{"id":22749,"date":"2026-05-12T06:41:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T06:41:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/?p=22749"},"modified":"2026-05-12T06:44:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T06:44:16","slug":"association-update-may-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/2026\/05\/12\/association-update-may-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Association Update – May 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Association Update - May 2026<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Association Update – May 2026<\/strong><\/p>

Awards judging has officially wrapped up for 2026, and boy did you lot make it hard for the judges this year! With almost 300 entries, all at an incredibly high standard, the judges spent over 30 hours each poring over every detail before making their decisions. Feedback from the judges was that the quality of entries continues to improve year after year. However, it was disappointing to see a number of entries disqualified due to entrants exposing themselves either in the written descriptions or in the background of photos yet again.<\/p>

The judges also commented that it was very clear which entrants had taken the time to watch our recent awards judging webinar, as those entries aligned with their advice to follow the judging criteria, and made the judging process much easier.<\/p>

Not long now until the official Awards Presentation Evening, where we can announce the winners and hand out the coveted awards! If you have not yet purchased your tickets, make sure you do so soon.<\/p>

Expo is coming up faster than I\u2019d like to admit, and it\u2019s going to be a doozy! We\u2019ve got all sorts of fun planned across the three days, with something different and interesting happening each day. Whether it\u2019s live demonstrations from our key exhibitors, a full agenda of speaker sessions led by industry experts, connection and networking functions, or a live competition pitting young sign makers against each other, we really have it all.<\/p>

A key event on opening day is our Health & Safety session. Health and safety is something the whole industry struggles with, and it is brought up every time we are out visiting members. To help tackle this, we\u2019ve arranged for Nick Engelmann from Safe 365 and Leanne Freeman from Sign FX to share insights into Health & Safety prequalifications, including practical advice on what they involve, why they matter, and how sign businesses can navigate the process with greater confidence and efficiency. If you\u2019re coming on Wednesday, make sure you register to attend this session online<\/a>!\u00a0<\/p>

I also wanted to bring up something I saw online recently. Michelle Henry from Make it Happen Signage Academy ran a poll on LinkedIn asking sign shops whether they would use artwork created by another sign company if they suspected the client had not paid for it and had supplied it without permission. While most responses said no, a surprising 13% said they would.<\/p>

It raises some interesting questions around the ethics of using another company\u2019s designs and where businesses draw the line. In Michelle\u2019s own words, giving away free artwork is \u201cmadness\u201d. She recommended sending customers visuals of similar projects first, while making it clear that payment is required before producing bespoke artwork. Another suggestion was to include a note stating that the artwork remains the property of the company until paid in full.<\/p>

I thought she raised some really interesting points, especially as this is something members have asked me about more than once. Something to think about!<\/p>

That\u2019s all from me.<\/p>

Mikayla Hopkins
NZSDA<\/p>

\u201cIf you are good at something, never do it for free.\u201d <\/strong>– The Joker<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Awards judging has officially wrapped up for 2026, and boy did you lot make it hard for the judges this year! With almost 300 entries, all at an incredibly high standard, the judges spent over 30 hours each poring over every detail before making their decisions. Feedback from the judges was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nzsda-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22749"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22752,"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22749\/revisions\/22752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}