Indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Pacific Advertising Festival (AP AdFest) has announced the list of judges that have been invited to attend AP AdFest 2005, held from 10-12 March 2005 at Peach, the Royal Cliff Beach Resort in Pattaya, Thailand. The theme of the three-day event is "Fear No Change", which is in tune with the challenge one faces to embrace the new as the industry grows, develops and branches out in many directions.

In a development from proceedings in previous years, Jimmy Lam, chairman of the sub-committee for judges and speakers revealed that for the first time, there will be a separate judging panel for each category of award entries.

"AP AdFest has become so successful that it is necessary to apportion the judging responsibility to separate panels, to avoid swamping judges with too many decisions when selecting work", said Lam.

He added that the move was important in order to maintain AP Ad Fest's reputation for high standards and integrity when rewarding creative work. A total of 47 judges had accepted the invitation to judge the AP AdFest2005 Lotus Awards, more than double the number that judged awards at AP AdFest 2004. Judges have been selected for each category according to their specific experience relating to the work to be judged. The Film category will be chaired by Suthisak Sucharittanonta, BBDO chief creative officer, Bangkok, who will head a panel of 9 TV judges.

The 8th Asia Pacific Advertising Festival 2005 will also see the addition of two new categories, they being direct marketing and interactive. These categories will be chaired by Graham Kelly, Executive Creative Director of Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore but will have separate judging panels consisting of 7 judges each. Leo Burnett national creative director Nick Souter, Sydney will chair a panel of 9 judges for print. The outdoor panel, also totaling 9 judges, will be headed by Steve Elrick, BBH executive creative director of Asia Pacific Singapore.

The final award category at AP AdFest2005 is that for TV craft. While this is not a new category, there is a change being incorporated into its entry rules. TV craft will now be open to production houses only and will stand purely as recognition for technical expertise rather than as an agency creative award. Les Gock of Les Gock Sound Thinking, Sydney, will chair the TV craft judging panel. It will consist of 5 judges from the Asia Pacific production industry.