As awards nights go, the 2007 Victorian PICA Awards, held at Melbourne’s Park Hyatt Hotel last Friday night was one of the best.

Close to 400 people attended the sell-out event to celebrate with their colleagues, peers and partners at one of the most glamorous nights ever hosted by the industry.

The Hollywood themed event was the culmination of a competition which was re-introduced to Victoria after more than 20 years and it went without a hitch.

The focus, of course, was the Awards. A total of 18 Diamond, 16 Emerald and 15 Ruby Awards were presented, with D&D Global Group the night’s biggest winner, taking out two Diamond Awards and the Agfa Graphics Award for the Most Innovative Use of Imaging in Printing, for its ‘D&D&U – Ode to the Craft’ self-promotion brochure.

Other Diamond Awards were presented to Avon Graphics, Chillipress, D&D Global Group, Detmold Flexibles, Energi Print, Finsbury Green, Gaston Renard, Hannanprint Victoria, PMP Print, Red Rover, Sands Print Group, SEP Sprint (Australia), STS Creative Printing, Tarcoola Pres, Taylor’d Press and The Label Place.

The Heidelberg Award for Excellence in craft went to Tarcoola Press via Impact Printing for the book ‘Charles Joseph Latrobe, Australian Notes 1839-1854’, while the PaperLinx Award for the Best Designed Entry was presented to Printbound for ‘The Surgery Book’ – Reception Copy.

A special Environmental Award was made by Paper Round to Print Graphics for their company overview and initiatives submission. The judges also made a special award for outstanding excellence to STS Creative Printing for its screen printed poster, ‘Be Fabulous’ for The Body Shop.

Joining the celebrations were numerous delegates from the LIA Conference, which had been held during the previous two days and the 10 finalists of the LIA National Graduate Scholarship Award, which was presented on the night.

LIA President Greg Grace commended all the finalists, saying this year’s group was one of the most impressive he had come across in many years.

Sarah Thomas from Collotype Labels in South Australia was the overall winner of the $15,000 GAMAA-LIA National Graduate Scholarship Prize, which will allow her to travel overseas to further her career. Martin Byng form APN Print in Queensland was awarded the LIA-Printing Industries Future Leaders Award which will see him travel to Düsseldorf next year to visit DRUPA 2008.

“Any one of these young people would have been a worthy winner of the scholarship. It is exciting to see the quality of our industry’s leaders of the future.”

In a surprise departure from the planned schedule, Ray Keen, President of Printing Industries in Victoria, took the stage to announce that Printing Industries and the LIA had joined forces to establish an Australian Standard for Colour Management, equivalent to international ISO 12647. The same announcement was made simultaneously at the New South Wales Awards dinner.

“Australia has been at least three to four years behind the international industry in this respect, a situation we could not allow to continue,” Mr Keen said.

“This new standard will provide clear, consistent standards for colour management across the country and bring us up to international benchmarks.”

Awards nights, however, are about much more than simply making presentations and talking shop. They are about catching up with friends, celebrating and, quite simply, having fun, and the 2007 Victorian PICA Awards were no exception, with entertainment laid on.

MC James O’Neill and impersonator Ben Price brought Hollywood legends Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Mr T and Dr Evil to the evening via ‘satellite’, and 10-piece band Dejavu kept guests rocking until nearly midnight.

Perhaps PICA Victoria Chairman, Trevor Hone, summed it up best when he said the awards “give us all a chance to reflect on our efforts, and perhaps even indulge in a small amount of back patting, before getting back to running our businesses and making a living.

“The large number of entries, the quality of those entries and the attendance tonight demonstrates without question that PICA is back in Victoria…and it’s back to stay,” he said.