Best of Show Winners Revealed
On June 15 in Orlando, FL, attendees of the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association annual conference learned which two in-plants won Best of Show awards in the In-Print 2015 contest. The identities of those winners have been kept secret for the past three months since they were picked by a panel of judges in March, and were unveiled at the end of IPMA's awards reception and banquet.
But the Best of Show winners weren't simply announced from a podium. The audience got to watch the winning pieces get selected via two videos shot and edited by IPG's Bob Neubauer. One video showed the judges picking the best offset-printed piece, and the other showed them choosing the most impressive non-offset piece out of all the Gold winners.
Suspense filled the room as attendees watched one piece after another get eliminated, until only two pieces were left. When the judges took a vote on the final two, the winners were:
- Offset: Brigham Young University
- Non-offset: Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield
This makes four Best of Show awards for BYU, which used a six-color, 23x32˝ Akiyama to print its winning piece: a unique card with split pages that allowed the recipient to interchange heads and bodies on a series of figures, each of which matched up perfectly. Doug Maxwell was on hand to accept the award, his third Best of Show (in five years) as director of the Provo, UT, in-plant.
In the non-offset contest, Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield had the distinct honor of winning both Best of Show and runner up; the last two pieces left standing were both produced by the Rochester, NY, in-plant. Its impressive, multi-piece special project was printed on a Kodak NexPress 3300. Catherine Ciardi accepted the Best of Show award for her team.
The unveiling of those two winners followed a reception in which all winning In-Print pieces were displayed. For the first time this year, attendees got a chance to pick an overall winner of their own. The Attendees Choice Award went to East Carolina University for its football season ticket book.
During the ceremony, all Gold award winners were called to the stage to accept their awards. The in-plant with the most overall In-Print awards was the University of Oklahoma, which won 10, five of them Gold. The World Bank Group earned six awards. Both Excellus BlueCross BlueShield and the Church of Jesus Christ of LDS won five awards this year, while the University of North Texas won four.
The fact that the IPMA award ceremony was moved from the last to the first full day of the conference, now gives attendees a chance to congratulate winners throughout the week and talk with them about their winning pieces. IPG salutes all 67 In-Print 2015 winners and the 28 different in-plants that produced them. To see photos from day one of the IPMA 2015 conference, visit IPG's Facebook page: www.facebook.com/inplant
Here’s a list of all of the Best of Show winners over the past 25 years:
- 2015 – Brigham Young University/Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield
- 2014 – Brigham Young University/East Carolina University
- 2013 – Church of Jesus Christ of LDS/Washington State University
- 2012 – University of Minnesota/University of North Texas
- 2011 – Brigham Young University/University of North Texas
- 2010 – University of Oklahoma/University of North Texas
- 2009 – Briggs & Stratton
- 2008 – Conoco Phillips
- 2007 – Conoco Phillips
- 2006 – University of Delaware
- 2005 – University of Missouri-Columbia
- 2004 – University of Delaware
- 2003 – University of Missouri-Columbia
- 2002 – Phillips Petroleum
- 2001 – Boeing
- 2000 – SAFECO
- 1999 – University of Missouri-Columbia
- 1998 – Hitachi Data Systems
- 1997 – Boeing
- 1996 – Phillips Petroleum
- 1995 – Brigham Young University
- 1994 – Phillips Petroleum
- 1993 – Boeing
- 1992 – USAA
- 1991 – Boeing
- 1990 – Boeing
Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 170 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.