Former CEO of IPMG, Stephen Anstice, has been invited by the Printing Industries’ Board to undertake a review of the PICA and National Print Awards (NPA). The review has been instigated as the shrinking number of print businesses has led to a decline in the number of entries, leading to a scaling back of some state events from gala dinner to cocktail evening. In addition the time required from judges, committees and co-ordinators is proving a burden to some in these hard pressed days.
Concern has also been raised in some quarters about the relevance of the awards categories, which focus heavily on print quality and do little to recognise business acumen, marketing prowess or brand repositioning. The NPA ran for 29 years as an independent entity, beginning from small roots as a platform to showcase the best in domestic print. They were taken over by Printing Industries two years ago. In 2007 the structure changed so that only gold winning state PICA jobs could be forwarded to the national awards. Joe Kowaleski at Printing Industries says, “Many other forms of media are challenging print and printing technologies have changed over recent years. The award system needs to be reviewed in the light of these changes. “Stephen Anstice will review the options available for the industry to showcase excellence and whether the Awards in their current form do this. He has kindly offered to undertake this review for no fee. He will have no influence over any judging as this will remain under the control of the various awards committees.” Anstice has been asked to consider what would be required to establish: • A contemporary Awards process that showcases a changing industry; • Provides an increase in the return for stakeholders and • Streamlines the time and effort required to support the awards. The review will seek the views of a number of key stakeholders: • Sponsors • The NPA and Local PICA Committees • Participating companies • Selected non-participating companies • Key industry opinion leaders In addition industry awards from overseas will be reviewed. The Anstice review will be presented to the National Board of the Printing Industries by January 2014. He will be making contact with all major stakeholders but welcomes any views from interested parties to the following address awardsreview@printnet.com.au.
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