The Young Lotus Workshop is one of the highlights of ADFEST, a 3-day workshop that inspires and informs ambitious up-and-coming creatives from across the region. ADFEST is delighted to announce that Google will host the Young Lotus Workshop 2026, with the theme, UNBOUND: The Next Era of Creative Culture. This year’s Young Lotus Workshop will welcome rising young creatives from 15 cities across the region.

“In this workshop, we are embracing this new landscape to shatter the constraints of traditional advertising,” Google stated. “We aren’t just making ads; we are creating culture. By fusing your Human creativity with Google and YouTube ecosystem, we will explore how to paint on a boundless Creative Canvas, co-create with a tireless Gen AI Companion, and plug directly into the heartbeat of Creator Culture.”

WORKSHOP SPEAKERS

The Young Lotus workshop will be led by Chairperson, Geia Lopez, Head of Creative and Creator Partnerships, Google Southeast Asia, who is also one of the workshop’s authoritative panel of speakers.

Geia Lopez is a transformative leader with a career defined by navigating uncharted territory. She has built industry powerhouses from the ground up, notably as the founding architect of Mediacom’s digital arm and as a top-billing digital strategist at McCann Worldgroup, where she was recognised as one of the industry's Top 10 most awarded strategists in the Philippines. As an IPA Excellence Diploma alumni, Lopez pioneered technology that shifted the focus toward brand distinctiveness, including immersive augmented reality prototypes for global brands.

Other speakers are:

Wei Watthanasittha, Creative Partnership Lead, Google Southeast Asia

A strategist at his core, Wei is fuelled by witty ideas and the integration of evolving tech. As Regional Creative Partnership Lead for Google South East Asia , he doesn’t just iterate on marketing strategies; he orchestrates regional creative acceleration through dynamic brand, creative, and tech partnerships, with a unique blend of digital-first planning and deep fluency in the Southeast Asian cultural ecosystem.

Ken Attard, Creative Partnership Lead, Google Southeast Asia

Ken is a creative strategist working at the high-stakes intersection of advertising and technology. With over 15 years of industry experience, he spent his early career navigating the agency world as a Business Director at Saatchi & Saatchi before joining Google, where he has led creative innovation for the past eight years. Today, Ken partners with Google’s largest SEA clients and C-suite executives to transform corporate marketing into authentic, high-impact storytelling with a mission to empower brands to harness AI-powered tools and creator authenticity to define the next era of advertising.

Rushit Jhaveri, Creative Partnership Lead, Google Southeast Asia

As the Creator Partnerships Lead at YouTube/Google, Rushit Jhaveri serves as the strategic bridge between world-class storytellers and global brand partners, specialising in turning "binge-worthy" content into "business-worthy" enterprises. Throughout his career spanning television, film, radio, and digital, Rushit has empowered top-tier creators to scale their craft through a mix of AI-powered marketing, branded content, licensing, and creator commerce. His mission is to enable creators to focus on their art while building sustainable, multi-faceted revenue streams through sponsorships, merchandising, and emerging technologies.

Iain Nealie, Executive Creative Director, Le Truc

Iain Nealie is a Sydney-based Executive Creative Director with extensive experience across the Asia-Pacific region. After beginning his career at Saatchi & Saatchi and TBWA New Zealand, he spent more than a decade at Google APAC, leading regional innovation and developing technology-enabled brand platforms. He recently launched Le Truc ANZ as Executive Creative Director, a Publicis Groupe creative collective focused on ambitious, category-defining work.

JUDGES

The Young Lotus competition will uncover the most skilful emerging creative talent in the region. Joining Geia Lopez and Wei Watthanasittha, as judges for the creative brief are:

Park Wannasiri, Chief Creative Officer, VML Thailand

He is known for unconventional ideas that solve real business problems and positively shape culture.

Toy Watcharapruk, Managing Director, AnyMind Group

Toy runs AnyMind Group's Creator Growth business, supporting creators, connecting them with brands, and leading the charge on AI transformation across the organisation.

Sandipan Bhattacharyya, Chief Creative Officer, India, Monks/S4 Capital

A creative leader with over 24 years of experience at global networks, including Saatchi & Saatchi, BBDO and GREY.

PRESENTATION

On Saturday, 21 March 11.15-11.50, Geia will lead the panel discussion, YouTube is the Epicenter of Culture, exploring YouTube as the definitive epicentre for modern brands.

Geia Lopez, Head of Creative and Creator Partnerships from Google Southeast Asia will be joined by distinguished panelists including:

·       Supphasit Chokmongkolsatian, Chief Strategy Officer, Ogilvy Thailand

·       Sandipan Bhattacharyya, Chief Creative Officer, India, Monks/S4 Capital

·       Toy Watcharapruk, Managing Director, AnyMind Group

Supphasit Chokmongkolsatian, Chief Strategy Officer, Ogilvy Thailand

As Chief Strategy Officer at Ogilvy Thailand, Supphasit is not just keeping pace with the industry, he is spotting what's next before it's even a trend. His visionary leadership has propelled Ogilvy to the top, securing the most awards for a Thai agency at the APAC Effie Awards for two consecutive years. Supphasit is a master of blending brand communications, media savvy, and data expertise.

The panellists will discuss how YouTube fosters cultural ripples, creative innovation, and trust-based commerce and present breakthrough work on YouTube.

And at 11.50-13.00, Wei Watthanasittha will give a workshop overview, lead into the brief and invite finalist teams to present in in front of the ADFEST 2026 delegates, who will get to cast their votes for their favourite team to determine the Young Lotus Popular Vote winner to be announced at the award presentation.

ADFEST 2026, Human+, will be held Thursday 19 – Saturday 21 March 2026 at the Royal Cliff Hotels Group in Pattaya, Thailand. ADFEST is open for delegate registrations. Find out more about the ADFEST delegate registrations here. For the full program, click here.