Ernst completed a degree in multimedia design, finishing first in his class and since then he has had a varied career having finessed his skills in Graphic Design, Identity Design, UI Design, Photo Retouching, and Photo Compositing. Since then, his creative career has spanned advertising, publishing, music, large scale web application design and film.

Ernst has had the privilege of working on world-class brands such as Absolut, American Swiss, BMW, TFG, Jameson, Old Mutual, Red Bull and many more. He was an integral part on the design of campaigns that have garnered 1 Cannes Gold, 2 Cannes Silver, 1 Cannes Bronze, 2 Gold Loeries, 5 Silver Loeries, 1 Gold Bookmark, and 7 Silver Bookmarks, to name a few.

From a young age, his obsessions with van Gogh’s 'The Starry Night' and building colour perfect Lego creations ignited his passion for art & design. This passion continued all the way through school where he took up painting, drawing, printmaking, photography and ceramics. Ernst is still known to make a vase or two.

Being a trained economist and passionate brand builder, he loves to merge his business acumen with digital innovation. His creative and business strategy outlook enables him to constantly bring a new and different perspective.

He has lent his expertise to some of the country and continents biggest brands which has won him multiple awards including Loerie, Bookmarks, D&AD and New York Festivals. In 2022, he was also invited to judge the 2022 Bookmark Awards in the Marketing panel.

Core to his expertise is "brand growth in cultural diversity in an African and global context". Mzamo has been at the centre of innovation and adoption challenges throughout his marketing career & entrepreneurial life.

Today, Clockwork is Africa's leading integrated communications agency. They specialise in content research and strategy, digital and social media, public relations, design, web development and videography, with offices in Johannesburg, Cape Town and London.

Tom is also a PRCA Africa Network board member and has judged several notable awards forums including the SABRE Awards, Bookmarks and PRISMS.

At the age of 19, she started her first business and it was called Black Cherry Au Pairs and before that, she was a real estate agent at Huize Mark where she was able to express and immerse herself in both the creative and corporate work environments.

Her first full-time job was at TRACE TV. She worked as a marketing and programming assistant for over 3 years. She learnt and experienced different skill sets from these diverse environments and feels that the different knowledge has had a great impact on her growth as an entrepreneur.

Naledi is a strong team player and can manage and work well with diverse teams, which builds more on her leadership skills. She has a deep-rooted entrepreneurial spirit and in breaking the mould and striving for the best in all situations.

The best way to describe Naledi’s personality is outspoken, straightforward, enthusiastic and an unapologetic go-getter.

MJ Khan is an award-winning digital strategist, academic, keynote speaker and proud husband and father. He heads up group digital communications at Sasol, a global chemical and energy company and is responsible for social media, online platforms and digital campaigns across the 23 countries that Sasol operates in.

MJ wrote his first radio ad in 2001 and worked on a number of local and international brands across a variety of industries. He was selected as one of the Mail and Guardian Top 200 Young South Africans, chosen as one of the 100 Brightest Young Minds, Bookmarks Vice Jury Chair, member of the Golden Key Honours society and was ranked in the global top 10 of the Digital Marketing Aptitude Test (DMAT). He is passionate about helping small businesses utilise digital communication. Connect with him on all popular social media platforms @concerningmj

Avik then relocated to Dubai in Oct 2019 where he was part of the Pringles Marketing Team looking after the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey Region. After a successful stint at Pringles Dubai, he then moved to Kellogg South Africa as the Marketing Director for the Kellogg South African business.

Avik is a keen Marketeer with a commercial blend of mind and has worked on several categories like Beverages, Snacks, Hair Care, Personal Wash & Cereals. He has experienced various cultures by working across markets like India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Middle East, Turkey, and South Africa.

Ray is a marketing professional with over 13 years’ experience in the industry. Since joining Levergy in 2019, he has helped to grow the business into one of Africa’s best creative-led passion point communication agencies.

His experience includes an array of local and global brands such as: Heineken, Johnnie Walker, Nedbank, Telkom, and SuperSport. Ray’s ambition is to continue leading from the front and ultimately show the youth that they too can achieve their dreams while growing the creative industry across the African continent.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RayLangs

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raylangs/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ray-langa-4114a862/

Ben Krawchuk has over 30 years’ digital and technical innovation, marketing, media, advertising and communication experience working for award winning - global and local - digital and traditional agencies, whose success he personally has contributed to.

Ben is currently the co-founder and Managing Director of WayFillian, a Full-Service Brand, Communications & Digital Marketing Agency, which originated out of a passion for making a difference between the agency/client relationship and with an ethos to deliver exceptional value, by understanding the requirements and focusing on what’s important to a brand. Having over 30 years of collective industry and brand knowledge, the outputs are refreshing and created to inspire, with the main goal to stand out from the rest of the clutter that the communication space has found itself in.

Previously the Technical Director at Clockwork Media, where under his leadership he helped to grow and nurture a number of development and technically innovative projects within the agency. Prior, he was the Technical and Acting Managing partner at Joe Public Connect, where he contributed to the digital offering for the Brand and Communications group.

Alongside Dani Morley a fellow New Gen judge, the team grew from 0 to over 60 talents in the digital hub, and from working on 0 to 19 clients, flourishing into a noticable and award winning digital agency in South Africa. Before Joe Public, Ben was at NXT Digital Innovation, as their Chief Operating Officer, based within the global Omnicom Group company – TBWA \ Tequila, and successfully grew their digital and technical footprint from a commercial, business development and delivery perspective.

With an indomitable spirit, a robust opinion and true understanding of what excellence should be in the field of Digital, Ben has worked with some of the best local and international companies including brands such as Chicken Licken, Standard Bank, Exxaro, Anglo American, Tiger Brands, Transearch International, Hyundai, Mercedes Benz, SAB, Expedia and Ericsson to name a few.

Career highlights include winning Corporate website of the year 2019 for Chicken Licken and in the same year, being the runner-up for SAB Corporate website of the year. The “Sign The Smile Off” campaign won numerous category awards most notably, a Gold at Loeries. Ben’s core skills include executive management, commercial and business development as well as client relationship management and portfolio growth.

Tracy Jones is the founder and MD of Positive Dialogue, the full-service Public Relations and Influencer Marketing Agency in the DUKE Group of companies. Tracy is a board member of the Entrepreneurs Organisation and a member of the Businesswoman Association of South Africa.

A problem-solver at heart and a creative strategist by nature, Tracy has worked on numerous local and international blue-chip brands on Positive Dialogue's journey from a pure-play PR agency into a digitally relevant, 360-degree communications company. She has been instrumental in conceptualising a multitude of award winnings campaigns that have been implemented either locally, or spanned across Africa, and often internationally, for a number of brands.

Tracy champions the power of PR and authentic content and storytelling as an intrinsic part of a business's marketing strategy.

Given her career that spans over 20 years, she’s often been asked to be a judge for the Loeries, the PR industry PRISM Awards, as well as the New Generation Social & Digital Media Awards

Zubeida Goolam boasts an impressive repertoire spanning many years with industry heavyweights like Ogilvy and M&C Saatchi Abel. Now, Chief Creative Officer at Valiant Agency, which was co-founded by herself in 2016 and is a proudly 51% black female-owned business.

Zubeida is one-third of the out of the box thinkers who set out to create a digital-first agency that embraces transformation and cultural inclusion in the work that they do, as well as the people they mentor.

Together with partners - Wayne Flemming and Sbosh Mbuzwana, the team at Valiant create impactful, digital campaigns that both inspire and drive critical engagement through incorporating multiple levels of marketing with a strong focus on strategy and creativity in a digital-first world.

Shivani Naidoo is the Portfolio Manager: Digital Marketing at Vodacom with over 14 years of experience in marketing, spanning across the eCommerce and Telco industries.

After spending more than a decade of her career in this specialised field, Shivani knows what truly drives profitable campaigns and sold out launches for brands. Strategy, creativity and drive are Shivani’s greatest strengths and she thrives on challenges, especially those that expand the company’s reach.

In addition to her digital marketing experience, her purpose is to grow and develop people as well as pave the way for more females to enter the tech workspace.

Craig's advertising journey started in 2006. 14 years on, he is currently the Creative Director at independent Durban-based, international award winning digital agency, Hellosquare. His work has been recognised across numerous award shows, having won over 130 awards, local and international, including numerous Agency of the Year awards. He is certainly no stranger to the New Generation Awards stage and has also judged various awards shows.

Craig has worked with many iconic household name brands, such as Albany Bakeries, Koo, Shield Anti-perspirant, Lux, Hansa Pilsener to mention a few. Some of his more familiar campaigns are AXE - #YouGottaDry ft Xzibit and more recently Tinkies - Celebrate Everything. Craig is a strategic, Creative Director and driven by campaigns that deliver real business results and that add real value and insight into the 2021 awards season. ---

Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-miles-47297355/

Darren Leishman is the Cofounder of Spitfire Inbound arguably the most successful inbound marketing, sales and service consultancy in South Africa. He has a long history in the traditional advertising space having run Penquin for 18 years.

He sold a majority share in Penquin to the management team and founded Spitfire as a niche agency focused specifically on solving complex marketing, sales and service challenges for some of South Africa's leading brands. With Spitfire he has executed successful campaigns that deliver exceptional returns for customers and have resulted in a string of awards over the past 3 years for the growth and success they have delivered for their diverse clientele.

Lebo is a strategic communications expert, a content maverick, a brand builder, a technology enthusiast and a PR maven. Her 20 year journey in PR, digital, brand and marketing includes roles in both agency and corporate, as well as the less travelled journey of entrepreneurship.

She uses her blend of expertise in PR, brand and marketing, to help South African and multinational brands solve complex business challenges, and to build and protect corporate reputation.

As Chief Marketing Officer she handled the rebrand of a JSE listed digital technology provider (Etion), that included amalgamating 4 subsidiaries that came together through acquisitions under one brand, and taking them on a journey of the design of a common culture and employee value proposition, successfully entrenching the brand with its customers, developing go-to-market strategies, as well as transitioning and landing the name change with shareholders, media and the investor community.

In her roles in PR she has steered leading PR agencies Ogilvy PR and Influence, and FCB’s Redline, as well as running her own agency PR Powerhouse which she founded in 2011, until it was insourced into Etion in 2018. Her specialisation in PR spans across corporate and consumer communication, content, media relations, crisis and issues management, government relations, investor relations, creative strategy, intelligence and insights. She has done these for clients in aviation, mining, film and entertainment, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, hospitality and leisure, retail and technology.

Lebo is passionate about the industry and gives her time to award judging panels that include the 2020 New Generation Social & Digital Media Awards, PRISM Awards, recognising the best of PR in South Africa. She has a number of industry accolades to her name including being named among Avance Media’s 100 Most Influential Young South Africans in 2018. Her entrepreneurial journey has seen her placed in the top 15 in the South African chapter of the Goldman Sachs 10 000 Women Certificate Programme for female entrepreneurs at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS).

Uyanda Manana has more than 15 years industry experience working with heavyweights like MTN, Nando’s, Nedbank, Edgar’s, United Biscuits and L’Oreal. Uyanda honed her skills in integrated marketing communications and account leadership at agencies in SA and abroad, including Publicis UK, the Jupiter Drawing Room, M&C Saatchi Abel and Dubai’s Hariz ME.

The dynamic executive with a passion for harnessing and showcasing African creativity and talent heads up Johannesburg-based independent, BE Digital Agency – an exciting new addition to Conversation LAB Holdings.

Luke Goller has been in the creative and advertising industry for over 18 years. Before heading up his own agency, Luke was a creative director who led the campaigns of well-known brands such as Samsung, Philips and Xbox.

Under Luke’s leadership, Arc Interactive has been recognised for its fearless innovation through various industry awards. Among these wins is the New Generation Small Agency of the Year for as well as multiple Pixels at the IAB SA Bookmark Awards.

His natural knack for technology has made his agency one of the most sought-after for mobile app design and development. Luke’s expertise includes creative strategy, art direction, design and mobile product development. Yet even with all this, what’s most impressive about Luke is his calm, control and focus under the most strenuous of circumstances.

Drawing from his years of work within the digital industry as well as his past judging experience, Luke brings his objectivity and expertise to the 2021 New Generation Awards Judges Panel.

Bringing an honest, robust opinion and understanding of what excellence should be in the field of performance media, innovation and technology, she has worked with, and helped grow, some of the best local and international companies, brands and agencies.

Prior to Standard Bank, Dani was Chief Executive Officer of Digital Optimization, a technology driven, digital media business called Digital Optimization, enabling robust performance media solutions through converging strategic media with innovative tech and creativity to accomplish real connections and conversions for clients.

Dani also started Joe Public Connect, a “green field” digital agency born to grow true connections for Joe Public United’s clients, and headed up the digital offering for the Brand and Communications group. Under her leadership, the agency flourished into a noticeable and award winning digital agency in South Africa.

Before Joe Public, she was at NXT Digital Innovation, based within the global Omnicom Group company – TBWA \ Tequila, and successfully grew their digital footprint from a commercial and business development perspective.

Career highlights include scooping up the prestigious Assegai 2018 Agency of the Year title and winning Digital Agency of the Year Twice in a row at the New Generation Awards (2017 & 2018). Dani credits these accolades – first and foremost – to the prodigious and hungry Digital talent South Africa has. “We have an entrepreneurial and creative spirit in Africa, that when driven by a shared purpose, a clients hunger for growth and executed with strategic & creative clout ….is where the magic happens.”

Stephen is an Entrepreneur and Marketing Professional with over 20 year’s local & International experience. Before moving to South Africa in 2000, Stephen studied Art, Photography, Graphic Design and fashion for 6 years in the UK, where he graduated with Higher National Merits.

Stephen spent the majority of his early career in London, working within the media and publishing sector on some of the World’s best-loved lifestyle magazines. After arriving in SA, he worked for a well known publishing house as associate publisher on a variety of leading B2B journals, before founding the New Generation Social & Digital Media Awards, in 2012.

His passion for Innovative Design, Typeface, Creativity, Technology and Digital Marketing are just some of the reasons why he founded The Awards.

Templar Wales's career has always been centred around creating engaging experiences for marketing, communications and systems through design, creative thinking and strategy.

As chief marketing officer and head of Client Experience for Airborne, a fintech start-up, Templar was responsible for the brand and identity development, marketing strategy and the full client experience. For two years prior to this, as head of Digital for Investec Group Marketing, Templar led the development and execution of the brand’s digital marketing strategy. Before that Templar was a new media designer/developer at TBWA Tool Communications (South Africa's first integrated marketing agency), founder/ECD at Blink New Media (a fiercely independent digital agency) and MD/head of Strategy at Gloo (digital agency of the year for seven years running).

Templar has collaborated with most of the major agencies in South Africa, and worked on most of the top brands in financial services and insurance, vehicle manufacturing, medical, tourism and hospitality, apparel, FMCG, and management and training.

With a fairly full shelf of his own Loerie, Bookmark, Midas and Assegai awards, Templar has been on various judging panels, including the Loeries, for 12 years – once as chairman.

He has spoken at numerous conferences and lectured at Wits, Vega, AAA, UJ and MediaTech, and sat on steering committees for the Wits and UJ New Media departments. Having scraped into MENSA, Templar uses his membership just to access the free monthly geek talks.

Tara Turkington founded Flow Communications in 2005. Flow specialises in social media, web and app development, content writing and editing, graphic design, digital marketing, public relations and media training. Today, Flow has more than 150 clients, including some well-known South African and international brands and organisations, and has completed work in more than 30 countries.

In the early part of her career, Tara was a journalist and university lecturer. Tara’s dream is to continue creating meaningful jobs, and to further develop Flow’s brand globally.

Jeff Siepman is a multi-award winning designer with over two decades’ experience in both traditional and digital advertising. He has worked with a multitude of brands across various industries, both locally and internationally, including Absa, Barclays, Jaguar, Land Rover, Danone, Russell Hobbs, Cadbury and Telkom, to name a few.

Our head judge, Gillian Findlay, has over 30 years’ experience in the financial and investment field, and also has extensive experience in a variety of financial media, having worked for both the Financial Mail and Finweek.

She was a panellist on the weekly TV programme Diagonal Street, winning the coveted Panellist of the Year Award twice. She contributed to the TV economics programmes Egoli and Gauteng, aimed at Zulu- and Sotho-speaking viewers.

She is a member of the Investment Analysts’ Society of South Africa, the Economic Society of South Africa and the Institute of Directors, and is Accredited in Public Relations by PRISA, the South African industry body. Gillian is a former chairman of the Public Relations Consultancy Chapter (PRCC), has sat on the Board of PRISA and has represented the PRCC on the Council for Communication Management.

Astrid Ascar has over 30 years’ experience in marketing, communications and media. She started her career as a journalist, presenter and radio & TV executive producer, and over the years has worked for media brands including DStv, Carte Blanche, Summit TV (now Business Day TV), The Home Channel, CNBC Africa, SABC TV, SAfm, Highveld and Hot919 fm.

In 2004 she made the transition from TV and radio to digital, working alongside MTN, Vodacom and Cell C, handset manufacturers and content providers to trial South Africa’s first ever mobile TV offering, DStv Mobile. It marked her entry into the mobile and digital landscape and laid the foundations for the rest of her career.

By 2009 Astrid was working as an independent business strategy consultant helping clients and agencies across a range of disciplines – traditional and digital marketing and communications strategies, content creation and production, key messaging and copy, site audits and optimisation including UI and UX consulting, integrated digital marketing strategies across owned, earned and paid tactics, and data analytics and insights. She also continued to MC, give talks, and facilitate workshops and conferences, and offered training in media interview skills, presentation skills, crisis comms, and a host of digital marketig and strategy topics.

Astrid is a firm believer in a brand or business never doing anything that doesn’t make strategic sense, and brings a disciplined “no jargon business principle” approach to recommendations she offers. She still likes to be ‘hands on’ involved and is equally at ease writing SEM copy and selecting keywords, as she is presenting a strategy to Boards and Excos.

In February 2018 Wunderman South Africa, now Wunderman Thompson 'convinced her to join their team as Chief Strategy Officer, a role that offers her the strategic, creative thinking and operational inputs she thrives on.

Prakash Patel is an established and award winning accomplished Senior Marketing and Digital Executive – one whose expertise spans both the digital, data, traditional marketing, branding and strategy realms – with over 25 years’ experience both in the UK and South Africa. Previously MD and Chief Digital Strategist for Fogg Cape Town, CEO of Prezence Digital SA and Head of Digital for FCB.

A strategist and innovator, a creative in disguise and a firm believer that all things are possible using technology as the enabler, creative as the idea-tor and data as the incubator of insights. Working in a world that is changing faster than ever before. Trying to keep up with tomorrow today and helping brands come to life in the Digital Era.

He is an active thought leadership writer, speaker and judge for both local and international awards (incl. Advisory Board Member for SXSW Innovations awards, The Webby’s, Bookmarks, Africa.com and New Generations Awards).