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Young Professionals Academy Programme and Faculty Announced

2017 Young Lions Print Category Winner


As excitement continues to build towards the Creativity Week taking place in Lagos from 19 – 24 March 2018, CHINI Productions, organizers of the event and Cannes Lions Official Festival representative in Nigeria have released the programme schedule and names of some of the confirmed faculty members for the programme.


Registration for the Young Professionals Academy will close on Friday 23 February 2018. Briefing for the Young Lions Competition will take place online on Monday 5 March. In other to limit the length of time participants are expected to be away from work, classes will begin online from Monday 19 to Tuesday 20 March. There will be a gap day on Wednesday 21 March to enable participants from outside Lagos to journey from their various locations. The Integrated Pitcher Awards briefing will take place in the morning of Thursday 22 March and competitors will have 24 hours to deliver their solutions to the brief. Onsite classes resume on Friday 23 March and ends in the afternoon of Saturday 24 March with a small graduation ceremony for the participants. Then comes the big evening on Saturday 24 March when winners of the Young Lions Competitions and Young Picher Integrated Competition will be awarded alongside other winners at the Creativity Week closing ceremony tagged the Pitcher Awards Night and Gala.


Some of the faculty members already confirmed include Antonio Bechtle, who has been rated as one of the top 5 Copywriters in the world by Lürzer’s Archive. Also, part of the faculty is Natalia Bedia, a multi-award-winning art direction teacher and creative activist working out of Spain. Others include Rakesh Singh, who has a long experience in West African market before moving to Vietnam as Managing Director Havas Media.


Other faculty members are Daniel Emeka, Managing Director Surkreo, the dynamic and young digipreneur, Maurice Ugwonoh, Creative Director Noah’s Ark, whose works have won Epica, African Cristal, Loeries and part of the team behind the celebrated Airtel ad ‘Lost’. Seyi Owolawi is a passionate, rising and multi-award winning creative. He won the best in show at Miami Ad School and is presently the Associate Creative Director at DDB Lagos. His works are frequently published in Lürzer’s Archive. More faculty members will be published soon at the Creativity Week website.


The Young Professionals Academy is a must attend for communications professionals who are 30 years or less whether they are in creative agencies, PR, Media, Digital or client company.


Apart from the great learning opportunity availed by the Academy, one of the strong attractions is the Young Lions Competition.


Winners of at the national Young Lions Competition get the opportunity to represent their country in Cannes during the international finals. This year there will be 2 slots for each category. One for the best Nigerian team and a second slot for the best non-Nigerian team who will represent whatever country they come from in West and Central Africa in Cannes during the international finals.


The Young Pitcher Integrated Competition which is new for 2018 is the ultimate contest for all young communications professionals irrespective of their area of specialization or country. The top winning team will get an all-expense-paid trip to Dubai Lynx.


Beyond the learning and the prizes is also the great fulfillment that everyone working on team gets by contributing their quota to promoting a good cause. Each year the competitors get a brief from a not-for-profit organisation to help develop communication materials to help promote a chosen cause.


Last year the competitors were briefed by the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria to create awareness about the abuse of Codeine and Tramadol by teenagers in Nigeria.


Finally, nothing beats the joy of flying the flag for your company and your country at a major international event like the Cannes Lions not to talk about the glory that follows when you win.

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