It's the Awards Season and the surprise event was the ProPrint magazine 'Top50' Awards held at Sydney's Shangri-La Ballroom at The Rocks. Around 350 industry people gathered there for a glittering evening hosted by Sam McCool of PacPrint fame and with Durst as the major sponsor and a raft of who's-who sponsors supporting them. Many of the awards went to wide-format related print houses, including the #1 spot to Keith Ferrel of Cactus Imaging. Andy McCourt was there.
 |
| A story of tragedy, survival and persistence - Carlo (L) and Deon Capogreco of Big Image, Adelaide |
As awards nights go, this one was the Oscars with immaculate organisation, superb venue & catering and a terrific cross-section of industry notables, both print providers and suppliers. Let's not forget the ProPrint team of Editor Sheree Young, Carman Ciaparra, James Wells and others from Intermedia. It takes an event management organisation to make such a night, with its six months of planning, such a success and this is exactly what Intermedia does in addition to publishing, with 15 shows in various industry sectors and two other award nights for the hospitality and liquor industries.
This year, the 'Power 50' morphed into the 'Printer 50' with the top 20 culled out for numerical accolades and the rest listed alphabetically. There was also a 'Supplier 50' and an 'Emerging 50' for new faces - the future of our industry, plus a few special recognitions.
Although addressing the general 'printing' industry, it was heartwarming to see how many companies and individuals with strong wide format connections received recognition.
 |
| Cactus' Keith Ferrel - overall winner |
Taking #1 spot for the Printer 20/50 was the indomitable Keith Ferrel, co-founder of Cactus Imaging. An industry stalwart who seems to squeeze eight days into every week, Keith is active in many beneficial industry initiatives in addition to his role as co-founder and Genral Manager, Operations, with Cactus - now owned by out-of-home advertising powerhouse oOh!media.
Top 20 recognition also went to several other wide format identities including:
Debbie Burgess & John Bright, co-directors, Bright Print Group - major offest printers but with a growing wide format signage and POS division
Matt Aitken, CEO, IVE Group - IVE acquired Active Displays and is a major player in POS and display wide format print
Geoff Selig, executive chairman, IVE Group - with Matt Aitken
Peter Harper, CEO, Visual Connections - Signage and Display industry association, trade show presenter and publisher
Robyn Frampton, marketing & communications manager, Visual Connections, alongside Peter Harper
Nigel Spicer, general manager, Cactus Imaging - works alongside the winner Keith Ferrel
Dayne Nankervis, chief executive officer, CMYKhub - national trade printer with a significant wide format sector
Adam Parnell & Andy Fryer, co-directors, Easy Signs - Australia's leading e-commerce wide format provider, recently opened in USA
The unprioritised remaining 30 with wide format claims included: Ewen Donaldson, managing director, Vivad, Fiona Johns, owner, Minuteman Press Springvale, Frank Mezo, director, Mezographic, Jeff Barr, general manager, AFI Branding, Kenneth Beck-Pederson & Peter Musarras, co-directors, Carbon8, Sonia Shwabsky, chief executive officer, Kwik Kopy Australia, Stephen Lamont, managing director, Lamont Sustainable Sign Solutions and Tate Hone, director, Avon Graphics.
The Editor's Choice special prize, sponsored by Print IQ went to the very deserving father-son due of Carlo and Deon Capogreco of Big Image, SA. Wide format Online visited Big Image twice, in 2013 and again in 2019. One year later, on Boxing Day 2020 it was our regrettable duty to report on a devastating fire that all but wiped out Big Image's equipment and premises. With help from suppliers and the local Adelaide sign industry, Carlo and Deon rallied around and found alternate premises, gradually replacing equipment and keeping faith with customers. Theirs is a story of survival against all the odds - and truly inspirational in these difficult times of flood and fires.
Congratulations to all the wide format and other winners - and well done ProPrint/Intermedia for staging such a magnificent event!
 |
| Rising Stars - some of the 'Emerging 50' at the 2023 ProPrint Awards |
