For 35 years, PRSA Nashville has recognized exceptional work and thought leadership from the Middle Tennessee public relations community at its annual Parthenon Awards. It’s no secret that Nashville’s creativity, expertise and innovation truly are the very best our industry has to offer. Parthenon Awards are bestowed to projects and programs that demonstrate excellence in the public relations profession, and are open to all Middle Tennessee professionals. The awards program is mirrored after PRSA National’s Silver and Bronze Anvil Programs.

Public relations and communications professionals working in the Middle Tennessee area. PRSA Nashville members, non-members AND students are eligible.

All work entered must have been released, published or performed at least in substantial part during the 2022 calendar year. The same material may be submitted in more than one category. Each category entered will incur a separate entry fee. View this year's category descriptions here.

All entries must be submitted online at here.

Early bird submission deadline: 5 p.m. CDT, Wednesday, May 31, 2023
Last chance submission deadline: 5 p.m. CDT, Wednesday, June 19, 2023

Finalists will be notified by email in July. Awards will be presented at the PRSA Parthenon Awards Banquet in Aug 2023. More information on the dinner will be released in the coming months.

Entry fees must accompany all Program and Project Category entries. You will be prompted to pay when completing your online entry.

PRSA Nashville member fees:
$75/entry, submitted by May 31
$100/entry, submitted June 1-14
$65/nonprofit entry, submitted by May 31
$90/nonprofit entry, submitted June 1-14

Non-member fees:
$100/entry, submitted by May 31
$125/entry, submitted June 1-14
$90/nonprofit entry, submitted by May 31
$115/nonprofit entry, submitted June 1-14

Student fees are $25 for public relations students enrolled at:
Austin Peay State University
Belmont University
Lipscomb University
Middle Tennessee State University
Western Kentucky University

You will be prompted to pay by check, PayPal or credit card when completing your online entry. You may also choose to be invoiced.

Awards
Entrants compete for two kinds of awards:

• Parthenon Awards
• Awards of Merit

Awards will be presented at the PRSA Parthenon Awards event in August. Finalists will be notified by email prior to the awards event. More information will be released in the coming months.

Entries will be judged by a distinguished panel of senior-level public relations practitioners from a fellow Public Relations Society of America chapter. This group will examine the entries and select the winners. Parthenon Awards are presented for excellence in public relations programming. Judges reserve the right to limit the number of Parthenons or Awards of Merit per category.

Each of the following criteria receives equal weight in PROGRAM categories.

Research
Each entry will be judged for the quality of original or secondary research used to determine the scope of the problem or opportunity the entry addressed and the factors of importance to strategic planning.

Planning
Each entry is examined from the standpoint of the objectives established, creativity, judgment in selecting strategies and techniques, budget accuracy and difficulties encountered.

Execution
Judges will examine how the plan was implemented, materials used, in-progress adjustments to the plan, techniques to win management’s support, difficulties encountered and how effectively resources were used.

Evaluation
Judges will consider to what degree a program met its objectives and what efforts were undertaken to identify, analyze and quantify results.

For PROJECT categories, judging will be based on creativity, quality of production, persuasiveness of content, technical excellence and appropriateness for the declared audience.

1. Click here to go directly to the Awards submission site.

2. Please read carefully the Call for Entry information along with the category descriptions before starting your submission.

3. Please designate one contact per company for your awards.

4. Your entry should include the following: The name of entrant, contact information, entry title, indication of whether the entry is a Program or Project, a 50-word overview describing the entry, a Summary (two pages maximum for PROGRAMS, one page maximum for PROJECTS) detailing the important aspects of your entry, indication of your PRSA membership status, indication of whether or not your organization is a nonprofit and whether you’re entering as a student.

5. You may attach up to five (5) supporting files in an approved format (Word doc, PDF, JPG, PNG - 25M maximum per file) and three (3) URLs to include with your entry. File examples include a copy of the public relations plan, pictures, letters, scripts, reports, clippings, brochures, etc. URLs can be used to link videos from sites such as YouTube and Vimeo.

6. Once you have completed your submission, please click "Add to Cart" and follow the prompts to pay online - Entries are not complete until payment is received.