ADFEST unveils more inspiring speaker sessions in a 3-day festival full of inspiration and ideas, that runs from Thursday 23 – Friday 25 March in Pattaya, Thailand. From Smuggling Ideas, to Rising through Human Craft, to Tricks for Breaking Through, to looking for Wisdom of the Forest, the ADFEST 2023 program line-up promises to ignite your creativity.

THURSDAY 23 MARCH, 11.50-12.25

“Idea Smuggling: How we used global resources to communicate with local and global markets during 3 years of Covid isolation”

 Adams Fan, Chief Creative Officer, F5 Shanghai

In order to fight the pandemic, China closed its borders and all tourist visas were halted for three years. Even though Chinese people could travel abroad for business or study, extremely expensive air tickets, last-minute cancelled flights, and a 14-day quarantine discouraged them from travelling.

However, knowing international collaboration can uplift project quality from good to great, the team at F5 Shanghai used its creative thinking to find ways to get help from around the world. They called it Idea Smuggling and it allowed them to gain brilliant ideas are from top artists, multimedia designers, directors, and media experts. The agency practised three kinds of Idea Smuggling to help its clients: global resources for local market; local resources for global market; and global resources for global market. The outcome exceeded all expectations. More effective and award-winning works were created. And most important of all, more fun was had by the team throughout the journey. In this session, F5 Shanghai chief creative officer, Adams Fan, unveils the powers of Idea Smuggling and what global collaboration can achieve.

Fan founded F5 Shanghai in 2016 and has built it into a top creative hot shop that embraces technology and global thinking. An indie with very big clients, the agency roster includes pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer, as well as three leading Chinese tech companies, Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent. Led by Fan, F5 has won the most trophies at Cannes Lions of all independent Chinese agencies. Prior to founding F5, he was the Executive Creative Director of DDB Shanghai and the Creative Director of Ogilvy & Mather Shanghai.

FRIDAY 24 MARCH: 10.05-10.40

“Rising through Human Craft: Unlocking the Humanity of Technology”
Jessica Davey, SVP, Client Services, APAC, Media.Monks, Singapore

It may feel as though a dystopian future is too close for comfort as we grapple with the rise of the machines including the recent surge in AI development, but technology can help people rise and it’s more human than we think. Media.Monks’ Jessica Davey will look at how creating work through the lens of human craft can use cutting-edge technology, while helping people, society and culture to rise.

Jessica has over fifteen years’ experience working with some of the world's leading companies, such as Coca-Cola, Unilever, Heineken, Microsoft, Mondelēz, L’Oreal, Google, Mastercard and Mars. She is a passionate advocate for the power of creativity and the cultural impact of brands and as SVP, Client Services APAC, Jessica oversees the Media.Monks client teams across the region, making sure the capabilities of Media.Monks are synced up to drive success for all clients in Asia-Pacific.

FRIDAY 24 MARCH, 14.30-15.05
“Doubt it! ~Trick for breakthrough~”
Taro Taniwaki, Copywriter, Hakuhodo Inc., Tokyo 

Phannika Vongsayan, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Wolf BKK, Bangkok

Wars. Inflation. Pollution. AI. The world is certainly full of uncertainty. There seem to be "right" answers for various problems, but we all know that they don't always work out. We also know that the most innovative ideas that change the world are not always right answers. Staying within the status quo is easy and comfortable, but those who keep doubting are the only ones who can go beyond it, and finally reach breakthrough ideas.

This session will present case studies of ambitious creators who have questioned and doubted the right solutions and who came up with unimagined solutions that successfully overcame difficult challenges. It will examine them through the prism of Hakuhodo's new 4P planning method, a technique for creating Unimagined Ways. If you think you are brave enough to question what's correct, this seminar is for you.

Taro brings nearly 10 years of experience at Hakuhodo to his session and is a Gold winner of the Young Lions PR Competition as a copywriter. Phannika brings more than twenty years of experience at with TBWA, Ogilvy, and WOLF BKK. She is a self-confessed film nerd who believes that creativity can shape a better, more equitable and inclusive world and has a passion for developing the correlation between creativity and commercial effectiveness.

 SATURDAY 25 MARCH, 11.15-11.50

“Look down and look around: Creativity and the Wisdom of the Forest” 

Julian Boulding, Founder & President, thenetworkone, London

Inspired by the ground-breaking work of scientists such as Merlin Sheldrake and Suzanne Simard, Julian Boulding invites his audience to leave city life behind - and take a walk with him, into the forest. A real forest is not a plantation of trees. It’s a natural ecosystem of unconscious collaboration and mutually beneficial interdependence. What if we looked at our world, our “creative industries”, in the same way? 

What if instead of ever-larger corporations, holding companies and platform builders racing for growth through ownership and control, we encouraged the evolution of more fluid networks, based on collaboration and mutual respect? Using real world examples from art, music, film and digital communications, Julian unveils a vision of what the world of commercial creativity could look like - if we pause for a few moments, look around us, and listen to each other.

Julian began his international career with DMB&B (now part of Publicis) where he rose to hold senior international positions in London, Amsterdam, Sao Paulo and New York. In 2003, he left to found thenetworkone, now the world’s largest independent agencies organisation. He is a passionate believer in creativity and independence and the host of the Independent Agencies Creative Showcase. He also publishes the annual World’s Leading Independent Agencies magazine, together with Campaign. thenetworkone hosts many workshops and events including the Indie Awards and the Indie Summit, encouraging the sharing of learnings and experiences between people from different backgrounds and cultures, outside a traditional corporate environment.

ADFEST is a non-profit-making entity that believes passionately in its role to nurture and support the creative industry in the Asia Pacific and MENA region. It is one of only 8 regional creative festivals included in the WARC Creative 100 Rankings.