Winners of the African Gold Quill awards, announced in October by the Africa Region of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), get another chance to for their work to be recognised in the International Gold Quill Awards, to be judged at IABC’s San Francisco headquarters early next year.

This year marked the first time that the Africa Region held its own local awards and to celebrate, it put forward all its prize winners to the international competition.

High calibre
“Not only did we receive far more entries than we expected, they were all of exceptional quality,” says Susan Beaumont, Chairperson of IABC Africa.

IABC is a global association, with about 15 000 members, that provides the content, the credibility and the community to help communication professionals succeed in their careers. Competing at international level in this context is a very valuable exercise in terms of the feedback entrants receive. Winning at this level is very prestigious,” she says.

Local winners
Competing for international recognition include two winning entries from the Gauteng Provincial Government for Gautrain in the media relations and multi-audience communication strategy categories.

Another double entrant is Mari Lee, from Development Communication Solutions, who won for a Child Welfare campaign and a social brand transformation strategy. This strategy, implemented for the Hervormde Kerk, aimed at positioning their social development organisations to individuals and organisations outside of the church.  The strategy was lauded by judges as “an excellent analysis of a professional communications plan and approach for a conservative client”.

Celia Bayley from Sappi will compete with the Sappi corporate calendar, which the judges said “combined low-profile corporate identity with high-end images and print techniques”.

Sophia Dower of Words’worth, who has several International Gold Quill Awards under her belt, added an African Quill to her showcase. Dower won for a tabloid newsletter produced on behalf of the Exxaro Resource Group. The newsletter is distributed to 10 000 employees at Exxaro’s head office, four international locations, as well as mines and refineries throughout southern Africa.

Other South African companies that won automatic entries are Magna Carta Johannesburg, who will now compete with their Standard Bank Get a Grip campus activation, and their Team Barloword Tour de France campaign. Purpleberry enters with 3Sixty, a staff magazine they publish for Nedbank; and the National Responsible Gambling Programme’s public awareness campaign.

Call for entries
It is still possible to enter the International Gold Quill Awards. They are open to both IABC members and non-members. All Africa Region entries are submitted first to the local IABC office and go through a preliminary judging process. Those entries that make it through this initial sifting are then submitted to IABC International in San Francisco.  

Early bird entries close on the February 5, 2008, so get a start now if you, or your company, have a winning communication strategy, and are looking for international recognition.