The Cannes Lions Nigeria Dinner and Awards Night organised by CHINI Productions, official representative of the Cannes Lions Festival in Nigeria is scheduled to hold on March 21, 2015.

The yearly event brings together members of the Nigerian Advertising and Marketing Communications industry to celebrate young talents and the future of the industry.

Activities leading to the dinner will begin today, March 17, with the briefing of the Young Lions Competitors in Cyber, Design, Film, Media, PR and Print Categories.

About 60 young men and women from top agencies in Nigeria will be taking part in these competitions. Agencies presenting teams for the competitions include Brand Aristotle, Caritas Communications, DDB Lagos, Digicraft, Etu Odi Communications, Insight Communications, Media Perspectives, Media Reach OMD, Noah’s Ark Communications, Sesema PR,SO&U, Starcom Media Service, Syracuse Digital and X3M Marketing Ideas.

At the entries level, DDB Lagos is leading with 5 teams in the competition followed by Media Perspective and Insight Communications with 3 teams each.

On Wednesday, March 18, about 40 students will arrive Lagos from various tertiary institutions around the country to begin a three-day residential Roger Hatchuel Academy Nigeria programme.

The participating universities include the Creative Arts Department University of Lagos, Mass Communications Department University of Lagos, Mass Communications Department Caritas University, Mass Communications Department, Babcock University, Mass Communications Department, Lead City University, Mass Communications Department, Redeemers University, Nigerian Institute of Journalism, School of Communications, Lagos State University, Mass Communications Department, Lagos State Polytechnic. The participating students have already been briefed on their individual projects.

While in Lagos for the three-day intensive programme, they will also work on group projects and attend several seminars anchored by senior industry professionals. The students are also expected to visit the offices of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria, sponsors of the programme, Television Continental, Starcom Media Services and Insight Communications, where the management will host them to a cocktail.

The four juries judging the Young Lions Competitions – creative categories, the Media category, the PR category and Roger Hatchuel Academy Competition – will meet all day on 21 March to decide who the winners of the various competitions are.

In addition, a different jury seating in Hamburg, Germany will decide the winners of the 2015 Miami Ad School Scholarship Competition.

The weeklong activities will be rounded off at the Cannes Lions Nigeria Dinner and Awards beginning at 7:00pm at Planet One Maryland on Saturday, 21 March 2015.

The new awards in the Roger Hatchuel Academy include Best Teacher and Best School of the Year. The winning student in this category will enjoy an all-expense paid trip to Cannes, France for the Roger Hatchuel Academy International, the first runner-up will be sponsored to attend the next Dubai Lynx Festival.

The winners in each of the six categories of the Young Lions Competition in addition to winning their national trophies will represent Nigeria in Cannes in their respective categories for the 2015 international edition of the Young Lions Competitions. Seat reservation for the 2015 Cannes Lions Nigeria Dinner and Awards can be made at www.canneslions-ng.com.

•Photo shows APCON Chairman, Udeme Ufot.

Update news