How to Write a Great Nomination for the AAIF Technical Excellence Awards

* Agentic AI Foundation ---------------------------------------- ANYONE CAN NOMINATE. SERIOUSLY. You don’t need to be a committee member, a maintainer, or even a frequent contributor to nominate someone for the AAIF Annual Technical Excellence Awards. If you’ve watched someone ship something remarkable, build a community from scratch, or deploy agentic AI in a way that genuinely moved the needle — that person deserves to be recognized, and you’re the right one to say so. Nominations close July 17, and the whole process takes just a few minutes. The hardest part isn’t filling out the form — it’s figuring out what to say. That’s what this guide is for. GENERAL TIPS FOR EVERY NOMINATION No matter which award you’re nominating for, these principles apply: * Be specific. “She contributed a lot to the project” tells reviewers almost nothing. “She authored the PR that redesigned MCP’s tool call response schema, which unblocked three downstream integrations and was merged in Q4 2025” tells them everything they need. * Use evidence. Numbers, links, dates, and outcomes are your best friends. Merged PRs, community growth metrics, GitHub stars, deployment scale, recorded talks, forum threads — if it’s documented somewhere, reference it. * Tell a story. A nomination that reads like a résumé bullet list won’t land as hard as one that explains why the work mattered. Set the scene. What problem existed? What did this person or organization do? What changed because of it? * Write for a reviewer who doesn’t know the nominee. Assume the reader is smart but unfamiliar with your corner of the ecosystem. A little context goes a long way. TIPS BY AWARD CATEGORY 🏆 OUTSTANDING TECHNICAL CONTRIBUTION AWARD This award recognizes an exceptional technical contribution to MCP, Goose, AGENTS.md, or agentgateway — merged code, spec improvements, or architectural work that made a real difference. Ask yourself: * What specific contribution are you nominating? Can you link to the PR, commit, spec change, or design doc? * What was the before/after? What couldn’t the ecosystem do before this work landed? * Who adopted it, built on top of it, or was unblocked by it? Even rough numbers help (“adopted by 4 downstream projects within 60 days of merge”). 🌱 COMMUNITY BUILDER AWARD This award honors an individual or team (up to 3 people) who grew, educated, or energized the AAIF community over the past 12 months — through docs, events, forums, social media, mentorship, or anything else that brought people in and kept them engaged. Ask yourself: * What sustained effort did this person or team put in? Was it regular office hours, a tutorial series, answering every beginner question in Discord? * What changed in the community because of them? New contributors onboarded? A forum that went from quiet to thriving? An event that introduced AAIF projects to a new audience? * Is there a moment or piece of work that best captures their contribution? Link to it if you can. 🚀 OPEN AGENTIC AI INNOVATION AWARD This award goes to an organization that deployed or advanced AAIF open standards — MCP, Goose, AGENTS.md, agentgateway — in a real-world setting with meaningful impact. Ask yourself: * Which AAIF open standard(s) did this organization use, and how? Be as concrete as possible about the deployment. * What’s the scale or reach of the impact? (Users served, workflows automated, time saved, problems solved — any documented evidence works.) * What makes this deployment novel, beneficial, or worth highlighting as a model for others? WHAT NOT TO DO Even well-intentioned nominations can fall flat. Avoid these common pitfalls: * Vague praise without substance. “An amazing contributor who always helps out” is kind, but it won’t win an award. Ground your praise in specifics. * No evidence or links. If you can point to a PR, a post, a metric, or a recording — do it. Unverifiable claims are hard to act on. * Assuming the reviewer already knows the context. Don’t skip the “why it mattered” part just because it seems obvious to you. * Nominating for the wrong category. A technical contribution is not the same as a community-building effort. Make sure the award fits the work you’re describing — it’s fine to submit two nominations if someone deserves both. * Last-minute submissions with thin details. You have until late July. Take 20 extra minutes to flesh it out. A strong nomination makes a real difference. READY? LET’S DO THIS. The AAIF ecosystem is full of people and organizations doing extraordinary work — often quietly, often without recognition. This is the community’s chance to change that. Nominations close July 17. Don’t wait until the last minute. 👉 Submit your nomination here Whether you’re nominating a longtime friend, a collaborator you’ve never met in person, or an organization whose work you’ve admired from afar — your nomination matters. Take 10 minutes and make it count.