The Gold Quill Legacy: Celebrating Communication Excellence
Awards season is well underway. The Golden Globes and BAFTAs have been handed out, and the Oscars are around the corner. But for communication practitioners, it’s the Gold Quill awards that really matter.
For over forty years, IABC’s Gold Quill awards have been the pinnacle of achievement for professional communicators around the world. Showcasing some of the best work produced by IABC members over the past year, the awards show the impact that professional communicators can deliver on behalf of their industries and clients.
As we wait for the 2026 winners to be announced, we wanted to look back and celebrate some of the project successes and hard work of past IABC/Calgary Gold Quill winners.
Calgary Co-op’s Award-Winning Membership Program Launch (2025)
Barbara Munro, Communications Manager at Calgary Co-op, and her team won a Gold Quill Award of Merit in 2025 for their work launching a new membership program and member-exclusive app to 3,800 employees. The project took over a year and included an eight-month roll-out of the app. After an unsuccessful Silver Leaf submission, Barbara and her team were able to use that feedback, combined with an IABC/Calgary presentation on Crafting Gold Quill Presentations that shine to put together their Gold Quill winning submission.
Read more about this award-winning project here.
City of Calgary’s Cyber Awareness Campaign Wins Three Gold Quills (2024)
In 2024, Gord Laird and his colleague in the City of Calgary’s security communications team were awarded Gold Quills in three categories, Communications Management: Internal Communications, Safety Communications and Change Communications. The awards came from a multi-phased campaign that started in 2022 to communicate to all 17,000 municipal employees the city’s new cyber awareness and mandatory security training. A multi-disciplinary team was assembled, spanning communications, security, IT and City leadership. Audience research was undertaken, including pre- and post-project employee surveys. The successful campaign led to 81.5 per cent completion of the training by the end of 2023.
Read more about this award-winning project here.
Tourism Calgary’s Creative Annual Report Earns Gold Quill Recognition (2020)
Tourism Calgary’s 2018 Annual Report, led by Bridgette Slater and Cassandra McAuley, earned both a 2019 Silver Leaf Award and a 2020 Gold Quill Award of Merit. The report ditched the traditional report format in favour of a creative boarding pass design encased in a matching envelope. The project was inspired by stakeholder survey data showing a preference for concise, visually appealing content. A post publication survey showed the success of the re-designed annual report with 86% of stakeholders agreeing the report communicated what mattered most.
Read more about this award-winning project here.
Outfox Communications’ Indigenous Harm Reduction Forum (2020)
Outfox Communications Inc., led by Belinda Fox, Lowa Beebe, and Catherine Naylen, earned a 2020 Gold Quill Award of Merit for their Indigenous Harm Reduction Forum. The forum brought together Indigenous health practitioners, researchers, and community leaders to share best practices on harm reduction topics including tobacco, opioids, medical cannabis, and infectious disease. The event exceeded expectations attracting 155 attendees.
Read more about this award-winning project here.
CPKC’s Military Recruitment Campaign Earns Gold Quill Merit (2020)
Canadian Pacific Railway (now CPKC) was honoured with a 2020 Gold Quill award of merit for its Military Recruitment Program Advertising Campaign. The multi-faceted campaign was led by Rory Thompson who at that time was the Manager of Learning and Development and Military Relations. The campaign’s focus was to present CP as a civilian career worth exploring to veterans transitioning out of military service.
Read more about this award-winning project here.
ATB’s Best of the Best Win for Onboarding Express (2020)
ATB won their first Best of the Best Special Gold Quill award in 2020 for the internal communications Onboarding Express strategy. Nekolina Lau, SCMP, and the ATB communications team led a large interdepartmental team to develop the strategy that reduced client onboarding from 45 minutes to 15 minutes.
Read more about this award-winning strategy here.
Visit here for complete lists of past Gold Quill Winners.
Looking Ahead to the 2026 Gold Quill Awards
The 2026 winners will be announced this April. We are excited to see which of our members will be bringing home Gold Quills. Watch The Current, IABC/Calgary’s newsletter for full results and keep an eye on our blog in May for profiles on IABC/Calgary’s 2026 Gold Quill award winners.
Sources:
- https://www.iabc.com/awards-and-recognition/gold-quill
- https://iabccalgary.com/blog/iabc-calgary-member-wins-prestigious-gold-quill-award-in-2025-an-interview-with-barbara-munro/
- https://iabccalgary.com/blog/iabc-calgary-member-wins-three-gold-quill-awards-in-2024-an-interview-with-gord-laird/
- https://iabccalgary.com/blog/developing-an-annual-report-that-matters/
- https://iabccalgary.com/blog/local-communications-company-takes-home-2020-gold-quill-award-of-merit/
- https://iabccalgary.com/blog/gold-quill-award-winner-canadian-pacific-railway/
- https://iabccalgary.com/blog/atb-accepts-best-of-the-best-for-2020-and-an-award-of-excellence-for-internal-communications/
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