And the AWARD goes to... Auckland

An Australian writers' and art directors' school is setting up in Auckland.
AWARD School, powered by Sydney-based The Communications Council, will host a debut 16-week course to start in late July.
The programme will be headed by DDB's creative duo Lisa Fedyszyn and Jonathan McMahon, graduates of Melbourne AWARD School back in 2002.
"We're very excited to be school heads for Auckland," says Lisa. "As ex-students we both know the value of the programme, and it's great to be able to give something back."
In previous years, the AWARD School programme has been offered in Wellington but it is the first time in Auckland.
"AWARD School is widely recognised in the region as nurturing generations of successful young talent in the creative industries. The short 16 week programme will be tailored to suit the Auckland market which we believe will complement the longer term training programmes already available in Auckland, says Daniel Leesong, chief executive of The Communications Council.
Droga5 creative director Guy Roberts says the school is an excellent provider to the advertising industry.
"It's great for the industry to add AWARD School to the training mix, I have worked with some fantastic Creatives who are AWARD School graduates and Droga5 looks forward to supporting the industry programme locally."
The application brief and entry criteria is available to download from www.awardschool.co.nz
What's the AWARD for?
AWARD, which stands for the Australasian Writers and Art Directors Association, was founded 28 years ago. It is a community of like-minded and passionate individuals galvanised by the sole aim of raising creative standards in all forms of commercial communication. It is a non-political, non-profit organisation.
AWARD School is a 16-week course run by the Australasian Writers and Art Directors Association for people who want to become copywriters or art directors in the communications industry.
The school was founded in Sydney by Ray Black and since then been rolled out in Asia and New Zealand. The school is recognised as the fast track into the communications industry. It's a course about ideas, creative thinking and processes involved in coming up with great ideas and ultimately good ads.
The course consists of a Monday evening lecture and Thursday evening tutorial, held inside agencies, by industry practitioners. To be accepted into the course, each person must submit a folio of work based on the brief set by the heads of AWARD School.
AWARD School students are selected purely on the merit of their ideas in their application.