LIA Creative conversations in Vegas: Sophie Beard observes the judging phenomenon

Clemenger BBDO, Melbourne’s Sophie Beard was one of 60 of the hottest young creatives in the world invited to participate in Creative Conversations, part of the LIA Awards week in Las Vegas. Here is her final report.

Statue discussions. A place of mystery and mythology for many a young creative across the world, until now. Well now as in a few days ago. This year, for the first time LIA gave all Creative Conversations participants the chance to observe the judging phenomenon. But not without strict instructions. There was to be no Facebooking, no texting, tweeting, bird calls or smoke signals of any kind.

So what exactly goes on in these slightly darkened, man caves with an endless selection of beverages? Well a whole lot of work really. In fact, after two days of observing, fly-on-the-wall style, we were all pretty exhausted and we hadn’t even moved our lips. The categories I was lucky enough to sit-in on for the final day of judging were production / post-production and integration.

When I was first told we were going to watch the judging, I imagined slightly crazed discussions, overturned chairs, maybe even a walkout. But instead it was all very democratic. There were no Jerry Springer inspired moves to report. Perhaps that was day two of judging? On the days I attended everyone was comfortable sharing their thoughts and putting forward their arguments.

For some of the creatives who had work entered, the sense of eaves-dropping was taken to a whole new level. Listening to your own work being judged must of been nerve-racking and surreal at the same time. All in all, being privy to such discussions was a pretty special experience.  I guess nothing can beat hearing it all in real time.