Sarah McGregor’s LIA Diary from Las Vegas #2

Sarah McGregor (above), creative director at Cummins&Partners Melbourne is Australia’s representative on the LIA Integration jury where judging is currently taking place in Las Vegas. Here McGregor reports exclusively for CB.

Today we decided what would be awarded and I got to see the great brains in my room in action. They didn’t disappoint.

Passionate, eloquent, insightful – you could immediately see how these people had earned their place as worldwide grand creative poobahs.

We carefully debated and decided upon a shortlist and then a list of work that would be awarded. It was a brilliant process – and if you ever get the opportunity to judge I would say absolutely do it – for me, there’s no better learning experience.

So in brief, here’s a few of my take-aways:

1. As I said yesterday, idea clearly up front in the case study (and it also helps if you have an idea – some entries definitely did not)
2. If you have a niggle about your idea, then the jury definitely will. These people are scary smart and they will sniff out your faults (and announce them to everyone else in the room).
3. There were a lot of ideas that championed women… and pleasingly, the female jurors in the room were much harder on these ideas than the men. Yet another reason diverse juries are important.
4. Read the category description – Integrated in LIA doesn’t just mean lots of different media, it awards work that literally integrates into and changes culture. Which is pretty cool.
5. If you’re as jetlagged as I am and you get a lunch break, choose the nap over the food. You won’t regret it.