Dave King’s LIA Diary from Las Vegas: Day 1 – 2

Dave King (left), ECD, Innocean Worldwide is Australia’s representative on the LIA TV/Cinema/Online Film jury where judging is currently taking place in Las Vegas. Here King gives us a rundown of his first couple of days in Las Vegas.

You have to hand it to my my global creative boss, Jeremy Craigen (below, right). Getting the LIAs moved to Las Vegas was a master stroke. Last time I was here I arrived by Greyhound bus and stayed in a motel with a coin operated vibrating bed. Now we’re staying at the Encore which is bloody lovely. It’s also at the better end of the strip with some great restaurants and bars dotted around. Last night we went to a Japanese restaurant in Caesar’s Palace hosted by Jeremy and Bob Isherwood with Lynchy, Kim, Anna Fawcett, and the wonderful people who run this show. It was incredible. And despite the very dangerous companions, I made it safely home in a reasonably ok state.

Oh yes, the real reason we’re here. Yesterday was the first day of my judging. I’m on the Film and Online Content jury. There are ten of us led by Dr Stephan Vogel. We each have a big comfy Lay-Z-Boy to recline in and we watch ads. The wonderful thing about this is that we don’t have bullshit case study videos to endure. I’d almost forgotten how nice it is to just judge the work and not the agency’s ability to spin shit. That said, the morning was pretty bleak. We’re just voting In/Out at the moment and I think it was about entry 37 before I got to hit the In button. The afternoon did pick up and we saw some really interesting stuff with a few Aussie pieces getting laughs from the panel. We’ve got another nine hours in front of us today doing the same thing so hopefully there’ll be a few more gems.

Then tonight there is a welcoming party for the jurors as well as the young creatives from Creative Liaisons, surely one of the smartest ideas going around. It should be a fun night. Now off to the recliners.