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Terms & Conditions

Effective date: March 16, 2026
Last updated: March 9, 2026

Acceptance of Terms

By accessing theechoawards.com, creating an account, making a purchase, submitting a nomination, or attending an Echo Awards event, you agree to these Terms & Conditions (“Terms”). If you do not agree, do not use the Site or services.

Who We Are and What We Do

The Echo Awards honors journalists covering the U.S. Public Sector Market and provides related events, ticketing, nominations, publications, and merchandise.

Eligibility and Accounts

  • You must be at least 18 years old (or the age of majority in your jurisdiction) to make purchases.
  • You are responsible for safeguarding your account credentials and for all activity under your account. Notify us immediately of unauthorized use.

Orders, Pricing, and Taxes

  • All prices are listed in U.S. Dollars unless stated otherwise. We may change prices at any time prior to order acceptance.
  • Your order is accepted when we send an order confirmation. We may refuse or cancel any order due to availability, errors, suspected fraud, or policy violations.
  • Applicable taxes, fees, and shipping (for physical goods) will be displayed at checkout and are your responsibility.

Payments

  • We accept payment methods shown at checkout and use third-party payment processors. By submitting a payment, you represent you are authorized to use the payment method and authorize us (and our processor) to charge the total amount, including taxes, fees, and shipping.
  • We may use fraud screening and verification tools and may cancel or refuse orders that cannot be verified.

Tickets, Registrations, and Digital Delivery

  • Tickets/registrations are typically delivered electronically to the email address provided. Keep your contact information accurate and check spam folders.
  • Unless otherwise stated, tickets are for personal use, non-refundable, and may not be resold above face value or used for unauthorized promotions.
  • Name transfers may be permitted up to [X days/hours] before the event; contact [email protected].

Event Changes, Cancellation, and Refunds

  • We may change event dates, formats, venues, speaker lineups, or seating due to circumstances beyond our control. We will use reasonable efforts to notify registrants.
  • If the event is canceled and not rescheduled, we will provide a refund of the face value of tickets purchased from us. If the event is rescheduled, tickets will be honored for the new date; if you cannot attend, you may request a refund within [14] days of the reschedule notice.
  • Service fees, shipping, and third-party charges may be non-refundable unless required by law.
  • For merchandise: unopened/unused items in original condition may be returned within [30] days of delivery. Customer pays return shipping unless the item is defective or we made an error. Refunds are issued to the original payment method after inspection.
  • Sponsorships, tables, ads, and similar commercial purchases may be governed by separate agreements; unless those agreements state otherwise, such purchases are non-cancellable and non-refundable once confirmed.

Shipping and Risk of Loss (Physical Goods)

  • We currently ship to [United States only/selected regions]. Shipping times shown at checkout are estimates, not guarantees.
  • Risk of loss passes to you upon our delivery to the carrier. Title passes upon receipt of full payment.

Nominations, Submissions, and User Content

  • You represent you have the rights to any content you submit (e.g., nominations, bios, work samples, images) and that it is accurate, lawful, and does not infringe rights of others.
  • You grant The Echo Awards a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, distribute, display, adapt, and publish your submitted content for awards administration, judging, promotion, historical archiving, and event coverage.
  • Do not submit confidential or sensitive information unless specifically requested and you consent to its use for awards administration.
  • Judges’ deliberations are confidential. We may publicly announce nominees, finalists, and winners (including name, outlet, category, and headshot if provided).

Code of Conduct and Event Safety

  • We aim to foster a respectful environment. Harassment, discrimination, abuse, and disruption are prohibited. We may remove any participant violating this policy without refund.
  • You agree to comply with venue rules, security checks, and applicable laws.

Intellectual Property

  • The Site, its content, the Echo Awards name, logos, and marks are owned by us or our licensors and protected by law. Except as expressly allowed, you may not copy, modify, distribute, or create derivative works without our prior written consent.
  • You may link to public pages in a fair and non-misleading manner.

Prohibited Uses

You may not: use the Site for unlawful purposes; attempt to gain unauthorized access; interfere with security or integrity; scrape, crawl, or harvest data except via documented, rate-limited APIs (if any); or submit malware or spam.

Third-Party Services and Links

We may link to or integrate with third-party services (e.g., payment processors, ticketing, nomination platforms). We are not responsible for those services. Your use is governed by their terms and privacy policies.

Publicity; Photography and Recordings

By attending our events, you consent to being photographed, filmed, or recorded and to our use of your name, image, likeness, voice, and professional affiliation in connection with event coverage, promotions, and archival purposes, without additional compensation, to the extent permitted by law.

Disclaimers

  • Except as expressly stated, the Site, tickets, events, and goods are provided “as is” and “as available.” We disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement.
  • We do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free operation or that any content is complete or current.

Limitation of Liability

  • To the fullest extent permitted by law, in no event will The Echo Awards or its directors, officers, employees, or partners be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for loss of profits, revenues, data, goodwill, or business interruption, arising out of or related to your use of the Site or purchase/attendance.
  • Our total liability for any claim will not exceed the amount you paid to us for the product or service giving rise to the claim in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the liability.

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless The Echo Awards and its affiliates from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising from your breach of these Terms, your submissions, or your misuse of the Site or services.

Force Majeure

We are not liable for any delay or failure to perform due to events beyond our reasonable control, including acts of God, labor disputes, epidemics, supplier failures, or government actions.

Changes to Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. The updated Terms will be posted with a new effective date. Your continued use constitutes acceptance.

Governing Law; Venue

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of [District of Columbia/Your State], without regard to conflicts of law principles. You agree to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the state and federal courts located in [Washington, DC/Your Venue] for any disputes not subject to mandatory arbitration or contrary law.

Severability; Waiver; Assignment

If any provision is unenforceable, the remainder remains in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them as part of a merger, acquisition, or asset sale.

Notices; Contact

Legal notices and questions about these Terms or your order:

  • Email: [email protected]
  • Mail: The Echo Awards
    8200 Greensboro Dr, Suite 1450
    McLean, VA 22102

Entire Agreement

These Terms, together with any order confirmation and any supplemental terms referenced at checkout or in a separate sponsorship agreement, constitute the entire agreement between you and The Echo Awards regarding the Site and e-commerce.

US State Privacy Disclosures (Supplement)

  • California/Colorado/Connecticut/Virginia/Utah Residents: You may have rights to access, correct, delete, obtain a portable copy, and opt out of targeted advertising or “sales/sharing” of personal information. To exercise, use our “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” link (if available) or email [email protected]. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights.
  • Categories collected: identifiers, commercial information, internet activity, professional information, and in limited cases user-provided preferences. We disclose these to service providers for business purposes as described above.
  • Sensitive information: We do not seek to collect sensitive personal information. Any dietary/accessibility notes provided are used solely to accommodate event participation.