The Loeries land in Cape Town

“Long Street and the surrounding area will be the centre of our Cape Town Village,” says Andrew Human, The Loerie Awards MD. “We’ll have registration at the Grand Daddy Hotel and activities and parties throughout the weekend. The Good Hope Centre is a fantastic venue for the awards ceremonies and we’re planning no less than a fantastic show.”

When many people think of the Loeries, what springs to mind is the awards weekend - more than 48 hours of entertainment, awards, parties and activities that exhaust and excite at one and the same time.

There's more to it, however... it's actually a year-round focus on creative inspiration, helping marketers, agencies and consumers appreciate the value of ideas and fresh thinking.

• The Travelling Exhibition is a road show of the year's winning works. It visits different agencies, festivals and educational institutions around South Africa, and in recent years has also travelled to neighbouring Namibia and as far afield as Russia and New York. Its aim is to broaden awareness of the creative industry as a career path for school leavers and showcase SA talent internationally. Watch Bizcommunity.com for news on when the road show will be in your area.

• Last year, the Loeries, in partnership with SABC Commercial Enterprises, launched The Loerie Awards Scholarship, a full bursary that allows a talented student from a disadvantaged background to study at a tertiary institution. The aim is to identify, nurture and inspire creative talent that would otherwise not have had the opportunity to find expression.

• The company also publishes The Loeries Annual, billed as the ultimate peer-review handbook of the industry's leading campaigns, brands, agencies and individuals each year, and Migrate - a twice-yearly magazine dedicated to the celebration of creative inspiration.

• The awards process kicks off with a judges' seminar at which leading international and local judges deliver presentations on their work and interpretations of creativity.

• Following the seminar is the week-long judging event in which leading players in each of the Loeries categories judge thousands of the year's finest and most creative works.

Celebration of creativity

The Loerie Awards ceremonies themselves are the highlight of the creative industry calendar. In 2008, the awards' 30th anniversary celebration, a record-breaking 3400 entries were received and more than 5000 people attended the festival weekend in Margate. This year, The Loerie Awards has migrated to Cape Town, with the intention of bringing a celebration like no other to the Mother City.

If you're expecting a dull, dry awards ceremony of mutual backslapping, forget it... If you don't end up dancing, there's something wrong with you... SA's greatest entertainers, including Arno Carstens, Lebo, Mafikizolo, TK, Malaika, Freshly Ground, the Parlotones, HHP, Reddy D, Oskido and even Sonja Herholdt and the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra, have performed at the Loeries since 2005.

Tiaan Ras, head of market intelligence at Ads24, the national sales and trade marketing division for Media24 Newspapers and one of the sponsors of the 2009 Loerie Awards, says, “...We feel that Cape Town will be a great venue... the 2009 event will be a ‘Mother of a Paartie'.”

The Awards ceremonies will be taking place in The Good Hope Centre, a short walk from Long Street, which will be the centre of the Loeries Cape Town Village.

Where to stay? Need someone to drive you?

Global Conferences has been appointed as the official accommodation partner of The Loerie Awards in Cape Town and it will be able to assist with accommodation requirements. The aim is to get as many people staying in and around the Long Street area and everything from backpackers to penthouse suites are on hand.

For those of you who would prefer not to drive - or walk - Loerie shuttles will run throughout the weekend - even for Capetonians attending the awards.

The 2009 major Loeries sponsors are the SABC, Ads24 and The City of Cape Town.

For more information, go to www.theloerieawards.co.za.