Ontario, on the last day of 1983. NASH has also served as the platform for the John H. McDonald Awards for Excellence in Student Journalism, also known as the Johnnies, since 2003. Inspired by the National Newspaper Awards, the vision of the awards is to "celebrate and reward the excellence that can be found in so many publications at universities and colleges across the country." Any student whose work has been published in a student publication may be nominated for an award. There are currently 21 award categories, which cover different types of reporting (such as news, arts, features, sports, opinions, and some of their French counterparts), art and photography, design, and a new category for Most Promising Student Journalist. NASH78 was organized by CUP staff and held in Toronto, Ontario. At that conference, the Brunswickan (University of New Brunswick) successfully bid to host the next conference, NASH78, in Fredericton, New Brunswick. NASH79 is scheduled for 4–8 January 2017 with the theme "START UP". CUP also encourages member papers to host smaller regional conferences each year for the Western, Ontario, Prairie & Northern, Quebec, and Atlantic regions. Regional conferences have recently been held in the Ontario and Atlantic regions as of 2016. In 2022, The Concordian hosted NASH84, online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The theme for NASH84 was "Evolve," and featured many multimedia and independent journalists to discuss the evolving modern landscape of journalism. The 2022 conference featured over 70 prominent journalists from across North America including Brian Stelter of CNN, Jesse Brown of CANADALAND, Anita Li of The Green Line, Jason Chiu of The New York Times (a former Graphics Bureau Chief for CUP), and many others. Partnerships In April 2013, CUP signed a three-year agreement with a new national advertising partner called FREE Media. The marketing group was co-founded as a division of the independent national advertising agency FREE by two CUP alumni, former Gateway business staffers Ashleigh Brown and Vikram Seth. CUP's previous national advertising representative was Campus Plus (officially Canadian University Press Media Services Ltd.) which was formed in 1980 and closed in June 2013 after declaring bankruptcy. Campus Plus' bankruptcy trustee MNP took charge of collections in the months that followed and issued payouts to member papers. CUP is partnered with CWA Canada, a division of Communications Workers of America, a union which "advances the economic interests of its members, improves their standard of