Shimmering sequins and a SWUG-bag of cash glistened tonight at the gala finale to this weekend’s Australian Single Width Users Group conference.

The dashing bows of female violin trio String Diva vied with a clutch of awards worth more than $60,000 at the twenty-sixth presentation dinner at Brisbane Convention Centre: Winners of four categories in the annual print competition shared half of that amount in value, while the group added a $10,000 runners-up prize to its bi-annual leadership scholarship, worth $20,000.

“Because the quality of the applications was so high, it was decided to present a second prize,” vice president Anthony Payne said.

Runner-up Dean McManus from Fairfax Regional Printers (Beresfield) will travel to DRUPA  in Düsseldorf in May in company with scholarship winner Tristan Couzens – from another Fairfax group site, Rural Press Mandurah – whose top award also includes an around-the-world travel bursary.

Industry suppliers backed this year’s print awards with prizes in cash and kind worth more than $30,000, with a strong Kiwi emphasis to the winners list.

New Zealand newspaper sites took two of the four awards, with one of the remainder – the prize for coldset commercial printing – going to NZ-owned Horton Media Queensland.

Winners were:

• Brissett Shield for best overall print quality – presented by Glen Brissett – to Rural Press Printing Ballarat (manroland Uniset 75) for the ‘Bendigo Advertiser’; runner-up Fairfax regional Printers, beresfield (Uniset 70) for the ‘Newcastle Herald’; highly commended RPP Mandurah (Uniset 75) for ‘Bunbury Mail’.

• The Coates Shield – presented by DIC Australia web export manager Meredith Darke – went to APN Hastings, NZ (Goss Community) for ‘Hawkes Bay Today’; runner-up ‘Gisborne Herald’, NZ (Community); highly commended RPP Mandurah (Uniset 75) for the ‘Esperance Express’.

• The Flint Group shield for best coldset commercial printing went to Horton Media Queensland (Community) for ‘Hinterland Times’; runner-up Horton Media, NZ (Community) for ‘Aviation News’; highly commended Horton Media, Qld for ‘Journey’.

• A new award for best double-width newspaper, sponsored by Norske Skog, went to APN Print, Ellerslie, NZ (Goss HT70) for ‘New Zealand Herald’, and was presented by Tania Gordon. Runners-up and highly commended prizes went to RPP Ormiston (Goss Uniliner 80) for the ‘Australian Financial Review’.

Also during the evening, the president’s prize (sponsored by Baldwin Graphic Systems) went to Mark Dibble of host site Fairfax Media Ormiston.

This year’s top SWUG apprentice is Joe Vaz, in his second year at Newsprinters Shepparton, where he works as a night shift supervisor.

The gala evening (sponsored by Goss International) was the climax of an event which began with a Kodak-sponsored welcome party in the Plaza Gallery, and included a visit to the host site in suburban Ormiston.

About 200 delegates from 42 print sites in Australia and New Zealand attended a two-day programme of technical and print management issues.