Indiantelevision.com Team

(23 February 2008 7:00 pm)

MUMBAI: The Advertising Agencies Association of India's (AAAI) annual festival Goafest kicks off on 3 April 2008 at Cavelossim Beach, Goa.

The festival will start with an "Industry Conclave" where eminent advertising and media persons will reflect and debate issues and challenges facing the industry. The media awards will be presented on 4 April, and Abby, the premier award from Ad Club Bombay, on the 5th.

AAAI president Madhukar Kamath said, "Goafest is the national platform for the celebration of creativity in advertising. It gets bigger and better every year. Last year, nearly 2,300 delegates attended, of which over 800 were under 30. This year, we expect this number to increase substantially."

"The coming together of AAAI and Ad Club is a landmark event made possible by the desire of the entire industry to have one award and one glorious festival," Kamath added.

Ad Club Bombay president Bhaskar Das said, "The industry is witnessing challenging times for which we need to focus our priorities on doing things in a collaborative manner and not dissipate energy through frictional losses."

"The objective is to present young professionals the opportunity to interact not just with Indian gurus but also meet international personalities extremely well known in their respective fields," said Goafest 2008 chairman Jagdip Bakshi.

Revealing a list of eminent speakers who will deliver speeches at the fest, Bakshi added "We are very close to confirming some more big names in advertising globally, and will share their details as soon as possible."

This year's speakers include Williams Murray Hamm's creative partner Garrick Hamm; Donald Gunn, the author of the famous Gunn Report; One Club's Kevin Swanepoel; John Harlow, the founder of Naked; Craig Davis, worldwide creative chief of JWT; Scott Goodson, founder-CEO of Strawberryfrog; Saatchi & Saatchi NY's chief creative officer Tony Granger; and Crispin Porter & Bogusky creative director Alex Bogusky.

Registration for the fest starts on Saturday (23 February), and online registration is available at aaaindia.org. Call for entries for the awards will be announced shortly, informs the association.