"We regard the Integrated Loeries Marketing Communications Festival as a step in the right direction towards cementing gains made in the last two years towards breaking fragmentation and ushering a new era of excellence in South Africa's marketing profession," said Makwana, reconfirming that the Loeries Festival will go ahead as planned despite retrenchments at the MFSA and rumours in the marketplace that the Loeries Festival was in hot water due to the turmoil at the MFSA.
As the damage control machine swung into full gear, Makwana roped in key players in the MFSA and Loeries organisation to publicly state that Loeries will go ahead, in an attempt to stop the 'rumour mill'.
"In fact this festival will help to foster better partnership amongst all the key players in the marketing communications industry, education providers, academics and practitioners," he said.
The MFSA Board is equally excited about the impact of the Loeries Marketing Communications Festival and are determined that this year's Loeries will bring the entire industry together: "Everything is on track for the celebration of our industry's talent," says Moss Mashishi, Board member of the MFSA.
He also confirmed that the financial situation of the Loeries Festival is undisputedly sound: "We are in the fortunate position that all the sponsors have confirmed their financial backing for the event and given the rumours swirling around, we have approved management's request to allow them to ring fence the Loeries sponsorship payments, so that there would be no question about the viability of the Loerie Festival. This step should put a stop to the unnecessary speculation about the festival," he said.
Mark Steinhobel of VWV confirms they are on track to present this year's Loeries festival: "We're hard at work to ensure that this will be the pinnacle year for the Loeries. We work well with the events team and management at the MFSA. I trust the industry will be here in full force to learn, enjoy and participate in the inspiring line-up of events at this year's festival".
Sylvia Newby is as usual, at the core of the Loeries Festival organisation, and has stated that "this year will be a break with tradition in our Loerie offering, better and bigger than the industry has seen over the past 15 years".
She confirmed that this year's Loeries will run alongside a conference with a range of international speakers alongside a strong local complement of marketers and academics. Keynote addresses will be presented by creative giant Adrian Holmes (Chairman and Global Chief Creative Officer of Lowe and Partners), Jon Roska (CEO and Chief Creative Officer of Roska Direct), Richard Pinder (Vice President EMEA Leo Burnett) and Ben Hatton (Commercial Director Manchester United).
"The resignation of Davy Ivins, General Manager: Events, while unfortunate for its timing, will not affect the Loeries, given the support of the sponsors and the hard work of the teams under the able leadership of Sylvia Newby and Mark Steinhobel.
The programme begins on Friday, 1 October and ends on Sunday night, 4 October. The Loeries Festival will take place," concluded Makwana.
The official website address is www.loerie.org.za.
