AFAA

AdFest has been around since 1998. It’s become like Asia’s Cannes where agency meetings are planned around the festival. AdFest was created as a celebration of creativity for creative people in Asia of all levels. But the event has much to offer to an even wider audience. It's really for anyone who needs to be aware of the latest trends and news from within the advertising and creativity communities in Asia. This includes agency account management, strategic planners, marketing personnel, and those in the production field.

It is an annual event held at Pattaya, Thailand, for three days during March with three major components.

• A regional competition
• Forum of learning and exposure (Young and mid level)
• Recharge your creative juices

Although the awards competition is an integral part of the attraction of AP AdFest, the overall focus covers a much broader perspective:

• To organize an annual screening and judging of creative work produced in Asia Pacific, thereby raising the awareness and standard of the work.
• To act as a forum for creative, production and marketing people in the region to meet, learn and exchange views and ideas.
• To raise the awareness of the profusion of cultural heritages and values in the region, thereby encouraging a greater rediscovery and use of these within each country.
• To undertake, when possible, creative and production seminars or discussions during the event.
• To keep all expenses and costs low in order to encourage wide participation, in particular the middle to upper middle level of creative personnel who will realize the maximum benefits from such exposure.
• To encourage exhibitions by related industries, e.g. production houses, computer and computer related industries, photographic/lighting companies as well as publication houses and other information/communication industries.

Any profit made is ploughed back into new projects for the benefit of the industry. The Young Creative Workshop, for example, was initiated by AdFest and has proven to be very popular and successful. It is a three-party cooperation with local advertising associations and a major international agency network while AdFest finances the bulk of the project.

Unlike many events of similar nature in the world or in the region, AdFest is not a private entity owned by some commercial enterprise. It is truly a nonprofit organization jointly governed by the Founding Adverting Associations in the region called the Steering Committee (Board of Directors in our language) i.e.

• The Advertising Association of Thailand, (AAT), Bangkok
• China Advertising Association, (CAA), Beijing
• Japan Advertising Federation (JAF), Tokyo
• Korea Federation of Advertising Associations (KFAA), Seoul
• Persatuan Perusahaan Periklanan Indonesia, (PPPI), Jakarta
• Standing Committee on Advertising (STACA), Mumbai
• These are joined by other member associations in the region.

As the initiator of the project Mr. Vinit Suraphonchai was appointed permanent Chairman of the Working Committee reporting to the Steering Committee, with Pattaya as the permanent venue. The Working Committee has a number of officers as well as a convention organizer called Plannova.