THE COUNTDOWN TO ADFEST

With just a month to go before this year’s Asia Pacific Advertising Festival, AdFest has announced several significant changes to this year’s line-up to ensure this year’s event is more relevant and successful than ever.

AdFest will be unveiling its new theme, ‘Made In Asia’, (ironically a theme created for them by M&C Saatchi Sydney) to celebrate the festival’s heritage as the original Asia Pacific advertising festival.

More than 50 creatives will join the judging panels, representing 27 agencies from 19 cities. Sir John Hegarty (above left), chairman and worldwide creative director of BBH and Mark Tutssel (below left), worldwide creative director of Leo Burnett, head the list of jury presidents.

AdFest will also introduce a new Award, called ‘Lotus Roots’, which is designed to celebrate local culture in a globalised world. All AdFest finalists will automatically be eligible to win this new award, which is open free of charge to agencies.

For the first time, AdFest will also host the ADFEST ACADEMY, a two-day forum for young creatives. On March 19-20, a series of short 30-minute lectures are designed to give young creatives access to the world’s top creative executives, and are open at no extra cost to all AdFest delegates aged under 30. However, with only 60 tickets available, it is open on a first come, first served basis. Register at www.adfest.com to receive your invitation.

Jury Presidents will be responsible for overseeing 14 Lotus Awards categories. These include:

FILM LOTUS & RADIO LOTUS: Sir John Hegarty, Chairman & Worldwide Creative Director at BBH in London.

PRESS LOTUS & POSTER LOTUS: Mark Tutssel, Chief Creative Officer, Leo Burnett Worldwide, Chicago.

OUTDOOR LOTUS: Suthisak Sucharittanonta, Chief Creative Officer, BBDO Bangkok.

DIRECT LOTUS: Selina Ang, Executive Director, OgilvyOne Worldwide, Kuala Lumpur.

DESIGN LOTUS & PRINT CRAFT LOTUS: Vince Frost, Creative Director and CEO at Frost Design in Sydney.

FILM CRAFT LOTUS & NEW DIRECTOR LOTUS: Prasoon Pandey, Director of Corcoise Films, Mumbai.

CYBER: Koshi Uchiyama, CD at GT Inc and (suit)men entertainment, Tokyo

AdFest 2009 takes place in Pattaya, Thailand on 19-21 March. To register, visit the AdFest website.