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 30 rising young creatives
from across 15 cities:
BANGKOK
Nicha Witayapaisitsan, Copywriter, SOUR
Bangkok
Thirawat Prasertsang, Art Director, SOUR
Bangkok
COLOMBO
Aneeshia Panditharatne Attanayake, Account Group
Head, MullenLowe Sri Lanka
Rashmikha Rajapakse Pathirannehelage, Creative Group Head, MullenLowe Sri Lanka
DHAKA
MD Shajidul Karim Dipu, Copy Supervisor,
Grey Advertising Ltd.
Syeda Jannat Ahmed, Planning Supervisor, Grey Advertising Ltd.
GUANGZHOU
Bonnie Zhang, Senior Media Manager,
GIMC
Yue Su, Associate Creative Director, GIMC
GURUGRAM
Iman Sengupta, Senior Art Director, Havas Creative
Kokila Srivastava, Creative Group Head, Havas Creative
HO CHI MINH
Hai Anh Pham, Senior Copywriter,
PURPOSE.ANT
Tien Bui Duc, Art Director, PURPOSE.ANT
HONG KONG
Lok Man Wong, Art Director, VML Hong
Kong
Wah Yin Chan, Copywriter, VML Hong Kong
JAKARTA
Akhmad Haris Kurniawan, Strategic Planner,
United Creative
Muhammad Fajar Shiddiqi, Creative & Innovation Manager, KFC & Taco Bell Indonesia
KUALA LUMPUR
Mohamad Arash Daniel Mohamad Rashid, Senior Copywriter, VML Malaysia
Nurul Syafiqah Azhar, Art Director, VML
Malaysia
MANILA
Arvin Chingcuangco, Senior Art Director,
Propel Manila
Maria Sofia Jayme, Copywriter, Propel Manila
RIYADH
Faris Alshahrani, Account Manager, The Bold Group
Ziad Hosny, Art Director, The Bold Group
SEOUL
Hyerin Dho, Art Director, Cheil Korea
Jaehyun Hwang, Art Director, Cheil Korea
SINGAPORE
Jonathan Chen, Art Director, BBH
Singapore
Syahmina Abyana, Copywriter, BBH Singapore
TAIPEI
Aurora Chou, Copywriter, Ogilvy Taiwan
Hsiaohsi Liu, Assistant Art Director,
Ogilvy Taiwan
TOKYO
Hiroaki Iwai, Communication Creator,
Dentsu Inc.
Taiki Tsuno, Creative Planner, Dentsu
Inc.
“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.”
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 – will be joined by Creative Partnerships leads
of Google Southeast Asia, Wei
Watthanasittha; Ken
Attard; Rushit Jhaveri, and Iain Nealie, Executive Creative Director, Le Truc.
The Young Lotus participants will compete,
working on this year’s creative brief to find the most skilful emerging
creative talent in the region. Judging their work will be Geia Lopez; Wei Watthanasittha; Park Wannasiri; Chief Creative Officer, VML
Thailand; Toy Watcharapruk, Managing Director, AnyMind Group; and Sandipan
Bhattacharyya, Chief Creative Officer, India, Monks/S4
Capital.
Finally, On Saturday, 21 March, Wei Watthanasittha will lead the Young Lotus Finalists
Presentation 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.
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.
