Five Indian jurists at AdFest 2013

Bobby Pawar of JWT India, Taproot's Santosh Padhi, and Manesh Swamy of Hungama Digital Media are some of the jurists.

Five members of the Indian advertising fraternity have been invited to the jury panel of AdFest 2013, to be held during March 17-19 at Pattaya in Thailand. The jurists include
Bobby Pawar
, chief creative officer and managing partner, JWT India;
Santosh Padhi
, chief creative officer and co-founder, Taproot India; Manesh Swamy, associate creative director, Hungama Digital Media; Hozefa Alibhai, managing director, Gobsmack; and Rahul Mathew, executive creative director, McCann.

Pawar is part of the Outdoor Lotus jury. The jury president of the category is Naoki Ito, chief creative officer and founder, PARTY, Tokyo, Japan.

Padhi is the jury president of Design Lotus and Print Craft Lotus category, which has two more jury members.

Swamy will judge the Interactive Lotus and Mobile Lotus category. This category is headed by Valerie Cheng, executive creative director, JWT Singapore.

Alibhai will be one of the jury members in the Film Craft Lotus and New Director Lotus category, which is led by John Park, founder and director, Addict Media Films, Seoul, South Korea.

Mathew has been invited to the jury panel of Film Lotus and Radio Lotus category. Graham Fink, grand jury president and chief creative officer, Ogilvy & Mather China, will preside over this category.

The theme of this year's AdFest is 'Connect the Dots'; it aims to bring together strategic knowledge, tools, resources and experiences with innovation and ideas. The festival will also enable people to connect and socialise with others from the industry.