PICAs and National Print Awards rescheduled
Organisers of the print industry’s awards have rescheduled the events for October, coming up with a clever, creative solution, of local in-person events combined with live-streamed national awards.
South Australia – which has been largely Covid-free in the current outbreak – will kick off events on 16 September with its State PICA evening, and Victoria, NSW and WA State PICAs will all now take place on 29 October.
All will be in-person events, with the organisers anticipating that the current NSW and Victoria lockdowns will be largely over by the end of October, with the population on course to hit the 70 per cent vaccination marker well before then.
The National Print Awards will be held as an in-person event in Victoria, on the same evening, 29 October, at the same location as the State PICA, and will be live streamed to the NSW and WA events, once the PICA presentations have finished.
The locations for SA, NSW and WA will remain the same: at the National Wine Centre in Adelaide; Ovolo in Wolloomooloo; and at the Crown in Perth. Location for the Victoria event has yet to be confirmed.
The Nationals will also be live streamed to Queensland printers at home or in the workplace – the Queensland PICAs took place last month, the only one so far – and will be live-streamed to printers from SA, as their PICAs are on 16 September.
PVCA will also be sending a hamper of goodies to printers in SA and Queensland who sign up to the live-streamed National Print Awards. It says the in-home experience will give those who register for the NPA access to the livestream, as well as a gourmet hamper with food and drinks delivered right to their door, to enjoy during the celebrations.
Originally slated for July, only the Queensland PICA event took place, with Colour Chiefs, Fast Proof Press, Kuhn Corp and Sunprint each emerging with three gold awards. All other events were postponed.
The October events are sure to be well supported, with the print community, like everyone else by then, keen to get back out into some kind of normal life.
Tickets for the events are available now, click here to go to the booking site.
Walter Kuhn, president of the Print & Visual Communications Association (PVCA), which hosts the event, said the new arrangements were the result of some “pandemic-inspired creativity".
“Working with the event organisers at Visual Connections, we have now devised a solution which will see all remaining PICA Awards announced on the same evening as the 38th National Print Awards presentation, bringing this year’s printing awards to a conclusion,” he explains.
Kuhn says guests at the Sheraton, Melbourne, will enjoy a cocktail function during the PICA presentations, with a short break before the national Awards are announced at a gala presentation dinner hosted by well-known comedian, TV and radio personality, Dave Thornton.