SITE is the “I” in MICE and the only association dedicated exclusively to incentive travel and motivational events. All SITE events are built on three foundational pillars – learn, connect, discover – and are designed and delivered as authentic incentive travel programs highlighting the transformational power of reward and recognition initiatives based on extraordinary travel experiences.
 

All attendees at SITE events, whether they’ re buyers or suppliers, hosted attendees or partner sponsors are treated as incentive participants who experience the program as true qualifiers from pre-event communication to post-event evaluation.
 

SITE events bring incentive travel professionals to exceptional locations to learn, connect and discover.
 

Why this Form is Important
 SITE works hard with our event partners to guarantee that our events offer leading-edge, relevant education, unparalleled, structured networking and deep destination discovery in both familiar or emerging locations.
 

To guarantee the value, integrity, and uniqueness of the event our partner sponsors invest significantly with SITE. That allows us to offer a truly motivational, incentive quality experience to all participants.
 

While we always endeavor to place you in your preferred program and destination, this application form does not guarantee selection and is subject to a final review. All selections are made to ensure the highest quality program for all participants and partners. Your responses should highlight your role, involvement and impact on direct program spend within your organization.

We are accepting applications for the following 2026 events:

• SITE Global Conference – Application deadline: Friday, August 1, 2025          
• Incentive Summit Americas – Application deadline: Friday, August 29, 2025
• Incentive Summit South America – Application deadline: Friday, November 28, 2025
• SITE Classic – Application deadline: Friday, January 30, 2026

      
All applications submitted after the event deadline will be included on the waitlist pending availability.
 

*Hosted Buyers must join SITE after attending three (3) SITE Global events as a hosted buyer. Upon request, your data will be shared with event sponsors. No confidential client information will be shared.

The Global Conference Scholarship honors the legacy of SITE Past President David Riddell by providing access to SITE’s premier educational programs and events. As a member and past president of SITE, David Riddell was always upbeat about the incentive travel industry and forever the promoter of the value of performance improvement. As a leader of SITE, he envisioned what the organization could look like in the future and worked diligently to effect change and mold the Society into the leading global authority in our industry. He believed in SITE. He was approachable. He was full of life. He was everyone’s friend. He was a mentor, a visionary and a leader.

The scholarship will fund Global Conference attendance in Abu Dhabi on February 12 - February 15, 2026. The SITE Foundation's funding will only include coverage for registration, hotel accommodations during the conference, and airfare—up to a total of $6,000 per recipient.

The SITE Foundation will offer up to SIX scholarships, available to individual in the following categories: 

1) Young Leader - Applicant need not be a member of SITE but must be an industry professional or student aged 35 years or younger.

2) Chapter Leader - Applicant is a current leader of a recognized SITE Chapter.

3) Member - Applicant is a current member of SITE. Recipients are expected to maintain membership through Global Conference and event.

The number of recipients selected per category is not fixed. Awards will be based on the overall strength of submissions.

Please read information below closely before proceeding with application.

How to Apply:

After reading through this information, scroll to the bottom of this page and select "submit." You will be directed to the Submittable platform where you can select Young Leader, Chapter Leader, or Member to determine which scholarship you'll be applying for. Complete the scholarship application and submit along with your essay by Tuesday September 2nd, 2025. 

Your essay should contain a minimum of 1,000 words and fewer than 1,500 words on one of the following topics:

1) Describe an experience or event in the incentive travel industry that had a profound impact on your life and helped shape you into the person you are today.

2) What impact has the industry made on you, your family, and your community?

How are Recipients Chosen?

Entries are reviewed anonymously by a volunteer Committee and evaluated by essay quality and overall need. Applicants will be notified in October 2025. 

Scholarship Disclaimer and Terms & Conditions

This scholarship is awarded to support the recipient’s attendance at the 2026 SITE Global Conference in Abu Dhabi. By accepting this scholarship, the recipient agrees to the following terms and conditions:

1. Mandatory Attendance: The recipient must attend all scheduled days of the conference. Full participation in all main conference sessions, workshops, and designated activities is required.
2. Non-Transferability: The scholarship is awarded exclusively to the named recipient and may not be transferred to another individual.
3. No Cash Value: The scholarship is not redeemable for cash, nor may it be exchanged for any other form of compensation or reimbursement.
4. Expenses Covered: The scholarship will cover only the specific expenses as outlined in the official award notification. Any additional costs incurred are the responsibility of the recipient.
5. Revocation: Failure to adhere to these terms may result in revocation of the scholarship and the requirement to reimburse funds provided.
6. Consent: By accepting the scholarship, you consent to the publication of your essay and agree to participate in a follow-up interview, which may be used for promotional or educational purposes by the SITE Foundation.

For any further assistance regarding the Submittable platform please refer below:

Check out the Submitter Resource Center or contact Submittable Customer Support.

• You will need to create a free Submittable account or sign in with Google or Facebook credentials to submit to these forms.
• You can save a draft of your work if you would like to finish filling out the form at a later date.
• If anything changes with the information you submitted or you realize you've made an error within your submission, please request to edit the submission
• Submittable works best on Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. Internet Explorer is not supported. Please make sure you are using a supported browser.
• We will follow-up with you about your submission by email. Please be sure to safelist notification emails from Submittable and check the email you used to sign up for your Submittable Account regularly.

SITE is the “I” in MICE and the only association dedicated exclusively to incentive travel and motivational events. All SITE events are built on three foundational pillars – learn, connect, discover – and are designed and delivered as authentic incentive travel programs highlighting the transformational power of reward and recognition initiatives based on extraordinary travel experiences.
     All attendees at SITE events, whether they’ re buyers or suppliers, hosted attendees or partner sponsors are treated as incentive participants who experience the program as true qualifiers from pre-event communication to post-event evaluation.
     SITE events bring incentive travel professionals to exceptional locations to learn, connect and discover.
Why this Form is Important
     SITE works hard with our event partners to guarantee that our events offer leading-edge, relevant education, unparalleled, structured networking and deep destination discovery in both familiar or emerging locations.
     To guarantee the value, integrity, and uniqueness of the event our partner sponsors invest significantly with SITE. That allows us to offer a truly motivational, incentive quality experience to all participants.
     While we always endeavor to place you in your preferred program and destination, this application form does not guarantee selection and is subject to a final review. All selections are made to ensure the highest quality program for all participants and partners. Your responses should highlight your role, involvement and impact on direct program spend within your organization.

We are accepting applications for the following events:

• Global Conference – Application deadline: Friday, September 20     
  • Incentive Summit America – Application deadline: Friday, December 6  
  • Incentive Summit Europe – Application deadline: Friday, February 28
  • SITE Classic – Application deadline: Friday, April 25 

   

All applications submitted after the event deadline will be included on the waitlist pending availability.

*Hosted Buyers must join SITE after attending three (3) SITE Global events as a hosted buyer. Upon request, your data will be shared with event sponsors. No confidential client information will be shared.

Thank you for your interest in the 2026 SITE Crystal Awards! Entries will be accepted for any incentive travel programs and campaigns held between: June 1, 2024–May 31, 2025

All applications are due by Friday, August 1 2025, at 11:59pm CT

IMPORTANT: The program must be a fully hosted incentive travel program with qualifying criteria that demonstrates business results. No “buy-in” or funding by participants, whether partial or full, is permitted. (Exception is optional tours)

Entry Fees

• SITE members: $250 USD for first entry; $200 USD for additional entries.
• Non-SITE members: $500 USD for first entry; $250 USD for additional entries

If paying by credit card or PayPal, you will be prompted to complete your payment before submitting your application. If you choose to pay by ACH/wire transfer, you will be sent an invoice from site@siteglobal.com 24hr after submitting your application for your entry fee payment. Please note that submissions will not be marked complete until SITE receives full payment. We highly recommend that you use a credit card to expedite payment. We only accept payment in USD for Crystal Award entries.

Judging Criteria

All entries are awarded points based on the criteria outlined in each specific category. There are 100 total points possible. Entries must receive at least an average of 85+ points to be eligible to win. If all entrants for a specific category do not meet the minimum point requirement, that category will not have a winner. There may be multiple winners per category.

A minimum of three judges evaluate all entries. The panel of judges consists of reputable and experienced industry leaders in all disciplines, who remain anonymous until the Crystal Awards Ceremony.

Please note: to ensure the transparent, impartial and fair judgment of all entries, name/company name/picture/logos must NOT appear anywhere on the entry. Applications displaying the applicant company name will be disqualified. Displaying the client’s name (end-user) anywhere on the application is permitted but is not mandatory.

Please review your submission, including all supporting documents (budget/photographs, PowerPoint, video, etc.) to absolutely ensure your company name is not revealed.

Things to note:

This system is configured to automatically save your submission once you start the application. 

Please read all the application questions before entering your answers. Make sure that each of your answers provides new information about the program and avoid repetition. The Program Overview field is intended as a high-level summary of your program, while we will require more detail on specific aspects of the program in subsequent questions.

Please make sure to upload as many photos and video files as you have. We recommend that you upload any video files to YouTube or Vimeo and provide links under the "Attachment" tab in your application. To share photography, please add your photos to a slideshow or a PowerPoint presentation, and upload only one file for all your photos.

You can sign-up more than 1 program per category - you will need to complete the application payment for each submission. 

You can include the same program in 2 different categories - you will need to complete the application payment for each submission. 

Categories

1. Best Destination-Based Experiential Incentive Travel Program

Purpose: The purpose of this category is to spotlight destinations that have done a truly effective job at hosting an incentive travel experience. Entries should highlight how the destination's infrastructure, history, culture, arts, gastronomy, etc. combine to deliver a unique, unrepeatable, world-class incentive experience. This category is open to entrants from all sectors of the incentive travel industry: destination marketing organizations (DMOs) convention & visitors’ bureau (CVBs), national tourist boards (NTBs), and destination management companies (DMCs) are ideal entrants in this category.

2. Excellence in Incentive Travel:

• Africa/Middle East
• Asia Pacific
• Europe
• North America
• Latin America & Caribbean

Purpose: The purpose of this category is to recognize outstanding organizations for their work in creating and delivering an exceptional incentive travel program that resulted in a high return on investment (ROI) to the corporate end-user. This category is open to entrants from all sectors of the incentive travel industry. Please submit entries based on where the incentive reward took place — e.g., if you are a European company submitting an incentive program that took place in Thailand, you will need to enter your program into the Asia-Pacific category. Corporate organizers, Incentive Houses, and DMCs are ideal entrants in this category.

3. Best Destination Marketing Campaign

Purpose: The purpose of this category is to spotlight organizations that have done a truly effective job at marketing and promoting the incentive-readiness of a destination. Entries can feature print and digital campaigns and/or in-person activities such as educational/familiarization trips. This category is best suited to destination marketing organizations (DMOs) convention & visitors’ bureaus (CVBs), national tourist boards (NTBs), destination management companies (DMCs), media organizations, and/or marketing agency partners.

4. Most Impactful Effort Toward Corporate Social Responsibility as Part of an Incentive Program OR Most Environmentally Sustainable Incentive Experience

Purpose: The purpose of this category is to recognize organizations for their outstanding efforts in incorporating practices and principles of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) within an incentive travel program OR to recognize organizations for their extraordinary efforts in creating an exceptional incentive travel program, delivered with sustainable principles and practices. Corporate organizers, incentive houses, DMCs, hotels, special event planners, and production companies are ideal entrants in this category.

5. Most Creative Solution Deployed to Overcome Adversity

Purpose: The purpose of this category is to award incentive travel professionals and their organizations who display uncommon levels of innovation, creativity, and ingenuity in identifying solutions for the continuation, deployment, and implementation of incentive travel awards at a time of crisis. Such solutions may be deployed during travel advisories / bans, cancellation of air access / carrier, bankruptcy, etc. or may be in respect of overcoming logistical or operational challenges caused by extreme weather, civil unrest, illness, acts of terrorism, epidemics that occur either before or during program operations. They can also apply to situations involving negotiations in respect of attrition, postponement or cancellation, cost containment, cost mitigation, or emergency response pre-trip or onsite. Finally, it can apply to situations where an in-person incentive travel program is required to be fully or partially replaced by a virtual or hybrid event.