Dubai Lynx 2014 Jury Presidents Revealed

Dubai Lynx has announced its jury presidents for the International Festival of Creativity 2014 as well as an additional award for the region’s young talent.

Graham Fink, chief creative officer at Ogilvy & Mather will head the film, print, outdoor, radio and print craft jury as well as the integrated jury.

Phillippe Meunier, creative chief and co-founder of Sid Lee will lead the branded content and entertainment jury; Gabriela Lungu, chief creative officer UK & EMEA for Weber Shandwick will preside over the PR jury while Philippa Brown, CEO of Omnicom Media Group UK, will head the media jury.

“I’m delighted to have been selected to chair the media jury of such prestigious and important awards, and look forward to working with the jury in 2014 to identify the best media work across the region,” Brown said.

Making the announcement in Dubai Media City on Thursday, Philip Thomas, CEO of Lions Festivals – of whom Dubai Lynx is a partner – talked about the importance of the festival.

“The idea of Lions and of Lynx is to honour the greatest creativity in the world. It’s to get this region on the world stage,” Thomas said.

“We’re looking forward to them [the presidents] coming together to find the best creative talent in the region.”

Thomas revealed that the theme for next year’s event is one of storytelling.

“It’s time to remind the world that the MENA region is where the human tradition of storytelling began,” he said.

“The purpose of storytelling hasn’t changed but social media and 21st technology means that a new audience demands better storytelling, bolder storytelling and more innovative channels.

“If anything the appetite for content is increasing and content producers have to raise their game.

“Dubai Lynx 2014 will see storytelling coming home to the region that invented it.”

Next year’s event will also have a strong focus on youth with an additional student award.

The Massar Student Creative Award for print will return for a second year and be joined by the new Student Creative Award for integrated.

“We’re delighted to be able to include these two new awards as part of our investment in the talent of the future. It’s an invaluable and exciting opportunity for any student looking to break into the creative communications industry, putting their skills and talent in front of industry experts,” said Emma Lancaster Farmer, festival director of Dubai Lynx.

The announcement also unveiled the speakers for the festival, including: John O’Keeffe, worldwide creative director at WPP; Ralph van Dyke, a radio creative expert; Tony Wright, global CEO of Lowe; and Herta Ogilvy.