Manta is an ADFEST newbie. So here’s your chance to find out why we, a host of delegates, and battalions of judges come back. A lot. Experience ADFEST through Manta’s eyes.

Arrival and Day 1 

16 March 2026

I arrived yesterday in the early afternoon, greeted by the balmy, salty air of Pattaya that I hadn’t experienced since my last visit to Pattaya about a year ago. The Royal Cliff Hotel, perched on the small hill of Khao Phra Tamnak, is very pleasant. The guestrooms are spacious and airy, with lovely sea views. I’ll be calling this little suite my home for the week while I’m here.

The welcome dinner last night was a low-key, intimate gathering. Held at Panorama Seaview, the buffet offered an extensive selection of Thai and western dishes, with a few Indian options as well, along with wine and beer to accompany the meal. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the ocean by night but it was too dark out and only the street lights were visible. It was also the first time I met the team I’ll be working with in person, after chatting with them in a WhatsApp group for the past few weeks. It’s always nice to meet people who are energetic, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable. I have a feeling I’m going to learn a lot from this group.

The jury judging began the next day. The event and all the judging sessions are taking place at PEACH, the Pattaya Exhibition and Convention Hall, just a few steps from the hotel. It’s a massive building with countless rooms and event spaces hosting all sorts of activities. I took a quick peek at the hall where the awards show and party will be held, and it already looks like it’s going to be quite a big and lively event once everything is set up for the guests arriving in a few days.

The judging sessions started at 9:00 AM. For each category and subcategory, ranging from film, radio, and audio to creative, design, and many others, the juries first select the works that will move forward as finalists. After that, they deliberate on which entries deserve Gold, Silver, or Bronze.

As a member of the press, I’ve attended several award shows before, but I had never seen how the judging process actually works. It’s fascinating. The jurors sit quietly, watching each piece with intense focus and you can tell there’s a lot going on in their minds. Some works pass through quickly, especially when everyone in the room agrees they should go straight to the finalists. Others spark deeper discussion. Those pieces are carefully dissected, not just for their creative execution, but also for the impact they create, the message they convey, and even their cultural context. The process is subjective to some degree, but it’s impressive to see how thoughtful and resourceful these minds are when they come together with a shared goal: to find the works that truly deserve recognition and that might shape the future of advertising in the region.

My task here is to catch some of the jurors between sessions and ask them a few questions about their experiences and their thoughts on the advertising world. I have to admit, I was a bit nervous at first. My knowledge of the industry isn’t particularly deep (aside from binge-watching Mad Men), and I wondered if the conversations would be overly technical or filled with industry jargon that I wouldn’t quite grasp.

But as I watched the entries being judged, something clicked. Advertising and creativity are all around us. They’re part of our daily lives, whether we realise it or not. The work being judged here is created for people like us, anyone who watches TV, listens to the radio, flips through a magazine, reads a newspaper, or scrolls through a smartphone. These pieces are meant to inspire us, move us, inform us, and sometimes even teach us something. In a way, we’re all part of the same conversation. The creators and the audience are simply sitting on opposite sides of the table.

The mini interviews turned out to be a lot of fun. Since the theme of this year’s event is Human+, I asked many of the jurors about the role of AI in today’s advertising landscape. From what I’ve heard so far, there seems to be a shared understanding that AI is evolving incredibly quickly. With that rapid growth, many believe it’s important to establish clear ethical guidelines to ensure the technology does more good than harm. At the same time, everyone emphasised that staying true to the human side of creativity remains essential if brands want to genuinely connect and resonate with audiences.

And on that, I couldn’t agree more.