President’s Post – March 2025

The year is flying by, it just does not feel like it should be March, but there we go. It is almost time to whet the appetite with Bluff oysters, and get my snowboard waxed and ready for more use than it got last year.

You will all have noticed that the awards website is now accepting entries for our 2025 Awards of Excellence, to be held at Rutherford Hotel in sunny Nelson. Entries close at 5pm on Monday 28^th April. Please do not leave too much to get completed the weekend of the 26^th and 27^th April. This is our industries’ most prestigious event, where we all get to dress up, meet and mingle with industry peers, and enjoy a beautiful meal and some liquid refreshments. We get to celebrate the best of the best works that our creative industry has produced during the last 12 months, as well as celebrating the success of our apprentices, and people from the industry who go above and beyond.

It is always a fun night, and well worth attending. It is also the end function that follows our industry conference. We have some fun events planned in the days leading to our Awards of Excellence function, it is an opportunity to learn and to spend time with your peers. Attending is a great investment of your time. Nelson is a beautiful city to spend several days. It still amazes me how close Nelson is in a straight line from Wellington, yet the weather can be so different. Fingers crossed I haven’t just put a target on Nelson for some wet weather that weekend now, while the sun shines bright on Wellington. Let’s see aye!!

Our new refreshed Master Sign Maker program is all up and running, we have had our first two members pass all the requirements to show that they are indeed market leaders within our industry and can add Master Sign Maker to their marketing. I just want to say a huge congratulations to Jeremy from Big Brown Industries, and Leon from LG Creative, and your teams, for getting your companies to this level of work and commitment to the industry. I really enjoyed our recent phone conversations. Well done!!

We are getting back underway with our regional meetings, kicking the year off with Wellington on the 27^th February. While we had very positive feedback, and approximately 20 people responding that they will attend, on the day around 15 people pull out advising that they could not make it. Due to this we decided to postpone the event till 27 March in the hope that more from the region will be able to make it on the night. We put a lot of time and effort into planning these meetings, so it is a shame when so many pull out at the last minute.

I feel that these are important functions where we get the opportunity to get an update on what the NZSDA is doing for our industry, we get to meet and speak to other people that are in the same situation as everyone else, such as running a business in the current Wellington environment. We can discuss things that are impacting on us all, both positive and negative, hopefully having everyone leave with a new train of thought or at least the knowledge that other people are in the same boat as you.

Our next event is in Christchurch on 13 March at Sign Network. Attendees will hear some thoughts from Scott, who has had some great success in the past on our awards evenings. He will offer advice on how to submit your entries to ensure they stand out to the judges. We will give some updates about the new Master Sign Maker program and go over other things that we are working on. I look forward to seeing as many people there as possible.