DAME DESIGN AWARDS

Frequently asked questions about the dame design awards

The DAME Design Awards at the METSTRADE Show is the world's largest marine competition. It celebrates design in all its forms, including styling, functionality, innovation, ease of use, and packaging. In the upcoming year, METSTRADE continues to emphasise the importance of design in captivating current boat buyers and engaging the next generation.

The DAME Design Awards Categories are new for this year, with more focus on a product’s purpose and application in order to assist judging. The category headings are followed by a brief explanation explaining where a boat user or marine industry professional might encounter the products you are entering:

  1. personal equipment
    If I was going on a charter, had a boat share arrangement, went boating with a friend or have my own boat, what would my personal kit be?
  2. comfort & entertainment afloat
    If I don’t want to go boating in a bare hull, what kinds of equipment am I likely to need to ensure the comfort and enjoyment of all afloat?
  3. navigation & communication
    If I was on the helm of a boat or bridge of a superyacht, what electronics and other equipment would I use to control and safely navigate it?
  4. electronic & electrical systems
    If I need electrical power anywhere in the boat or to make networkable devices speak to each other, what systems and equipment would I use?
  5. propulsion & dynamics
    If I want to move, steer, stabilise and trim the boat, what machinery and systems will I use?
  6. deck equipment
    If I am sailing, mooring, anchoring and using the outdoor spaces on my boat, what hardware and equipment will I use?
  7. security & safety aboard
    What is the equipment aboard that serves specifically to keep my boat secure, safe and capable of dealing with emergencies afloat?
  8. shoreside equipment & materials
    What are all the items of off-vessel equipment, hardware, materials and software that help to construct and then support my boat from cradle to grave.

If sufficient quality of entries are unavailable to select a winner within a category, the Jury does have the right to alter these category assignments if that is necessary to ensure the overall quality of the DAME Design Awards.

  1. Design:
    a. Styling – the aesthetics of the product, even if intended to be installed in a hidden location such as a locker or machinery space;
    b. Construction – how well a product has been engineered and manufactured to address ease of production and installation;
    c. Functionality – the capability of the product to deliver its purpose effectively;
    d. Proposed use – the way the product fulfils the promise of its claims;
  2. Environment – how well the product minimises environmental impact and improves sustainability while intrinsically remaining an excellent example of design practice.
  3. Ease and use of human operation – the degree to which the use of the product is friendly, intuitive and safe.
  4. Originality and innovation – the degree to which the product’s design and/or function appears to improve on, or offer a new concept from, those products already familiar to installers and consumers (but note that innovation is just one of all the requirements here and is not the only point of judgement).
  5. Price versus performance.

Note the DAME Design Awards now places more emphasis on environmental design. If, in its view, the Jury has found an exemplar product that is well designed and has clear and obvious merit then it will, at its discretion, make an Environmental Design Winner.

For this reason, the entry form contains an Environmental Statement question to assist assessment. We urge entrants to provide clear information about their approach to minimising environmental impact in every aspect relating to the entry’s creation and service, while avoiding making claims that cannot be substantiated.

The DAME Design Awards Jury is drawn from a mix of experts in their field, from the marine and broader industries. The DAME Design Awards 2023 Jury consisted of:

  • Mr. A. Hoek, naval architect and yacht designer, founder of Hoek Design, The Netherlands, chairman DAME Jury
  • Mr. P. Hemp, technical manager and trained designer, ICOMIA, South Africa
  • Dr.ir. A.J. Jansen, program director, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
  • Ms. E. Bunting, independent marine journalist and yacht sailor, UK
  • Mr. O. Racoupeau, naval architect and boat designer, owner of Berret-Racoupeau Yacht Design, France
  • Mr. D. Cipriani, boat and industrial designer, president of yacht design at Centrostile design, Italy
  • Mr. B. Ellison, freelance marine technical journalist, Panbo marine electronics hub, USA
  • Mr. Rory Coase, Designer, Coase Design, Norway

The DAME Design Awards Jury will be supported by a non-voting secretary: Mr. K. Hollamby, Hollamby Partnership, UK.

  • First prize: the DAME - Design Award
  • Certificates for Category Winners
  • Certificates for Special Mentions
  • Certificate for Environmental Design Winner

New product:
The product must have been introduced after 1 September 2023 and/or is ready to market during the exhibition.

DAME Design Awards:
Entry for the DAME Design Awards competition is open to new products placed onto the market for sale after 1 September 2023 and until 15 November 2024.
The product needs to be ready for production and orders must be possible to accept at the 2024 METSTRADE Show; however, the actual physical delivery of this product to the market is allowable after this timeframe. Products must not have previously been entered for the DAME Design Awards in 2023 or earlier.

All participants of the DAME Design Awards competition are required to pay a registration fee of € 150.00 (excluding VAT) per product entry. The registrations fees collected from the DAME Design Awards entries are then used to contribute to a (non-profit) government approved public charity whose work will enhance the international marine (leisure) industry. This organisation is selected by the METSTRADE Exhibition Committee. The METSTRADE Exhibition Committee has decided that this year’s DAME Design Awards proceeds will be donated to The Ambulance Wish Foundatation in honour of our colleague, Sandra Braat.

The cheque representing the DAME Design Awards proceeds will be offered to the charity organisation during the DAME Design Awards Ceremony that immediately follows the METSTRADE Breakfast Briefing before the official opening of the show on Tuesday 19 November 2024. The registration fee is non-refundable.

If your question has not been answered in this Q&A, please send an email to dame@rai.nl.

Step 1 - Enter the Exhibitor Portal (https://ep.rai.nl) with your exhibitor login details;
Step 2 - Go to ‘PROMOTION’ and select ‘DAME’
Step 3 -  Fill out the second form: DAME – Design Awards;
Step 4 - Complete the DAME participation form by clicking on ‘SAVE’.

Modification or submitting later?
Save your data by clicking on the 'Save' button and click on this icon in the overview window behind the specified product.

Your product will also be added to our new product listing on our website.

Intellectual Property
A statement of intellectual property ownership which can either take the form of:

a. an official receipt of intellectual property/copyright of the product which must refer to the brand name (product name), patent (technical specifications product) and model (appearance product); or

b. an official confirmation of the patent agency that your request is still in progress; or

c. written approval of the holder of the intellectual property rights stating that you are allowed to enter the DAME Design Awards competition with this product.

Present your product

  • a clear and simple explanation of the product visualised via video; the video must be no longer than three minutes, file size maximum 8MB in flash or .mov format. If the product presentation video is more than 8MB, it should be downloadable from a server or viewable from a web platform like YouTube.
    or
  • a clear and simple explanation of the product visualised via a PowerPoint presentation (maximum of 10 slides), file size maximum 8MB. If the product presentation is more than 8MB, please send the file to dame@rai.nl indicating your company name and stand number;
  • a motivation text (3000 characters) explaining why your product should be eligible for the DAME Design Awards;
  • the product manual of your product (if there is no manual available, you should upload a description of the usage or installment of the product);
  • a good, sharp, digital photograph(s) of the product in JPEG format of minimum size 1200 x 800 pixels for publication free of commercial expressions or watermarks.

Please note
The total of all uploads in the registration form may not exceed 12MB. The images will also be used for printing and publicity purposes. In case the uploaded capacity has reached the 12MB please send additional files/images to complete your DAME Design Awards registration to dame@rai.nl indicating your company name and stand number.

You have two moments to save your entry:

  1. after fully completing the New Product form
  2. after fully completing the DAME Design Awards form

Unfortunately it is not possible to save your entry on any other moment as all the required fields have to be filled out before saving.

No, you will not see a dialogue screen or receive an auto reply saying your entry was successful after saving.

Yes, we will check your entry and send you a confirmation.
We will also let you know if we need any additional information or if there is any information missing.

If you see the following icon behind your New Products listing, it is also a DAME Design Awards entry:
If this icon is very light in color (grey), you have not entered the DAME Design Awards competition.

The final deadline for entering the DAME Design Awards competition is 15 September 2024.

All products must be available for judgment at RAI Amsterdam on 6 October 2024.

Yes! Without your product on site at RAI Amsterdam, your entry will not be judged and be excluded for the DAME Design Awards 2024 competition. If your product is accepted for inclusion in the competition, you will be notified by the Organiser.

Please download the shipping instructions of our logistic partner DB Schenker when you register your product in the Exhibitor Portal under the section ‘PROMOTION’ - ‘DAME ’ and read this carefully.

From arrival at the warehouse of DB Schenker at RAI Amsterdam, you will pay the following:

Category 1: 0-10 kg € 77.00
Category 2: 10-50 kg € 115.50
Category 3: 50-100 kg € 153.00
Above 100 kg Price on request


Please note
A surcharge of € 56.50 is applicable to no pre-alerted shipments and shipments which arrive after the deadline.

* The handling and storage costs includes: administration, receiving at the warehouse of DB Schenker at RAI Amsterdam, intermediate storage, unpacking for the DAME Design Awards Jury meeting, repacking after this meeting and storage till DAME Design Awards 2024.

Excluding: customs services, airfreight or sea freight import and other transport.

If you require additional services please get in contact with DB Schenker to receive a customized quotation ( +31 (0)20 225 39 74 | fairs.amsterdam@dbschenker.com or nl.sm.ams.fairs-amsterdam@dbschenker.com)

You will receive your invoice from DB Schenker mid-October 2024.

Yes, you can collect or arrange to collect your product after the DAME Design Awards Jury meeting. Please consult DB Schenker to make further arrangements ( +31 (0)20 225 39 74 | fairs.amsterdam@dbschenker.com or nl.sm.ams.fairs-amsterdam@dbschenker.com)

Please note that if your product is nominated, it needs to be back in time for the DAME Design Awards exposition no later than Monday 18 November 2024.

There are two scenarios:

  1. Your product is Nominated (and may have subsequently achieved a win or Special Mention); in this case your product will be on display in the DAME Design Awards presentation (location to be announced). We will make sure your product will be placed correctly.
  2. Your product is not Nominated; in this case please contact DB Schenker or go to their office next to hall 5 during the build-up period and make an appointment with them to bring your product to your stand.

No, it is not possible to have someone explain the product at the DAME Design Awards presentation.

Yes, there will be surveillance around the clock from Monday 18 November 12:00 hrs till Thursday 19 November 19:00 hrs.

You can collect your product at the DAME Design Awards presentation on Thursday 21 November from 18:00-19.00 hrs. If you don’t collect your product, it will be placed in the storage of DB Schenker at your own expense, and you can discuss shipping arrangement with DB Schenker after the METSTRADE Show 2024.

Please note
The exact publicity and presentation arrangements may change if necessary to accommodate any restrictions in force. No rights can be derived from the DAME Design Awards presentation or publicity of prior METSTRADE editions.

The Nominees will be announced on or around 25 October 2024.
All Nominees will be contacted personally and will receive additional information by email.

The winner of the DAME Design Awards will be announced in the DAME Design Awards Ceremony that immediately follows the METSTRADE Breakfast Briefing in the RAI Amsterdam Convention Centre on Tuesday morning 19 November 2024 at 08:00 hrs, location to be announced. All entrants of Nominated products are expected to be present. The METSTRADE Breakfast Briefing and DAME Design Awards Ceremony will be open to all exhibitors at the METSTRADE Show (incl. SuperYacht Pavilion) in possession of an exhibitor badge.

Participants need to be available during exhibition days as they can be asked for the METSTRADE Theatre as part of the DAME Design Awards News time slot between 11.00 hrs. and 12.30 hrs. CET each exhibition day.

Yes, we will use different channels:

  1. METSTRADE.com: All nominated companies and their products will be announced from 25 October 2024 onwards on METSTRADE.com.
  2. Press Release: All DAME Design Awards 2024 Nominees will be announced to the marine trade press mid-October in the run-up to the METSTRADE Show. All DAME Design Awards 2024 Winners will be released to the press on the first day of the show after the METSTRADE Breakfast Briefing/ DAME Design AwardsCeremony.
  3. DAME Design Awards Jury Report: The DAME Design AwardsJury Report will be available immediately after the METSTRADE Breakfast Briefing/ DAME Design AwardsCeremony for press, visitors and exhibitors online.
  4. A presentation of all DAME Design AwardsNominees, Category Winners and the Overall DAME Design Awards Winner 2024 will be located on the METSTRADE show.
  5. The overall DAME Design Awards Winner and all DAME Design Awards Category Winners may be provided with additional opportunities to present their winning products during METSTRADE. More details available once the shortlisted nominees are announced in October.

Please note
The exact publicity and presentation arrangements may change if necessary to accommodate any restrictions in force. No rights can be derived from the DAME Design Awards presentation or publicity of prior METSTRADE editions.

We will provide you with a special DAME Design Awards logo which you can use in all your communications.

Please note
At present, we are hoping to run the 33nd DAME Design Awards in its usual format and encourage exhibitors to apply as normal. If for any reason we must change the format, we will be in touch with all entrants at the earliest opportunity to explain the changes.