Georgia Henare’s Creative LIAisons Diary #1: “Life is a simulation. Or at the very least, Vegas is”
Georgia Henare, Intermediate Art Director, McCann New Zealand (formerly DDB New Zealand) ~ current CB New Zealand 2025 Agency of the Year ~ is representing Aotearoa at the 2026 Creative LIAisons program in Las Vegas, featuring some of the world’s most respected creative directors as speakers. Here, Georgia reports exclusively for Campaign Brief.
Yep it’s confirmed.
Life is a simulation. Or at the very least, Vegas is.
I arrived a few days early to give myself some time to get used to the heat and the timezone and the almost completely naked people trying to clothesline me with feather boas. Luckily I got used to two of those things pretty quick.
Walking the strip alone is an experience. Dipping in and out of hotels with full indoor replicas of Venice canals, New York streets or Michaelangelo’s David makes you feel like you’re losing your mind, especially when you don’t have anyone to turn to and say “what the hell is going on”. Luckily for me, the Creative LIAisons program came with a bunch of young creatives to say what the hell to.
Day 1 was wall-to-wall with panels of genius giants in advertising.
Some themes from the day:
Be a human. Using AI is great… for making mediocre work. Discover patterns that don’t exist, connections that don’t make sense. Then AI can rip you off later. Even in the execution, embrace the stutters and pauses. That’s how other also-humans connect with your ad.
Be interested to be interesting. Leave the office, learn to sculpt in marble, get your references from out in the world. Being interested in things that aren’t advertising makes you valuable.
No doesn’t mean no. No means find a way to do it differently or do it better. Be creative not just in the idea but in finding a way to get it made.
The highlight from day 1 was Alexandra Taylor, former ECD at Saatchi & Saatchi. We knew we were in for something good when she dimmed the lights and brought out her own LED candles with evil laugh SFX playing in the background.
After talking about her career horror stories she took the art directors through an AD masterclass. Something that stuck with me was when she asked us to choose a piece of AD that we loved. Then she asked if any of us knew who the art director who made it was. Almost no one did.
The takeaway was to collect art directors that you love, follow their work and ask yourself why you like their work. It seems really obvious but isn’t something I’ve ever thought about.
The next day was the Jury Room, where we acted as a 128 person semi-functioning jury. Having that many people debate whether work deserved metal was hectic but a really fun exercise. A cameo from Expensive Sh*t was a bonus.
Sorry this was longer than I thought and captures about 2% of the things we learned but overall it’s cool, inspiring, fun and bit freaky when you leave the safety of the conference room.
Here’s an AI Vegas joke as a reward for anyone who actually bothered reading.
What did one casino sign say to the other?
“I’m glowing crazy for this place!”
…ok maybe calling AI mediocre was generous.
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