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IABC Gold Quill Awards 2027: Early Bird Ends 6 December, Final Deadline 7 February

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The IABC Gold Quill Awards 2027 are open. Early-bird entries close on 6 December 2026 and the final deadline is 7 February 2027. Here are the fees, categories and a plan for your entry.

Last checked against official sources: 5 November 2026

* Dates and timings are subject to change, please check directly with the awards organisers.

The 2027 IABC Gold Quill Awards opened on 1 October 2026. The final deadline is Sunday 7 February 2027, which leaves 94 days at our check on 5 November 2026. But the cheapest window closes much sooner: the early-bird deadline is 6 December 2026, 31 days away.

IABC, the International Association of Business Communicators, describes the Gold Quills as an awards programme that has recognised excellence in strategic communication worldwide for more than 50 years. Treat your entry as a piece of strategic work, not an afterthought.

The Key Dates

All deadlines end at 23:59 Central Time.

  • Programme opened: 1 October 2026.
  • Early-bird deadline: 6 December 2026.
  • Regular deadline: 24 January 2027.
  • Final deadline: 7 February 2027, with a late fee.
  • Winners announced: April 2027.
  • Wire payments: if your organisation cannot pay by card, IABC must receive a wire transfer before 1 February 2027. You request the wire details from IABC, and the payment code arrives only after the transfer is confirmed.

What It Costs

Fees are per entry, and you pay a separate fee for each category you enter. Payment is the last step of the submission, and entries must be paid in full before the deadline to be evaluated. There are no refunds.

  • IABC members: $349 USD by 6 December, $399 USD by 24 January, $589 USD by 7 February.
  • Member Lite and non-members: $489 USD by 6 December, $539 USD by 24 January, $729 USD by 7 February.
  • Student members: $55 USD at every deadline.
  • Non-member students: $90 USD at every deadline.

Waiting until the final deadline adds $240 to the entry, for members and non-members alike, compared with the early-bird price. That is real money, so decide now whether your work is ready to enter.

Divisions and Categories

The programme has four divisions and 30 categories, open to professionals and students:

  • Communication Management: 20 categories, from Internal Communication, Employee Engagement and Change Communication to Media Relations, Crisis Communication, Corporate Social Responsibility, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Climate Change and Sustainability Communication, and Strategic Artificial Intelligence.
  • Communication Research: one category.
  • Communication Training and Education: one category.
  • Communication Skills: eight categories, including Special and Experiential Events, Digital Communication, Audio, Social Media, Publications, Writing, Creative Design and Artificial Intelligence.

You can enter several categories within a division or across divisions. The same work can go into more than one category if it fits each description, but each entry needs its own form, work plan and work sample. IABC advises customising the work plan to the category description, and that is the best entry advice there is: answer the question that category asks.

Who Can Enter and What Qualifies

  • Eligible work must have been implemented, published or broadcast between January 2024 and the day you submit.
  • A long-term strategy developed before January 2024 is eligible if it has not been entered before.
  • If you entered in 2025 or 2026 without winning, you can revise and re-enter. Work that has already won a Gold Quill cannot be entered again.
  • Entries must be in English, French or Spanish.
  • Work sponsored by, affiliated with or supported by IABC or the IABC Foundation is not eligible.
  • Consultants entering work done for a client must include the client's permission, or the entry may be disqualified.

How Entries Are Judged

Evaluators from IABC's global Blue Ribbon Panel review each entry against the IABC Global Seven-point Scale of Excellence. For the first three divisions, the work plan and the work sample count equally. For Communication Skills, the score rests on the work sample's creativity, professional execution and alignment.

  • Award of Merit: a score of 5.25 to 5.74 out of 7.
  • Award of Excellence: a score of 5.75 and above.

Entrants receive evaluator feedback. IABC says winners repeatedly describe that feedback as invaluable guidance for their everyday work, whether or not they win.

Disqualification Traps

Check these before you upload:

  • A work plan longer than four pages in Divisions 1, 2 and 3. The limit is four pages, with a font no smaller than 10 point and margins of at least 0.5 inch (1.27 cm).
  • Any element of the project that breaches the IABC Code of Ethics.
  • An entry that depends mainly on syndicated, borrowed, reprinted or stock material.
  • An entry where it is obvious the entrant played no role in the project.
  • Work samples the evaluators cannot open with the instructions you provide.

Your Plan to 6 December

  1. This week: pick your strongest projects and choose the category for each. Read the category description twice.
  2. Next week: gather the results, audience data and evidence for each project, and download the work plan template for your division.
  3. Weeks three and four: write the work plan around objectives, strategy, execution and measured results, then ask a colleague who was not on the project to check that it makes sense.
  4. Week five: proofread, confirm the work plan page limit, secure any client permission letter, and upload and pay before 6 December.

For help turning results into a persuasive story, see Crafting Winning Awards Entries.

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