Seventy-eight printed pieces submitted by 37
in-plants were selected as winners from the 452 entries in this year's In-Print Competition,
co-sponsored by IPMA and
In-Plant Graphics magazine. At least 20 of the winning pieces came from organizations that are first time winners.
Among the biggest winners were the University of North Texas with ten awards and the University of Oklahoma taking home nine. The University of Texas at Austin captured four awards, while the University of Delaware, Briggs & Stratton, the LDS Church, Washington State University and Yale University each won three.
The complete list of gold, silver and bronze winners will be announced on-line soon at www.ipma.org. Two Best of Show winners (offset and non-offset) were selected from those receiving Gold Awards. The Best of Show will be revealed during IPMA's Awards Banquet, June 27, held in conjunction with IPMA's 2012 Conference in Kansas City.
The judging, conducted on Monday, March 26, at IPMA headquarters in Kearney, MO, lasted over nine hours. 
The panel of five judges included IPMA Awards Chairperson Chris Anderson, Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators in Salt Lake City; Larry Clements, Redlands Community College in El Reno, Oklahoma; Matt Doughty, the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City; Lori Fuller, the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha; and Mark McCarty, Missouri State University in Springfield. IPMA Administrator Carma Goin and In-Plant Graphics Editor Bob Neubauer helped to oversee the event.
Chris Anderson, who has served as a judge for the past five years, was particularly impressed by this year's entries. "Every year the competition gets tighter especially in the digital category. So many of 
the entries were certainly deserving of recognition and could all have been award winners. The quality of equipment is making judging far more difficult. In the past we could pretty easily identify the equipment by simply looking at the piece, but this year we frequently needed to refer back to the entry forms to clarify the machines used."
Anderson says, "Win or lose -- all of the entrants should be very proud of the work they produced this year. This was definitely the most difficult year for judging because of the large volume of high-caliber entries."
IPMA has secured 40 Royals tickets for a Pre-Conference outing for IPMA 2012 attendees on Saturday, June 23, as the Kansas City Royals take on the St. Louis Cardinals. (Game Time: 1:10 p.m. Buses will depart around 11 a.m.) If you wish to attend, be sure to reserve your additional hotel night through IPMA and arrange your travel plans to be in Kansas City early Saturday morning. This is an additional outing (pre-conference) that is not included in the registration fee. The cost for the game and transportation will be $50 each. 