The CCAs gets creative with its duration

Last Friday’s Creative Circle Awards was a grand affair, with nearly 1,000 hosted in a lush, dimly lighted extravaganza. But why was there less than half the room full by the end of the night?

The reason is, and I swear I waited as long as I could, that by 1130, the awards were still being given out, winners were still streaming up to the stage, and the Flying Dutchman and Carrie Chong (emcees) were still trying their best to be enthusiastic about each award they announced.
Clarice and I typically stay till the end of every award ceremony we attend so we can photograph the big winners at the end but we gave up this time. It had been a long week, we were exhausted and there was no way I could suck in my tummy in my silk cheongsam any longer.

The gracious CCAs chairman Robert Gaxiola and I.

I did a very rough count of the number of awards given out and this year had 179 compared to last year’s 152 (disclaimer: these are very rough figures) – perhaps that was why it the show dragged on for much longer than usual.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not dissing the CCAs. It is the biggest award show in Singapore, celebrates and honours top creative talents in the advertising and communication industry here, and has been around for 26 years. It’s an institution in itself.

To give you an idea of how big it really is: CCAs 2006 attracted 1,655 entries compared to Hall of Fame 2006’s 199. This year’s CCAs was even expanded to have one Best of Show for each of the four categories instead of one overall winner.

Hope the 4As will speed up the process next year.

But otherwise, it was a glittering event, with a huge turnout, and excellent creative work showcased, so kudos to Bee Hong and team.