Goafest 2014: Dates announced; Promises to get bigger and more exciting!

The Goafest Committee today announced the dates for Goafest 2014 as well as new featuresfor India‟s onlyadvertising festival. Goafest 2014 will be held from May 29- 31. This year‟s Goafest will be at The Grand Hyatt, Bambolim, North Goa.

“This year we aim to dial up the excitement by expanding the festival”,said Srinivasan Swamy, Chairman Goafest 2014. He added, “While strengthening the initiatives undertaken in the previous years, this year will be about a bigger and betterGoafest. Goafest will be a three-day event with the Knowledge Seminars being held on all the three days. The Advertising Conclave, which was „Only By Invitation‟ so farand was held on the day before Goafest will now be held on day two and will 

With the Festival now turning into a three-day event, there will be two options of delegate passes. A two-day delegate pass priced at Rs. 14,000 will allow the delegates to attend any two consecutive days of their choice. A three-day pass priced at Rs. 18,000 will allow delegates to attend the festival for all the three days. Under 30 delegates will continue to enjoy a special discount of 50% on these rates.

This is the 7th Abbys, India‟s definitive awards that celebrate creativity. Pratap Bose, President of The Advertising Club & Chairman of The Awards Governing Council(AGC) said, “ABBYs will be augmented with new categories this year. ABBYs will include Promo-Activation and PR.The Branded Content category,which was added last year,will be expanded. And most excitingly, we are adding Broadcaster and Publisher Abbys at Goafest. These will recognize outstanding advertising and communication ideas for promoting broadcast and print properties. Broadcaster and publishers will be entitled to send in entries for these categories.‟‟ Pratap Bose shed more light on this by stating that, "These changes are being made with the aim of honoring the great work that is being done by all Media professionals.”

Continuing with the changes that were inducted in 2012 – there will be a Grand Prix for Film, Print, Radio, Outdoor, Design, Interactive Digital, Direct, Media and Integrated.

Award shows for various verticals will be held on the following evenings: May 29th: Publisher Abbys. Media Abbys

May 30th: Design Abbys. Direct Abbys. Promo-Activation Abbys. PR Abbys. Outdoor Abbys. Print Craft Abbys. Branded Content Abbys. Broadcaster Abbys. May 31st: Interactive Digital Abbys. Radio Abbys. Print Abbys. TV Abbys. Integrated Abbys There will also be significant changes in the judging process. There will be a window of clear ten days before the final judging round. During this window, shortlisted entries will be available for the entire industry to review. However, ABBYs once awarded will stay awarded.

Participation in ABBYS will continue to be open to all who want to participate. Membership of AAAI or The Advertising Club is not required. In terms of award entry fees, there is a modest change. The fee will be Rs. 6500 per entry for general entries and Rs. 9500 for integrated entries.

Goafest has been seeing growing participation from clients with over 100 client organizations represented at Goafest last year. Marketing Wizards, the initiative under which young client delegates can avail of the special under 30 delegate fees as well free accommodation will continue this year.So will the special „Rest of South Asia‟ awards. “Goafest is recognized as a platform for celebration of communication excellence and as a platform for exchange of ideas across the advertising, marketing and media fraternity” says Arvind Sharma, founding Chairman of Goafest and current President of the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI). He added, “Last year‟s Conclave where leading advertisers shared their candid points of view with the industry was seen as a super success. This year‟s changes in the festival format – including a client-led Conclave open to all and introduction of Broadcaster and Publisher Abbys – make it a trueindustry-wide platform. We look forward to celebrating excellence in communication and exchanging perspectives with all segments of industry”

There will be Knowledge Seminars, which will be of interest to professionals from Media, Interactive and Creative fraternity over four half-day sessions. Announcements regarding the speakers for the Conclave as well as the Knowledge Seminars will be made soon.“We plan to add to the mix of speakers including a few Indian innovators from allied fields. We hope to make Goafest a continuing platform for learning, celebrating, fellowship and fun,”added Srinivasan Swamy.