if this has not been done, or has been done incorrectly, by the participant).
- Community contributions are allowed, but must be limited to the specific case. It is not allowed to add other contributions, references to sponsorships or anything else that isn’t in regard to the submission.
- Preview images will be used to showcase the submission where appropriate. You agree that the Splash Awards Organising Committee and Kuoni have the authority to publish those images in relation to the Splash Awards International. Please indicate copyright when submitting your images.
Nominations and judging
- An international jury of digital experts will review all submissions based on a diverse and well balanced set of criteria.
- The jury assesses all submitted cases (see the criteria). Per category, the 5 cases with the highest average score will be nominated for the corresponding award.
- Within each category, a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 5 cases will be nominated for the International Splash Award for that category. In case of a tie for the 5th place, all 5th place cases will be nominated for the International Splash Award in that category, causing the number of nominees to be greater than 5.
- If there are less than 3 entries in one specific category, the category will lapse. If a category lapses, all participants will be notified and offered the option to change their submission to a different category at no extra costs.
- The nominee with the highest average score in a category will be the winner in that category.
- The nominee with the second-highest average score in a category will win the Runner-Up in that category.
- In case of a tie for the winner in a category, the jury will discuss the cases and hold a second voting round. Only one nominee will be the winner of a category.
- In case of a tie for the Runner-Up, both cases will be awarded Runner-Up.
- If a jury member has an affiliation with the organisation that has submitted a case, the jury member has already agreed to recuse themself from judging the submission. Another jury member will judge the project in their stead.
Unacceptable submissions and disqualification
- Entries that contain pornographic material, propagate “hate” messages, make defamatory statements, or which are otherwise offensive are not eligible and will be disqualified.
- The International Splash Awards, including the International Splash Awards Ceremony adhere to the DrupalCon Code of Conduct
- Ineligible entries may be disqualified at any phase of the competition without notification.
Code of Conduct
The International Splash Awards follow the Drupal Community's Code of Conduct. Please follow those guidelines.
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