Goafest 2013: Expect the 'unexpected' trends

With the dawn of the new year , groundwork and preparations are on once again for the annual feature held at Goa every year  viz. Goafest 2013. This year Goafest 2013 is scheduled to be held on 5th & 6th April 2013  at the Zuri White Sands in Goa,. The highlights of the festival were  announced on 10th January 2013 by the Goafest Committee . This year the theme for the  festival is ‘Just what you unexpected’. Goafest 2013 is South Asian advertising festival for all people who believe in the power of ideas.

The media was addressed  at a press event by Arvind Sharma, president, Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI); Nakul Chopra, chairman, Goafest Committee; and Shashi Sinha, president, Advertising Club and chairman, Awards Governing Council (a 11-member strong, joint body between the AAAI and The Advertising Club that runs the awards) 

“Goafest is the festival for all in South Asia who are involved in creating ideas. Be it other countries in this region, the marketing fraternity or other allied professionals who participate in creating ideas – we want them all to equally own and participate in Goafest. We are taking a virtual conference/road show to neighbouring South Asian countries to increase awareness for Goafest and invite active participation,” said Arvind Sharma, President of the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI).  It may be recalled that the competition was  open to countries across South Asia (including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal) for the first time in 2012.

This is what Mr. Nakul Chopra, Chairman Goafest Committee AAAI had to say about the upcoming festival. He said “For Goafest 2013 our focus will be to strengthen the excellent new initiatives that were launched last year. Last year we opened Goafest to all nations in South Asia and we also brought strong client participation through the Marketing Wizards initiative – our endeavor this year is to further expand and grow these initiatives – apart from of course celebrating creativity and excellence.”

For the 6th consecutive year AAAI and The Advertising Club will come together to deliver India’s premier awards that celebrate creativity.  On this year’s award front, Shashi Sinha, President, The Advertising Club and Chairman of the Awards Governing Council, the joint body between the AAAI and The Advertising Club that runs the awards, said,   “We have a well-oiled and extremely robust process now in place for the awards – we will take on board improvements from our past learnings and continue to follow the stringent and now well accepted norms for the Abby’s in 2013.”

He further informed that Abby’s will continue to be open to all who want to participate – and membership of AAAI or The Advertising Club would not be required. ‘Last year we had over 225 organizations that sent entries – this year we hope to cross 250’ said Shashi Sinha.

Last year Goafest saw the introduction of Marketing Wizards an initiative whereby young client delegates could not only avail of the special under 30 delegate fees – but were also provided free accommodation. Over 70 delegates from client organizations availed of this offer. This year Goafest is targeting 150 delegates . In addition, Goafest will  continue to have strong participation from senior clients in the Knowledge seminars as was the case in 2012. Elaborating further on this Nakul Chopra said “Clients are our equal partners in creating ideas – we naturally strive to have their equal participation in Goafest both as speakers and delegates – this year we aim to attract participation from over 75 client organizations and hopefully over 250 people.”

On new changes in this year’s Goafest, festivals committee chairman, Arvind Sharma, explained, “We don’t believe in making changes every year, changes are good but making it every year confused the whole idea. Atleast for 3 years we are not looking for major changes. Like every year even this year we will have new set of delegates from around the world.” 

The other AAAI Goafest Committee members include: M G Parameswaran (Ambi), executive director and CEO, Mumbai Group, Draftfcb Ulka; Sam Balsara, chairman and managing director, Madison World; Ashish Bhasin, chairman, Aegis India and CEO Aegis, SE Asia; Srinivasan Swamy, managing director and CEO, R K Swamy BBDO; Nagesh Alai, executive director, India operations, Draftfcb Ulka Group; Suman Srivastava, founder, Marketing Unplugged; and Vikram Sakhuja, global CEO, Maxus.

Continuing with changes that were inducted in 2012 there will be a Grand Prix for all nine verticals including Film, Print, Radio, Out of Home, Ambient, Design, Interactive Digital, Direct and Integrated including a Grand Prix for Media as well.  

The Industry Conclave will per tradition be held on the day before Goafest i.e. 4th April . This year the Conclave will focus only on speakers from client organizations to bring perspective to our industry.

Media Awards will be held on April 5th together with Digital, Design and Direct. All other Creative awards will be held on April 6th. 

Goafest 2012 was a tremendous success and saw a participation of around 3167 delegates. While 228 organisations entered last year's Abby Awards,  179 organisations won awards last year.

Totally 4,253 entries were received and 332 awards were won last year.

Goafest 2013 will be in its 8th edition and promises to bring an impressive list of speakers as has been the case in each past edition. Details of speakers, delegate and entry fees will be announced shortly.