Attached Link: Looking for contest ideas and how to proceed.

Hey Ya,ll,

I am heavily in need of new marketing material (renders), using VistaPro Renderer, that I can share with my distribution managers and distributors.

I have not thought through the exact details of the contest. So, I am totally open to your thoughts and input. Send me feedback and I will put together a prize listing and get it rolling here.

I know that I need printable rendering that will blow my distributors socks off. That is the starting point ;)

Anyone interested can check out the demo at VendorNation.com too.

1. Rules should be clear and, if changes are made, they shouldn't come at the advantage or disadvantage of anybody. Keep the playing field level. For example: extending a deadline cripples people who worked to meet it. Opening up use of props/whatever to get more entries handicaps those who worked within the limits. (This has been a source of bitching in other contests.) 2) Set the standards by which work will be judged, and judge by those standards, not by your gut or by name recognition, or popularity of comments. If originality is a factor, don't award a prize to a clone/smudge job. (I'm about ready to lay a claim of plagiarism in a recent contest.) If a certain item/technique must be featured, make sure that item is there. If you have established a theme, the entries ought to adhere to that theme and not be whatever the artist has just finished making, no matter how good it is. 3) Follow whatever rules you set forth. If entries must be timestamped, honor that time. If they must be in certain pixel sizes, format, whatever, hand it back to the artist for correction. If you change the image to make it fit, you are altering the entry. Don't do it. 4) Determine in advance whatever copyrights will need to be acquired. If all entries become your absolute property immediately, say so, so that we can avoid your contest. If only the winners yield certain specified reproduction rights, lay out those rights. Since this is for your commercial benefit, you need to ensure that there is no bitterness over the entries and how they are handled. 5) Determine in advance the structure of how the entries will be judged and by whom. 3-2-1 vote (Swiss style) or regular vote (pick only 1). Votes by the community? By a panel? By your employer? Given your expressed need, I would recommend a panel of an artist, a marketing person, and a buyer. Your buyer might not recognize good art but can find the pieces which speak to him. The artist can discern quality, but might not be able to sell ice in the desert. The marketing person ought to know what trends are like and what the competition is up to. Carolly