Tristan Reid’s LIA Diary #2: 1 to 10, and Everything In Between

Tristan Reid, Group Engagement Director, Ward Marketing Group, Sydney is representing Australia on the LIA Health & Wellness jury. Reid, along with many other Australian and New Zealand jurors, reports exclusively for CB.

Day Two began with a bit of a surprise. After the first cut, we’d only gone from 164 entries down to 107. Normally, by this point, a jury trims things to around 50%. Whether that says more about the quality of the work or the generosity of the jury, I’ll leave you to decide. Either way, the day was always going to be more about deliberation than decimation.

We spent much of the day scoring from 1–10 and debating the relevance of entries to their chosen categories. The ‘Creativity on a Budget’ section sparked conversation. With more than a few submissions leaving us scratching our heads about how “low budget” they really were. There’s definitely some work to be done on how entries are framed before they ever reach the jury room.

What stood out most today wasn’t scale or spectacle but simplicity. The strongest work identified a real-world problem and offered a clear solution based on a truly human-centered insight. Of course, there were still some clever uses of technology on display. But the tech rarely outshone the idea. It’s a reminder that the best creativity doesn’t need ‘bells and whistles’ to land.

The judging room itself has been remarkably collegiate. Every opinion is thoughtful and perspectives often shift as someone else makes their case. The running joke when a piece doesn’t seem to fit its category? “Put it in education.” Somehow, that never failed to get a laugh.

Although the judging itself was shorter, the conversations were more intense. By evening, we’d all earned a break. A visit to the Sphere to see The Wizard of Oz provided exactly that. After that, it was a relatively early night, the calm before the storm.