CAMPAIGN CRAFT: COLUMN - Organising the Kinsale ad festival is no mean feat

There is a committed festival committee that has been working on

this year’s Kinsale since last October, addressing issues like

accommodation, the usual oversupply of delegates, the question of

entries, selecting the jury, choosing a topic for the Friday forum,

deciding who should present the awards ceremony. So what’s new?

Let’s look at the accommodation situation. Kinsale is a small,

picturesque fishing town situated on the south coast of Ireland. As a

tourist attraction, it enjoys a season that extends well into September.

Securing 250 beds over three nights at this time of year is not an easy

task. Having said that, I never cease to be amazed at how we seem to

manage it year after year. OK, so you are the one that gets to stay in a

quaint little bed and breakfast 20 minutes drive away. At 2am with the

sounds of the festival club still ringing in your ears, it might just as

well be in Timbuktu.

Delegates - now that’s a real issue at this time of year. Or should I

say the waiting list? I spend a good deal of the day explaining to

dejected applicants how it is impossible to seat more than 350 for the

awards banquet.

Actually, we have 366 people registered so we will be hoping the theory

that airlines apply to overbookings will work for us. Seriously, though,

this is one problem a hotel in Kinsale could solve if it were capable of

seating 400-500 delegates for the awards banquet. On second thoughts,

small is beautiful. Anyway, there is always the opportunity to join the

ranks of the ever-expanding non-delegate fraternity - those people who

lay siege nightly to the festival club.

A former member of this committee once pronounced that we really did not

need delegates as they cause trouble and cost money, and all that was

required to run a successful festival was entries. It was, in his

opinion, revenue with no strings attached. Sometimes, especially at this

time of year, I might almost agree. But I find it hard to imagine an

international creative jury having sat in a darkened room for three

days, wandering around the deserted streets of Kinsale in search of a

post box to mail out the results.

Assuming, of course, there were entries in the first place. He was right

to some extent - entries are the heart and soul of any advertising

awards festival and this, more than anything else, can cause sleepless

nights as the final date for receipt of entries draws near. Oh Christ,

it was last Friday! How many entries do we have in? Does that include

the radio?

Give the Finns a call - they owe us one.

This article was first published on Campaign