International judges confirmed for 2011 Bookmarks

They are Teresa Clarke from Africa.com and Antti Kupila, the Technical Director at Sid Lee in Amsterdam. The expertise of Clarke and Kupila will allow the panel to benchmark the Bookmarks entries against global excellence.

Clarke re-launched Africa.com in February 2010 after resigning from her position as a managing director in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs & Co. Her goals for Africa.com are to change the way the world engages online with Africa and to be the platform for those changes. The growth of Africa.com has been phenomenal and in a recent interview Clarke had this to say about the digital space in Africa: "International interest in investment in Africa has been on the rise, but in the African internet space, things have picked up even faster, and growth will be explosive over the next decade. There is a feeling that you are part of something phenomenal happening."

As Technical Director, Kupila is the creative technologist who oversees all the technical aspects of the interactive projects at Sid Lee in Amsterdam. Sid Lee is a multidisciplinary agency with offices in Montreal, Amsterdam, Paris, Toronto and Austin. Kupila describes himself as a creative developer that works with all elements of design, technology and innovation.

The industry will have the opportunity to interact with the judges at the Bookmarks workshops taking place in Johannesburg and Cape Town. They will give feedback from an international perspective on both the agency and publisher entries, plus they will participate in the panel discussions. Members of the local judging panel will also speak about how the entries were evaluated and what stood out for them. The workshops will close off with industry stalwarts Renee Silverstone (Cape Town) and Luke McKend (Johannesburg) who will talk about the state of digital media and marketing in South Africa.

The workshops take place at 20 West Executive Hotel in Johannesburg on the 8th November and The Commodore Legacy Hotel in Cape Town on the 9th November. Both events are from 8.30am to 1.00pm. Tickets cost R450.00 and bookings can be made at www.thebookmarks.co.za.

Thanks go to the confirmed sponsors (as at 19th October): My Broadband, Effective Measure, Dash of Lime, BrandsEye, DStv Online, 24.com, Nokia, IOL, Click2Customers, 365 Digital, Prezence, M&C Saatchi Abel, Ads24 and Vodacom who are category sponsors; Advantage, The Media Online and Marketing Web, Marketing Mix, Memeburn, BizCommunity, www.bandwidthblog.com, www.iafrica.com, www.marklives.com and the Digital Edge who are all media partners and Hertz, Fairlawns Boutique Hotel and Spa, Colourtone, RSAWeb, Commodore Hotel, Quirk Education, Strike Media, Social Code, Prefix, Hello Computer, Native, New Media and Distell who are all service sponsors.

For more information on The Bookmarks please contact: Theresa Vitale on 011 454 3534, az.oc.ammd@elativt or Steph Powell on 072 197 1843, az.oc.ammd@llewops or use Twitter: http://twitter.com/TheBookmarks (please use #Bookmarks2011) or Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheBookmarks.