London International Awards 2023 Creative LIAisons Speakers Announced

London International Awards onsite Creative LIAisons programme is a four-day experience, with insightful talks, a thought-provoking workshop, unrivalled networking and the opportunity to observe the LIA jurors as they discuss the work that has reached the final statue round of judging. This educational initiative funded by LIA, runs concurrently with LIA Judging and takes place at Encore Hotel in Las Vegas from October 8th through October 11th.

LIA is the only global festival that offers such an exclusive programme, welcoming approximately 120 young creatives worldwide to Las Vegas with no delegate fees and LIA covering their travel and hotel accommodations. This highly sought-after educational training programme allows young creatives unfettered access to the creative giants in the industry, providing the rare opportunity for young creatives to have one-on-one conversations with jurors and top-level creatives. 

No other award show invests so much of its own money in nurturing young talent.   

2023 Creative LIAisons delivers an impressive speaker line up!

Diederik van Middelkoop, ECD of Amp.Amsterdam will moderate the Creative LIAisons programme over the four days. Practically born with a guitar in his right hand and a keyboard under his left, Diederik has spent his life making, chasing, dreaming, sharing, and loving music.

DAY ONE

Day One kicks off with Joel Simon, CEO / chief creative officer of JSM Music being interviewed by Diederik van Middelkoop.  They will discuss various subjects, such as, doing the music for multiple Superbowl commercials, his work that has won numerous awards in Music & Sound, artificial intelligence and the changing role of music in advertising.

Laura Swinton, editor in chief & MD at Little Black Book will take the stage delving into ‘Hitting the Headlines and Building Your Brand’

‘If we build it, they will come’ might have worked for Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams, but as Laura says, “in the world of advertising even the most award-winning creative leaders understand the value of self-promotion and working with the media. For ambitious creatives at the beginning of their career, though, the prospect of navigating the industry press landscape and putting yourself out there can seem daunting. Laura shares advice on how to build your profile, insights about what the media is looking for and inspiration about how to make it work… your way.”

Next, we will be joining Merlee Jayme, chairmom / founder of The Misfits Group Manila and Tara McKenty, chief innovation officer / Co-ECD of BMF Sydney for a conversation on DEIA and Creativity - ‘Think Different’ by ‘Embracing Different’ is such a relevant and important subject in today’s industry landscape.

Merlee is the world’s one and only chairmom - a title she holds dear to her heart. It’s a testament to doing almost the impossible of raising children on one hand while the other is reaching out to the biggest creative dreams. It’s her personal way of handling her family at home and work and mentoring creative minds to succeed in this very competitive world.

Tara's most notable achievement to date is founding Rare with Google, an initiative that provides equitable opportunities for underrepresented creatives to thrive at every stage of their career, and leads a team of 60 people who ensure all three of Rare's offerings are scaled and available globally.

Next, the inspiration continues as Dissara Udomdej, CEO / creative founder of Yell Advertising, Bangkok discusses and demonstrates his new AI platform, AI-Deate: Transforming Advertising with AI Assistance!

Discover the future of advertising innovation! AI-DEATE—a generative AI platform set to revolutionise the industry, streamline creative processes, boost efficiency, and say goodbye to work overload. Witness the game-changing Text-to-Motion Storyboard capabilities - a one-stop-shop from ideation to captivating video production.

Next up is Guan Hin Tay, creative chairman at BBDO Singapore. Enter "Collide" – a deep dive into the idea that conflict, although feared by many, is the real crucible of innovation and creativity. Throughout history, many conflicts have catalysed profound discoveries and revolutionary ideas. This session aims to shatter such misconceptions. We'll delve into the heart of creative conflict, exploring its origins, significance, and dynamics. Brace yourself for a transformative journey, learning to channel the raw energy of conflict into ground-breaking idea generation. While this process can be chaotic and risky, it promises a thrilling adventure. By the end, you'll be primed to harness the power of conflict, crafting harmonious symphonies of innovation.

Stop Being the Best. Become the Only. Brand is the bridge that takes a company into new futures. In this session, Brian Collins, co-founder and designer of COLLINS explores how the consultancy – AdAge's 2023 Transformation Agency of the Year – works with the world's largest brands, including Spotify, Mailchimp, Figma and Nike to uncover untapped value. Brian also offers key rules for transformation and future-making, and, more importantly, explains when to break them.

Concluding Day One, we have a special talk by ‘Tutssel and Tutssel - ‘Creativity: Then and Now 

With a combined experience of over 50 years Mark and Lewis Tutssel have both worked within the advertising industry at different moments in time.

Industry legend Mark Tutssel, former executive chairman/ former global chief creative officer of Leo Burnett Worldwide and former creative chairman of Publicis Communications along with his son and current industry star, Lewis Tutssel, former head of EMEA gaming, Creative Shop, Meta will present the viewpoint of two different generations on the role of creativity within advertising and communication.

What has changed? What has stayed the same? How is technology impacting the business? What is the role of the idea?’ 

DAY TWO

Level Up Your Creative with Rise Nation Mastermind is a full-day workshop. During this workshop, attendees in groups of ten, will receive a brief that will enable them to create and pitch branding/marketing ideas that promote and exemplify Rise Nation Mastermind.

Oliver Fuselier of Great Guns USA, a world-renowned Creative Production Company and Joel Simon of JSM Music, a globally recognized Music Production House will be onsite to oversee this educational workshop.

Daymond John, founder & CEO of FUBU; star of Shark Tank and CEO of The Shark Group and his team, along with LIA jurors will be onsite to review, critique and select a winner from the pitches.

DAY THREE

Day three will be a unique opportunity for attendees to sit in on statue discussions in real-time. They will be privy to observing and hearing why a piece of work receives a Bronze, Silver or Gold statue, and ultimately a Grand LIA. This represents an invaluable opportunity for the creatives to experience the judging process at a relatively early stage in their careers.

DAY FOUR

The final day of the programme will kick off with a panel featuring the LIA Health and Pharma Jury presidents:

Alessandra Gomes, executive creative director, McCann Health Brazil has 20 years of experience in the healthcare market; she has always worked within the creative space.

Working with more than 80 brands, she has always sought to raise the standards of communication in Brazilian Health markets.

Rich Levy, chief creative officer, Klick Health enjoys doing things differently.

Healthcare can’t be creative? Agencies under his supervision have won “Most Creative Agency” at the Manny Awards eight times.

Healthcare can’t win at the highest levels of creative competition? How about winning “Healthcare Network of the Year”, “#1 Health & Wellness Agency” and “Healthcare Agency of the Year".

Rich believes that the work being done right now in healthcare is among the best and most important work in the world.

Rachel McCready, chief creative officer, Evoke believes, “If we cling to protectionist views of the creative process, we’ll be left behind. We need to open the doors and invite unexpected collaborators in.” With more than 20 years of award-winning work in health marketing, Rachel’s experience covers nearly every specialty, organ system, and life stage, but she considers every assignment uncharted terrain – an opportunity to reinvent not only the destination, but how we get there. She views comfort as one of the greatest enemies of creativity, and the comfort habit can be especially alluring in the health space. “Comfort is a natural instinct, but it’s one we need to actively overwrite every day.

Design legend, Pum Lefebure, co-founder / CCO of Design Army will follow, showing some of Design Army’s amazing work. Guided by an entrepreneurial edge, Pum has elevated Design Army’s reputation as a trendsetter, while establishing her own hallmark: a distinctive union of the artistic and the commercial. With a rare balance of creativity, strategic thinking, and industry savvy, she has proven that good design is the cornerstone of good business. Her thought leadership has appeared in Fast Company, the New York Times, Adweek, Entrepreneur, and Forbes, to name a few.

Following Pum, is the one and only Doerte Spengler-Ahrens, managing partner creation of Jung von Matt Hamburg and the first female president of the ADC Germany.

Doerte has been a speaker several times before at Creative LIAisons and is always a crowd favourite.  This year, Doerte's session is titled: How to Secure a Pitch Win: An unconventional, subjective guide to pitch success.

The next panel comes to you from three very different cultures with one thing in common, they are experts in the world of Digital and Social Media & influencers.

From the southern hemisphere we have Matty Burton, group chief creative officer, DDB Group New Zealand. Matty has spent the last 25 years working in the creative field at some of the most creatively renowned places on the planet.

Most recently he led an innovation team at Google as the APAC creative chief focusing on how brands can live in the world through emerging technologies.

From Europe, Amélie Ebongué, global brand leader, Bestselling author and web3 educator is a social media expert in emerging technologies whose career spans over 10 years in several industries with a focus on audience development and technology solutions. Her knowledge and experience in content marketing is incredible.

From India, Mukund Olety, CCO, VMLY&R Mumbai is amongst the top 100 CCOs in the world and one of the only senior creatives with extensive India, China and South-East Asia experience. With a career spanning nearly two decades, he has worked in some of the world’s biggest and most diverse markets. Mukund is excited by all things new – technology, culture, things, ideas and believes diversity breeds creativity.

The inspiration and learnings continue as we introduce the last two speakers, each a highly-recognised global chief creative officer, Malcolm Poynton and Susan Credle.  

Malcolm Poynton, global chief creative officer of Cheil Worldwide is recognised by AdAge as one of the ‘World’s Top 10 Digital Minds.’ Malcolm will get the group thinking with the question: 

Now What?

You got a job in advertising.

You impressed your ECD.

You got nominated to attend Creative LIAisons.

But the industry doesn’t care - all they seem to talk about is AI.

So...

Now What?

The programme will close out with Industry leader and superstar, Susan Credle, global chair and global CCO, FCB Worldwide. Susan is a creative powerhouse with a strong moral compass that drives her quest to infuse the industry with diversity.

Susan will lead us with ‘To Create is Human; To Lead is Divine'. Most of us are here because we are drawn to creative thinking, problem solving, making something out of nothing. And we want to be the best creatives we can be. The better work we create for brands and businesses the more likely we are to get promoted into leadership positions. Are we as prepared to lead as we are to create? This conversation will start figuring out the answer to that question.

In addition to this impressive speaker line-up, Creative LIAisons attendees will continue to gain knowledge from the world’s crème de la crème of the industry as they attend a networking event/party hosted by LIA. This event will include all jurors, speakers, press, creative excellence managers, as well as, the Creative LIAisons attendees.

The party will be held at Encore Beach Club at the most prestigious and luxurious hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.

Creative gurus from all over the world now have a platform and place to nurture up-and-coming creatives so that they can pass the torch on.

View the 2023 Creative LIAisons Mentees here.

For more information on Creative LIAisons, visit here.

View the creative LIAisons onsite programme 2023 here.