The third Promax/BDA Africa Conference & Awards opened at Johannesburg’s Sandton Convention Centre (SCC) on 16 October with a high powered and humorous presentation from American Doug Harris, who proved so popular at last year’s event.
Harris, the self-proclaimed “Creative Animal’ with 20 years of experience in the international marketing arena, latched onto the 2008 theme of “Super Powers – Behold The Anonymous Heroes’ with gusto. He set about invoking “fearless confidence’ in terms of creativity from the TV promo makers and designers present in the audience.
“We have to be able to go the extra mile to get the job done. Remember that failure is an option – the more you fail, the more you will learn. You have to set the stage for your super powers to work,’ said Harris.
He delivered some valuable tips for creatives to get out of their comfort zone and see the world differently, thus becoming inspired in the process.
Earlier in the day, Promax South African chairperson and M-Net Marketing Director Koo Govender talked about the exhilaration of being involved in a conference that commends and gives credit to creativity in its purest form. “As creatives, we are constantly looking into the future, predicting ever-changing trends, and what makes these awards so unique is that we strive to nurture the minds of the future generation of on-air promotion, marketing and design professionals.’
Promax culminates with the Awards ceremony on the evening of 17 October, where winning practitioners will receive the highest accolade in the industry. The Promax event is supported by M-Net, SABC, DStv, e.tv, ENews, Red Pepper, SuperSport, Screen Africa, Orijin, Enable, Discovery Channel, CSquared and the SCC.
See in-depth Promax report in the January 2009 issue of Screen Africa.
