LAS VEGAS, USA – In an era defined by both limitless creativity and technological challenges, the 2025 Creative LIAisons Program in Las Vegas underscored that the industry’s true vitality lies in its people: the emerging creatives who dream, question, and build what’s next.
Celebrating London International Award’s 40th anniversary and the program’s 13th year, the events gathered 130 promising creatives from 32 countries for a five-day immersion, including a jury-room–plus-masterclass experience, supported by an extended virtual coaching program.
At the helm of this initiative is the Creative LIAisons Director and LIA Rep Director, Laurissa Levy, who said that the defining moment of the 2025 program was the dramatic increase in interactivity and the unfiltered honesty of the speakers — making this year’s edition different from any other.
“This year, we had the biggest LIAisons class to date — 130 young creatives from around the world. Most of the speakers, in addition to the workshop, added an interactive component to their talks this year, so that really stood out,” she told adobo Magazine Founder, President, and Editor-in-Chief Angel Guerrero in an interview.
Laurissa added, “We have always had a mix of interactive workshops and speaker sessions, but never as many as this year.”
This year’s program offered a diverse range of topics, including creative and craft fundamentals, technology trends, creativity in media and PR, practical skills like strategy and case film creation, as well as specialized areas such as non-traditional, social media, gaming, and in-house creative agency work.
Broader subjects like lifestyle trends, humor, and making clients happy were also discussed. Unique highlights included transforming industry horror stories into positives and the chance for mentees to observe statue discussions in jury rooms.
For Laurissa, access to the real LIA jury rooms to observe the statue discussions was a crucial learning experience for the participants, as hearing the jurors debate why a piece of work is elevated — or not — provides an invaluable, real-world lesson that goes far beyond a typical classroom setting.
“The candidness of all speakers was a defining moment as they did not just tell the audience what they wanted to hear, but the realities of what they needed to hear to succeed. The audience was very engaged and also asked extremely good questions. They were not discouraged, but even more motivated, driven, and inspired after sitting through all the sessions and program activities,” Laurissa noted.
She added, “We hope they use [LIA jury rooms] as something constructive for how they can improve their work, open their minds to new ways of thinking and new perspectives, think globally by seeing work from other cultures, and see what makes something exemplify true creative excellence.”
An evolving vision
For years, the program has been a vital launchpad for emerging talent, offering an unparalleled educational experience in the heart of the creative industry.
At its core, the vision for nurturing young talent is ambitious: to see creatives succeed throughout their entire career journey, ultimately becoming the “next creative giants” who elevate the industry with impactful work.
“We want to see them go from the audience to the LIA stage and global stages around the world,” Laurissa explained. This goal isn’t just about winning awards; it’s about fostering sustained excellence.
The program’s expansion is seen through the significant increase in cohort size, now reaching approximately 350 young creatives annually across onsite and virtual platforms, demonstrating its growing global influence.
In 2021, LIA further cemented this commitment by launching the LIAisons Virtual Coaching Program. This initiative significantly expands access, providing participants with one-on-one, online coaching sessions with three top industry leaders from around the world. This virtual touchpoint often serves as a stepping stone, with some participants in the virtual program later being selected for the prestigious onsite experience.
Ultimately, its core mission remains the same: Creative LIAisons is fully funded by LIA to give back to the global creative community to develop, educate, nurture, and inspire emerging talent.
“The larger mission behind this is elevating talent around the world and the industry as a whole so that we can all continue to make a difference and a positive impact,” Laurissa affirmed.
She also shared with adobo Magazine how the program’s relevance requires self-assessment. According to her, after every event, the LIA team conducts an internal post-mortem, scrutinizing what worked and identifying areas for improvement and addition.
“We actually take into account what the young creatives […] have to say and feedback from our speakers/jurors,” Laurissa shared, affirming that they “don’t fix what isn’t [broken] but oil the squeaky bits so that the program runs better and better.”
Ensuring participants’ diversity and backgrounds
Laurissa went on, explaining how they employed a strategic, indirect approach in building a diverse and global class. Instead of a centralized application process, LIA provides global allocations to a network of partners: companies, networks, ad clubs, and associations that support LIA, alongside collaborations with trade press and associations that run regional young talent competitions. LIA directly sponsors the winners of these competitions with a place in the program.
“When coming up with our allocations, we make sure to cover all regions across the world, networks, various independent companies, and encourage global creative excellence teams and leadership teams to take DEI into account when selecting their young talent. This ensures diversity of voices and backgrounds,” she said.
This decentralized selection process ensures that participants from various economic, cultural, and geographic backgrounds receive a sponsored slot, guaranteeing the diversity of voices and perspectives that define the program.
Once on-site, the environment is intentionally designed for connection. Attendees are connected in a WhatsApp community before the program starts, fostering a “campus-like environment” where everyone is encouraged to mingle, ask questions, and approach top industry leaders.
A synergistic creative approach
The 2025 lineup, which included an impressive roster of global creative leaders and CCOs, offered an insightful curriculum, making every cohort feel the synergistic approach of the program.
“Every talk had something for everyone in the room. From our conversations with the attendees, every panel, every talk, and the workshop, as well as sitting in the judging rooms, added to their overall learning curve. As the saying goes, ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts,’” Laurissa said.
Among the activities that resonated with participants include a session where they asked a CCO everything they ever wanted to ask, featuring top CCOs from around the world, such as Liz Taylor, Perry Fair, Peter Khoury, Gabriel Schmitt, Chaka Sobhani, Samira Ansari, Gavin Chimes, Rob Doubal, Fura Johannesdottir, and Shayne Millington.
Creatives also relate to the Founder and Consultant of London’s Art of Art Direction Masterclass, Alexandra Taylor, who shared raw honesty on her experiences in the industry while uplifting participants’ learning experience on how they turn professional mistakes into successful, “happy” horror stories.
Likewise, Susan Credle brought memories back of old ads that the audience loved from childhood and how to build brands and memorable and joyful experiences, while Suzanne Powers and Andrea Diquez shared advice that resonated with everyone in the room, emphasizing the importance of taking positive outlook on every opportunities, staying connected with people not screens, building relationships, going into the world to learn what motivates people, indulging on the idea that creativity is indeed a team sport.
Creativity is finding solutions to a challenge
Today’s young creatives face a high-pressure landscape, navigating the disruptive forces of Artificial Intelligence and data alongside the demands of tighter timelines. In this challenging environment, Laurissa said that the focus must shift from merely mastering new tools to cultivating the core mindsets and structural support necessary to thrive, as she believes that the best creative people are always “curious, bold, unafraid of risks and open to new perspectives and experiences.”
“Creativity is finding solutions to a challenge. While upskilling to what the latest technology has to offer is one part of it, they are just tools. Fundamentally, creativity is built on ideas,” she underscored while suggesting tools such as AI must be used at creatives’ disposal to enhance their idea, not replace it.
“Remember, it’s creativity that drives innovation. Not vice versa,” Laurissa emphasized.
Citing a recent study, Laurissa went on to state that 83% of people said that creativity was important in adapting to change and navigating new challenges.
“It empowers those wielding it with the ability to create and implement ideas. Advertising is about ideas. Even when the deadline was tight, the young creatives in the room proved that they could still come up with eight ideas in eight minutes during the workshop at Creative LIAisons this year. Now that’s the power of creativity.”
Creativity is currency
For creatives from developing markets like Asia, where resources and exposure may be limited, Laurissa offers a powerful counter-narrative to the idea of a “copycat creative culture.” She argued that markets like Asia are “rich with fertile imagination and nuanced creativity based on cultural reference.” Hence, the best way for creatives to stand out globally is to leverage that unique, rooted creativity.
“The best way to stand out globally is to leverage your creativity. But that’s just the first step. You need to make sure that your work is seen on the world stage. And the best way to do that is to enter global awards shows where winning work gets the spotlight. Let your work set the benchmark for creativity worldwide.”
She added, “Look for any learning and networking opportunities within your company and in the industry whether locally or globally. For creative people everywhere, creativity is currency. Your book is what maps your career trajectory. So never think you are on the back foot, wherever you may be.”
Looking ahead
The LIA Creative LIAisons program, known for its intense, week-long mentorship and jury-room access, is evolving its vision for 2026 and beyond. While the core Las Vegas experience remains invaluable, the program is now focusing on building a sustained, year-round global community for its growing alumni base.
“Beginning this year, after getting feedback from LIAisons alumni, we formulated a plan for past attendees and mentees to meet one another and the mentors/coaches in person,” Laurissa shared.
This shift was directly inspired by feedback from LIAisons alumni who wanted more opportunities to stay engaged with their peers and mentors.
“We had our first LIAisons alumni meet-and-mingle in Cannes on the LBB Beach this June. Hopefully, we can roll out more of these LIAisons in-person gatherings in other parts of the world like Asia,” Laurissa concluded.
adobo magazine is an official media partner of LIA 2025.
