You'd be surprised at how many submissions I can eliminate with these three criteria. All it takes is a cursory glance at the applications and I can eliminate probably half to two-thirds of the applications.

Now that you know how to get eliminated immediately, what can you do to win? I'll tell you a secret. The single best way you can improve your chances is with your demo. I want to see your solution in action. Ideally, I'd like to watch a screencam demonstration first, so I can see what the solution is supposed to do and how you pilot the experience. Then, I'd like a login, so I can pull the levers and switches, and see how it works.

Here's a hint within the hint: make sure your demo works when the judges look for it. I've had at least one applicant each year provide a Web link for the demo and it either didn't work, was an invalid page address, or just hung without showing anything. Instant discard.

Applications with good demos usually stand an unusually high chance of getting nominated for the win.

Second up is your references. I don't like to nominate applications that are untried. If the demo is particularly impressive, I might, but I tend to shy away from anything that's not proven. I really want to know your solution has been tested among real customers and it holds up well enough that someone who paid you for a solution is willing to write a testimonial.

Next, it's time for your descriptive material. The other judges address some of the issues below, but for me, I want to know what the heck it is your solution does. If I can't divine that within a few seconds, again, I'm going to move on. Write clearly. Don't overly use jargon. Make it very clear what you're doing, how it helps, how it fits the category, and why what you've done is special.

We do get submissions from vendors who are not native English speakers. This is tough, because the language barrier sometimes gets in the way of comprehension. Most judges go out of their way to give the these applications a fair look, and I do as well. But if we can't understand what you're saying, we're not going to be able to give you the win. For you, the demo is even more important. But you can also improve your chances by getting a native English speaker to do an edit pass.

Before I turn over the podium to the other judges, I've got one more comment. If you think you can just phone in the application and you might win, think again. Most Lotus business partners are very, very professional and there's always going to be two or three companies who are going to really do it right. Follow these tips and you could be one of them.

Mick's comments
I can't agree more with your central premise that we need to get better submissions. I, as part of the team that looked at the Best Composite App category, looked at 25 submissions, which could very easily be cut down to size:

• Potential winners at the first reading. There was one of these, which ended up as a runner-up.
• Good, and well worth a second reading. The final winner was in this category.
• Non-contenders.