'Best of the Best' competition means you have to win a state PICA award in order to get into the national finals.

Time for getting entries is dramatically shorter this year for entrants into the National Print Awards (NPA).

Printers are going to have to submit their entries as early as July in Tasmania if they want to have any hope of earning the inaugural 'Best of the Best' awards next year. The first revamped NPA awards will take place on the Friday night of the premier trade exhibition, PacPrint in Melbourne – May 29, 2009.

At the recent Melbourne NPA ceremony, chairman Scott Telfer announced that from 2009, the only way that a company can win a NPA is if they win that category in their respective State Award first. "I'm certain the changes will strengthen the value and credibility of the National Print Awards. It will truly be a 'Best of the Best' competition," he said.

This means that there will be no direct entries into the NPA for next year, 2009. If companies want to place an entry directly into the NPA, they will now need to nominate it into their state awards, usually the Picas. Each state will then automatically submit their Gold Award winners for each category into the NPA in the following year.

According to Printing Industries NSW General Manager Robert Fuller, the range of PrintNSW Award categories has been significantly increased this year to 30 to replicate the traditional NPA categories. These core categories will apply uniformly across each State and may be complemented by additional state specific award categories which will not carry through to the NPA. An example of this is the NSW Business Awards.

"What this means for printers is that the State Awards now become the gateway for winning a National Print Award," he said.

The long anticipated changes will give NSW and Victorian printers the same opportunity to compete in local competitions as enjoyed by companies in other states. The enthusiastic attendance of printers who pay their own way and not wait for supplier freebies to attend is one of the major strengths of the state-based PICA awards.

For dates of all states awards please visit Printing Industries Recognition Awards area by clicking here.