Jon Chalermwong’s LIA Diary Wrap-Up: It’s not the award show, it’s LIA
Jon Chalermwong is Co-founder and Chief Creative at audacity bangkok. Over the past week he has been in Las Vegas sitting on the TV, Cinema & Online Film jury at the London International Awards (LIA). Here Chalermwong shares his judging experience.
This is one of the moments I’ve been waiting for a long long time: to be an LIA jury member.
I’ve been fortunate to work with several talented and renowned leaders in Thailand’s advertising industry. One thing I often noticed was that they frequently received invitations to judge leading award shows. Sometimes they accepted, and sometimes they turned them down. However, one show my bosses never declined was the LIA – they eagerly participated several times. This made me curious about what made them so enthusiastic about it.
On March 5, 2024, I received an invitation from LIA to be a jury member for the TV & Cinema & Online Film category in Las Vegas. Finally, I had the chance to seek an answer I had long awaited.
From my previous jury experiences, I expected LIA to provide us with a link for online judging, but nothing came through. I was a bit worried about being locked in a room to watch every entry in the category. Of course, it was my first time in Vegas, and I wanted to explore the city a bit — who wouldn’t?
LIA arranged accommodations for the 10 TV & Cinema & Online Film jurors at the Encore, which has a large casino in the lobby. Thankfully, I’m not a gambler, so I didn’t have to struggle to stay away from it.
The first two days of judging were “In-n-Out.” All the jurors sat down and watched each film together – no skipping, even when some entries were less than captivating. We started at 9:30AM sharp and finished around 4PM on those days. It was great because we didn’t have to rush to make decisions, and our eyes remained fresh. It turns out that watching together in a room is much better than online judging because everyone was focused; no one was distracted by their phones, as often happens in online settings.
On day three, we narrowed the entries from 500 submissions to 93 – a reasonable number to start the day. We gave scores from 1 to 10 (1-3 for shortlisted works, 4-6 for finalists, and 7-10 for medal-worthy entries).
The jury president instructed us not to engage in discussions or debates about any work yet, reserving that for day four, the discussion day. Each jury member could call back works that didn’t make the cut and explain why they believed those pieces deserved a spot on the shortlist. Then, we would vote on whether to include them. So, day three was quick and ended by 1 PM.
Day four was dedicated to discussion. We didn’t need to watch the 93 works again, as we remembered the strong entries well enough unless someone requested a review. We moved quickly through the ranks based on the scores given. What’s interesting about LIA is that jurors can adjust rankings, shift works between categories, and promote entries from Bronze to Silver or demote them from Bronze to Finalist. This makes winning at LIA more challenging but ensures that the winners are truly deserving, as every piece is thoroughly evaluated.
All ten jurors discussed the works from Gold to Silver to Bronze, revisiting the overall results multiple times. Then came the moment to vote for the Grand LIA. We wrote down two out of the six works that won gold on paper, and the jury president announced the two top-voted works for further discussion. Importantly, there doesn’t need to be a Grand LIA if the jurors feel that no work deserves it.
Our two Grand LIA awards are below.
The fourth day concluded with an LIA networking party at the Encore Beach Club — thanks to the LIA team.
Overall, we (the jurors) had a good amount of free time after judging each day. Some explored The Sphere, others visited the Las Vegas Strip, some went to art exhibitions, and others channeled their inner James Bond at the casino.
Now I understand why some of my former bosses never say no to being jurors at LIA. The LIA team did an excellent job organizing the event, selecting jurors who are like-minded creatives. We had jurors from Toronto, New York, Richmond, Paris, Sydney, Bogota, Seoul, and Bangkok — all creative professionals, with no jurors from platforms, publishers, or clients on the panel.
Kudos to LIA for the accommodations, timing, and hospitality. If I get the privilege of being on the jury at LIA again, I hope it won’t be my last.
