ROUGH WEATHER, STRONG VIEWS AND GOOD TIMES AT THE PADC FESTIVAL OF IDEAS

With special thanks to Rikki Burns for helping take notes in light of his metacarpal-shattered right hand, The Brand Agency’s Josh Edge gave CB this review of the PADC Festival of Ideas held this past weekend on Rottnest Island. Thanks to Paul Yole for the photos.

If three is the magic number, the 2008 PADC Festival Of Ideas should have been a cracker. For me, and the loose assortment of random opinions thrown at me from my esteemed peers between hurls into silver seasickness sacks, this was the best weekend yet. The variety of the judges, from planning with Droga5’s Fabio Buresti to digital with Sputnik’s Nick Cummins and good, old-fashioned Creative Director-ship with Nick Worthington, Craig ‘Moose’ Moore and Rebecca Carrasco meant there was something for every creative, planner, nerd and even the occasional suit. The lack of interactive workshops was welcome given the well-rounded talks from each judge, including Moose’s rant against the inbreeding habits of AWARD school and Rebecca’s philosophical ponderings of the nature of programmed behaviour in society.

A well-timed kick up the collective arses of the Perth industry was delivered by Nick, who argued that our little town needs to stop railing against the 10% of ads that are actually trying to give good advertising a go and start working harder on the long-neglected facets of the business, such as hardcore churn-and-burn retail. Integration, planning and digital were also given a welcome amount of airtime, which kept the festival relevant to the major themes of this year’s Cannes. Still, to see creatives flocking to sign up to the digital and integrated Master Classes was initially a little unnerving, especially given Nick Worthington’s stature as the speaker on ideas and creativity.

So what does the ultimate creative ad person look like in 2008? As far as I could tell, he/she is completely familiar with the terms social networking, bluezones, interactive projections and the iPhone. They believe ideas create audiences. They see beyond the day-to-day social programming of ‘normal’ people. They don’t necessarily come from any sort of ad school. They believe that the ‘wrong’ thing is usually the right thing. They aren’t afraid of confrontation. And they’re ready to be fired at the drop of a hat over their demands on the latest TV campaign. Oh, and having a direct line to the likes of Spike Jonze, Michel Gondrey, Jonathon Glazier, Snoop Dogg and Radiohead also seems to help.

So the island in a nutshell: The timing of the PADC judging is unfortunate given the shitty weather and huge swells (although the lack of sun and sparkling water probably enhances the learning potential of the weekend), the inter-agency camaraderie is getting better every year, the format improves exponentially (even if the food doesn’t) and nobody ever learns to behave themselves on the Saturday night. Even with the threat of a 45-minute ferry ride hanging like a sickbag-shaped Sword of Damocles over their heavily-sweating foreheads.