PADC Festival of Ideas a cavernous success

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The PADC Festival of Ideas was held at Yanchep this past weekend. Thanks to 303’s Malcolm MacLean and Mike Sequeira for this report and pics.

BB_30.jpgAlmost 50 delegates received a major brain boost at the 2009 PADC Festival of Ideas, a weekend seminar series with all the PADC Award judges.

The Festival this year was at the historic Yanchep Lodge, rather than the traditional Rottnest location, and everyone was in for a very different weekend right from the start with the Festival’s MC, yours truly, getting the whole bus to do a gangsta rap I’d written for the bus trip up the freeway.

The weekend got quirkier from there as everyone shuffled under the earth and into a giant cave illuminated with fairy lights to listen to the world-class speakers.

Steve Back spoke about what it takes to be the Executive CreativeDirector of Saatchi & Saatchi Australia, and illustrated his talkwith photos of his stress-related lung collapse operation, scans of hisliver, and MRI photos of his other damaged organs.

Matt Eastwood (DDB Vice Chair and ECD) showed what happens when youthink “why not”. Brendan Guthrie (Deputy CD, Grey) called for thereturn of the real copywriter. Ashley Ringrose (Founder of SoapCreative) showed the cutting edge digital work from around the planet,which was fascinating despite him not realizing there is no broadbandconnection in million-year-old caves. And Kevin Finn (Finn Creative)showed us how you can run an internationally renowned design consultancyand a design trade journal, Open Manifesto Magazine, from Kununurra.

The brain boosting was also complimented with a little brain cellkilling and a great night of inter-agency bonding in theheritage-listed lodge in the Yanchep National Park. The line of theweekend went to Marketforce’s Murray Laird who appeared late anddisheveled in the breakfast room as he muttered to the table “thank Godkangaroos can’t talk”.

Everyone at this year’s Festival declared it the best one yet, a credit to Andrew Tinning’s PADC committee.

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