Knocked it Out of the Box...

I probably should have posted this last week, but it’s taken me a while to catch up with myself.

This is far too self-congratulatory to put on the shots site proper, so I'm posting it here. I’m SO BLOODY PLEASED with how well the inaugural shots Out of the Box event went. From a scrappy ‘dream lineup’ list that somehow turned into the ACTUAL lineup, Danny Edwards and I did our best to programme a day filled with insight and interest from the best in the biz.

Kicking off proceedings were the amazing teams from John Lewis & Partners ( Emma Wood ) and 盛世长城 ( Franki Goodwin and Jessica Ringshall ), who talked us through building a spot that could live up to the impossible expectations of the UK Christmas market. Titbit of the session was from Wake The Town 's Dominic Bastyra , who told us of how even ‘The Maestro’ Andrea Bocelli needed direction when voicing an oversized Venus fly trap.

Following that was a talk about AI from Private Island ’s Chris Boyle that somehow managed to be techie without being boring, be wary without being scary, and give an impassioned reasoning of how the future could be filled with tools that can help bring creativity to life. Plus ‘haunted’ images. From the murmurings in the break that followed, I have a feeling that PI might want to create an AI of their own that could tour companies with its insights.

Taking us through to lunch was a session we’ve been looking to host for yonks - four of the UK’s top Agency Heads of Production talking through the challenges and expectations of the current commercial scene, as well as giving us a peek behind the curtains as to how production partners can get noticed. Building a dream panel was vital in getting the right mix of insights, so we couldn’t have been more delighted when TBWA\London 's Melody Sylvester , Uncommon Creative Studio 's Charlie Gatsky Sinclair , Modern Citizens 's Kristie Girvan and Maxine Hose of Grey London all agreed to take part.

It’s a vulnerable place, up on that stage, so having the wisdom and kindness of Mr ed sayers to guide them through was an added bonus. Shout out to The Sweetshop ’s Morgan Whitlock and KNUCKLEHEAD ’s Tim Katz (amongst many others) for asking some cracking questions too. It pushed something that could have just been of interest into a fully-blown discussion of how the creative community can build itself up.

After some top-notch provided by The Londoner (so I’ve been told - I was too anxious to have more than a cracker), shots’ very own ?? Amy Kean ?? took to the stage to embrace the awkward and salute the weirdos. Witty and erudite as ever, the session threw out some crazy stats, as well as providing one of the funniest cliche montages we’ve ever seen.

Closing the day was a chat we’d had cooking in our brainboxes for a while - the ever-excellent Edgar Wright being grilled on all things creative by Leo Burnett UK ’s Chaka Sobhani. As a massive fan of both of them, I was delighted from the get-go (even when our had our only AV snafu of the day - dang, that was a good montage you could have seen), and was thrilled that not only did we learn of The Toucan’s ‘not in the movie’ stairs but also got a few tasty anecdotes about the seminal French & Saunders Christmas Special Wright shot when he was a mere 24! Humongous thanks to Dawn Laren and all at Moxie Pictures - London for helping us sort it out - I owe you all the pints.

Oh yeah, and THEN we had a bloody awards show with loads of you sexy lot raising the roof to celebrate some cracking ads from the last 12 months. After pestering our awards team for ages, we finally got Alex Horne and the Horne Section as presenters and goddam it if they didn’t do an incredible job! I also fulfilled a lifelong dream of getting a REAL ‘badum-tish’ from the drummer after two of my jokes. SUCCESS!!!!

Whilst the evening is one of rejoicing, it wouldn’t be possible without the time and effort put in by the judges for each and every category. Despite the judging sessions being a huge amount of fun (believe us, we sit in on them), we know that they take a chunk out of the day for people who don’t have day-chunks to spare. Our head judges Jessica Ringshall , Ivan Bird , Anne DePree , Matthew Faddy , Nishant Shah , Tash Tan , Jane Dilworth , Olly Williams, Marine Garnier , Emilie Walmsley , and all of your fellow jury members, we salute you.

Now, you know me, I love to claim credit for anything that is only fleetingly in my purview, but in actuality, the day couldn’t have happened without the superb team at shots and Source Creative getting all of the REAL hard work done. In particular, a massive shoutout has to go in the direction of Sara Brady and Elsie Gray for somehow making the organisation of both a conference and awards show seem like a piece of cake, and to Louise Lenzi and Neil Sinclair for presenting and marketing both events to a jaw-dropping level of quality. Plus James Straker and Simon Furse for some inspired leadership and the rest of the editorial team ( Carol Cooper , Daniel Huntley , Amy Hey ) for keeping the good ship shots afloat whilst we battle this behemoth.

You don’t know how lucky Danny and I feel when we get to stand up and represent such a marvellous team.

Anyway, someone just mentioned that we have to do it all over again in LA in a few months, so you’ll excuse me if I have a quick lie-down…