Celebrating our 2020 Gold Quill award winners!
One of the most important days in the IABC calendar year has arrived. It’s time to celebrate those brilliant communicators across NSW (and around the world) whose skills have been recognised by a Gold Quill award.
This year’s February 28th was a typical balmy summer’s day. The news headlines featured the pending Mardi Gras celebrations, the imminent Leap Year birthdays, and fire crews being called to north Sydney to rescue a magpie stuck in a tree. The word COVID-19 wasn’t a thing.
Four pairs of intrepid professionals from the diverse Sydney communications industry made their way to Manly’s sparkling harbour-front, eager to complete their IABC Gold Quill evaluations. Over the course of the day, they rigorously reviewed 28 award entries from around the globe, minus Australia, seeking out touches of magic, each pair oblivious to the concept of social distancing.
By mid-afternoon, the evaluators had identified some remarkable and worthy Gold Quill winners. Awards were recommended across a wide range of disciplines, organisations and countries. There were great debates and violent agreements, alongside glowing praise and a sense of enormous fulfilment as another outstanding entry was revealed.
Each evaluator volunteered their time to review, analyse and discuss the entries they were assigned. They spent their Saturday diligently reconciling their independent scores. Lunch was devoured with haste. Snacks were abandoned. They had work to do. The process was tough. Achieving an award from this team of professionals is a serious feat.
So a huge congratulations to all the winning entries across NSW, and indeed around Australia. Although your entries were evaluated by Panels held overseas, they will have been subjected to the same rigour. You should be incredibly proud of your achievement. Your work has reinforced the value and importance of brilliant communications, at a time when we are needed more than ever.
Anthea chaired the IABC Blue Ribbon Panel in Sydney this year, after seven years of volunteering as a Gold Quill evaluator for the IABC Asia-Pacific region. With over 15 years’ experience in delivering strategic communications advice to financial and technical organisations, Anthea is passionate about continuous learning and has shared case studies and presented at Corporate Affairs conferences on a wide range of topics. She is a long-standing volunteer, primarily focusing on youth charities, and is currently lending her skills and knowledge to Scouts Australia.
