Jeff Goodby, Gerry Graf to headline This Way Up: Australia’s Advertising Festival of Creativity – to be held 3-9 November at The Ovolo Hotel, Sydney

AWARD has announced that two of the world’s most pre-eminent advertising creatives, Jeff Goodby and Gerry Graf, will headline This Way Up: Australia’s Advertising Festival of Creativity – to be held in the latter half of Melbourne Cup week (covid-19 restrictions permitting).

The eagerly-awaited festival has been rescheduled to 3-9 November due to lockdown and will take place at The Ovolo Hotel in Sydney’s Woolloomooloo with a feast of events that will challenge and excite delegates by exploring creative boundaries and celebrating the very best thinking in Australia and around the world.

Goodby and Graf’s keynote session will debate “Self importance and the death of humour,” delving into their back catalogue of acclaimed work to look at the role comedy plays in creativity and why we need to start having fun again.

They will head a stellar line-up of local and international speakers as part of a series of interactive panel sessions and keynote presentations, including The Monkey’s NZ’s Damon Stapleton, who will challenge perceptions and get attendees talking with a keynote session that poses the question: “WTF is creativity anyway?”

Google will present the AWARD Work Behind the Work – panel sessions that go behind-the-scenes to unpack the inspiration, creativity and process behind AWARD winning advertising campaigns from the last year.

While Paul McIntyre, executive editor at Mi3, will moderate two industry panels with marketers from blue-chip corporations and start-ups spotlighting what they expect and how they want to work with agencies to create more compelling, viable and creative content.

Says Cam Blackley, AWARD chair: “This Way Up is gearing to be an unmissable event on the ad industry’s calendar, bringing together Australia’s advertising and marketing community for a week of immersion in our business.

“It’s about time we gathered the brightest minds to offer inspiration and a chance to connect more meaningfully around creativity. This Way Up aims to challenge and excite with a diverse program of speakers, sessions and topics that will fire attendees up around the stuff that really matters to creatively-minded folks.”

A raft of educational courses such as AWARD Craft, Creative Leadership and CPC Mentoring, and unmissable networking events including AWARD 40th celebrations and Hall of Fame inductions, will also be held during the week-long festival – details of which will be announced in coming weeks.

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