The day 2 of Creative LIAisons turns up the heat as attendees move from listening to some of the industry’s sharpest minds to putting their own creative judgment to the test. The day began with a candid look at what it really takes to make great work, followed by a session on how creatives can turn their own thinking patterns into a competitive advantage in the age of AI.
Then comes the real test. In Publicis Groupe’s “You’re On The Jury” workshop, attendees stepped into the role of LIA jurors themselves, viewing work, debating its merits and deciding whether it deserves a Shortlist, Bronze, Silver, Gold or Grand LIA. With Marco Venturelli guiding them through the thinking behind award-worthy work, the session offered a rare chance to experience not just what wins, but how creative judgment gets shaped.
What it really takes to make great creative work?
Great ideas are only half the battle. Moderated by Andrea Ogunbadejo, Global Head of Production at VaynerX, the panel brought together Production & Post and Music Video jurors Wuthisak Anarnkaporn, Film Director/Founder of Factory01; Caleb Dewart, Managing Partner/Executive Producer at hungryman; Christiane Dressler, Founder/Managing Partner at ANORAK Film; Angus Kneale, Chief Creative at Preymaker; and Felipe Machado, Studio Head/Creative Director at Silverside. Drawing on years of getting ambitious work made, they explored the craft, compromise and collaboration required to turn a strong idea into something that lives up to its promise.
Among the lessons: build a broad and diverse roster of production talent, and treat those partners as collaborators rather than vendors. Different specialists bring different instincts and expertise, and trusting them can take the work somewhere stronger than any one person could alone. Wuthisak also reflected on having the courage to change direction himself: “Be brave enough to try something new. After hesitating over the leap from creative to directing, I gave it a shot at 28. If I failed, I could always go back to being a creative. But I had to try.”
Angella and Dominik on thinking differently in the age of AI
As AI agents become more capable and commonplace, Angella Tapé, SVP, Global Group Strategy Director at Havas and Lecturer in AI Strategy at Pratt Institute and Dominik Heinrich, Global Head of Design Intelligence at The Coca-Cola Company, Co-Founder of Creative AI Academy and Professor of AI Design at Pratt Institute, argued that this can become a competitive advantage rather than a threat. Humans, they said, are master learners. The edge is understanding how you learn, how you make judgments and where your thinking defaults lie, then using AI to stretch rather than simply mirror them.
That means training agents to understand your judgment, taste and context, not just copy your habits: explain to your agent why something works, feed them references, then iterate, correct and validate. Their ThinkPrint tool offered one way to identify default thinking patterns and where to stretch them. The broader message was to double down on craft, ideas, strategy, taste and judgment, then use AI to amplify those strengths. As they put it, “AI thinks inside the box you create. If you want it to take you somewhere new, you must first train it to break your own conventions.”
Creative LIAisons Mentee Reflections
Swarangi Joshi, Group Head – Copy, Enormous, Mumbai said “Judging hundreds of ideas gives you a new respect for how quickly jurors must form a point of view without losing rigor. The workshop really sharpened my instinct to assess work fast, trust my judgment and still look for what makes an idea worth rewarding.”
Soham Ghosh, Creative Director, Ogilvy, Gurgaon said “What I love about Creative LIAisons is that I’m not only hearing from CCOs or observing a jury room, but I also actually got to sit in the juror’s seat myself through Marco’s workshop. Understanding what people look for when they evaluate work helps me think differently about both the ideas I make and how I sell them.”
Taylor Whitlock Smith, Senior Art Director, Grey New York said “One of the biggest surprises was realizing how subjective judging can be. I could love a piece and hear strong arguments against it. That will make me think more broadly about my own work, but it also gave me confidence: if something doesn’t win, it doesn’t mean it’s bad. It may just not have landed with that jury. So, keep trying.”
adobo Magazine is an official media partner of the 2026 London International Awards and the Creative LIAsons Program.
