How an off-the-cuff bet turned LIA into the world's most exclusive - and inclusive - creative awards

 

A winning bet! We are now happy to celebrate our tenth year in Las Vegas and here is the story of how it all began!

 

“The question we are asked most often is, ‘so if you’re the London International Awards, why are we judging in Las Vegas’?”

 

Well, the truth is, you’ll have to ask Innocean’s Global CCO, Jeremy Craigen.

 

In 2008, he met Barbara in Singapore while judging the World Press Awards.

 

At dinner, Jeremy was having a conversation with Neil French about the numerous award shows he’d been asked to judge and how he turned down many of them. One of which was LIA, summed up in one word from Jeremy as ‘shit’. Neil’s response to Jeremy, “Why don’t you just tell that to Barbara directly? She’s sitting across from you.” And of course, Jeremy did just that.

 

“I did say that…” admitted Jeremy. “I had had a few Singapore slings by that point.”

 

Unperturbed, Barbara told him it was her ambition to elevate LIA to a top-tier show and that she had her eye on Jeremy as the first Jury President for the two separate competitions of Print and Outdoor.

 

Jeremy agreed with one condition. “I’ll do it if you hold it in Vegas.”

 

“She is amazing,” marveled Jeremy. “She phoned me up a week later – she’d flown out to Las Vegas and been to the Wynn. She said, ‘I’ve booked it, are you coming?’ And I had to stay true to my word! No other show would do that.”

 

At the time Barbara’s plan for LIA was to hold judging in Vegas for just one year and then returning back to its old format. However, Jeremy and the inaugural Las Vegas Jury Panel were so impressed with the Vegas set-up that they demanded we stay. We are proud to announce that “one year” has now turned into ten years of judging in Las Vegas.

 

“A lot has changed in the last ten years. But some things, like honoring the work and the people that create it, hasn’t.” said Barbara. “Oh… and by the way, we never got rid of Jeremy.”