John Peter Zenger Medal, Innovation Excellence Honors to be presented at Franklin Luminaire Awards event on October 17 in New York City.

Alexandria, Va. – Idealliance and Printing Industries Alliance are now accepting nominations for the John Peter Zenger “Community Service” Medal and the Innovation Excellence Award, which will be presented at the Franklin Luminaire Awards event on October 17, 2018, at The Lighthouse, Chelsea Piers, New York City, before an expected audience of 400 media professionals. Deadline for nominations is May 15, 2018.

Nominees do not have to be members of either Idealliance or Printing Industries Alliance, but honorees are required to attend the Franklin Luminaire Awards event to receive their award. Nominations for the Zenger Medal may be made online at https://www.idealliance.org/zenger-community-service-award. Nominations for the Innovation Excellence Award may be made at https://www.idealliance.org/innovation-excellence-award. 

The John Peter Zenger “Community Service” Medal is awarded to an individual employed in the graphic communications industry who has exhibited exemplary character in the form of selfless courage, charity, activism, philanthropy, or military service. The recipient will be selected by the Franklin Luminaire Committee and a $1,000 contribution will be made to the 2018 Zenger honoree’s charity of choice.

The Zenger Community Service Medal is named after John Peter Zenger, a New York City printer whose arrest, imprisonment, trial, and acquittal in 1735 set the foundation for freedom of the press in Colonial America. The prestigious medal is engraved with the Latin words, “Non numinis, virtue parator” (“Not by money, but by virtue gained.”), the same words inscribed on a gold box given by a thankful group of New York leaders to Andrew Hamilton, Zenger’s pro-bono defense attorney.

“The Zenger Medal looks beyond the business or technical successes of our industry to recognize the human side, honoring those who have made our communities and our world a better place to live,” says Steve Drew, Sales Executive-Magazine Group at LSC Communications, and Co-Chair of the Franklin Luminaire Committee. “Zenger Medal recipients are real everyday heroes, people who have gone above and beyond, generously and unselfishly helping others in need.” He cites former honorees such as Michael Duggal of Duggal Visual Solutions, Mark Darlow of the Graphic Communications Scholarship Foundation, Angelina Killane-Sims of Highroad Press, and Dwight Vicks of Vicks Lithograph & Printing, as examples of the Zenger Medal standard.

“The Zenger Medal is not based on position or title,” says Drew. “It recognizes an employee at any level who meets the criteria listed, but who seldom, if ever, has received recognition from our industry for exceptional public service.” Nominees might, for example, include a press operator who has saved someone’s life as a volunteer firefighter or EMT, a secretary who has made a significant personal contribution to a charity, a CSR who serves or served in the military, or a CEO who has helped his or her community in a special way.

The Innovation Excellence Award is granted to an individual or company that is pioneering, pacesetting, and advancing new technologies. The recipient will be chosen by the Franklin Luminaire Committee. The nominee must be a company or individual within the graphic communications and media industry that has demonstrated, in a clear and convincing way, an innovative technology, workflow, product, or service used in media creation, production, and distribution that is first-of-its-kind and in use for 12 months or more.

“Innovation is the engine that propels our industry forward, enabling us to meet new customer demands and provide cutting-edge services,” says Meghan Milkowski, Vice President of Operations-Print Group at Dow Jones, and Co-Chair of the Franklin Luminaire Committee. “Honoring before an audience of some 400 leading executives and professionals those who have developed ideas that advance our industry not only provides proper recognition for their creative spirit, but supports and encourages future innovation.

“Previous Innovation Excellence Award recipients, such as David Q. McDowell from Kodak, Canon’s think:Inkjet Networking and Knowledge Community, Dianne Kennedy of Idealliance, and Paul Nowak of QuadPackaging, epitomize the innovative and forward-thinking this award was instituted to honor. We look forward to recognizing similarly qualified honorees this year,” says Milkowski.

For more information about the award or nomination process, contact David Steinhardt of Idealliance at (703) 837-1066 or [email protected] or Tim Freeman of Printing Industries Alliance at (716) 691-3211 or [email protected]. 

For more information about the Franklin Luminaire event or to attend the gala, visit https://pialliance.org/franklin-luminaire-awards/.