10 Mentees from Australia to embark on their LIA Creative LIAisons virtual coaching journey

10 mentees from Australia will be part of a cohort of 200 mentees participating in London International Awards – Creative LIAisons Virtual Coaching program. Their journey began in May and will continue through November.

This program offers young industry professionals an extremely rare opportunity to have real time, one-to-one e-coaching with three different well-known, well-awarded and well-established industry leaders from around the world.

Creative LIAisons Virtual Mentees from Australia include:

Daniel Borghesi, Senior Copywriter, M&C Saatchi, Melbourne
Amanda Chen, Art Director, VML, Melbourne
Annika Duncan, Junior Copywriter, Momentum Energy, Melbourne
Isabel Evans, Copywriter, VML, Melbourne
Ewan Harvey, Copywriter, The Monkeys, Part of Accenture Song, Sydney
Tayla Orr, Art Director, Freelance, Melbourne
Jake Rowland, Art Director, M&C Saatchi, Sydney
Charlotte Smith, Art Director, HERO, Melbourne
Sophie Walter, Social Creative, Orchard, Sydney
Alana Wood, Art Director, TBWAMelbourne, Melbourne

Coaches will share their expertise and experiences of their many years in the industry. These private and bespoke e-mentoring sessions are customized to the mentee, covering all disciplines with emphasis on skill development, elevating ideas and boosting creative confidence to fast-track careers.

It is no secret that behind every successful person, there is a mentor who has helped them along the way. Some of the most famous people had mentors. Mother Teresa had Father Michael van der Peet; Jackson Pollock had painter and muralist, Thomas Hart Benton; J.J. Abrams credits Steven Spielberg as his mentor; and this list goes on and on.

Creativity is fluid, so there are no set rules or a prescribed formula for the sessions. Each session is customized between mentor and mentee. They are at full liberty to design how they want to conduct each session. The end game? To hone the skills of young creatives, so they can reach their full potential and rise to greater heights.

Says Laurissa Levy, Creative LIAisons director/events director: “If you go on the internet and search how to find a mentor, you’ll find that the most frequent advice tells you to set your goals, explore who is in your network, reach out, meet up and nurture that relationship. But, we all know how hard it can be to achieve all of that if you are a young creative. It’s a big ask to get a busy, respected senior creative to be a mentor. That’s why, Creative LIAisons has established its virtual coaching program. We match mentees with mentors from all around the globe. Our aim is to extend this opportunity to as many as possible, even in less represented markets. This virtual coaching program began in 2021 and has become an integral part of the Creative LIAisons program, an educational initiative to give back to the industry that supports us.”

How are mentees matched with their respective mentors?

The focus is on the mentees – to give them greater length, breadth, height and depth with these sessions. So careful consideration is given to the mentees’ requests.

While mentees were able to submit their wish list from the list of 200 mentors, there were a few additional criteria we abide by to find mentees the right fit. The rule of thumb is: no mentee will be mentored/coached by someone in their own company, either locally or globally.

Selection process:

To be eligible for the program, mentees have to be currently working in the industry or a related business and be between the ages of 21 and 30 years old.

LIA does not directly select mentees. LIA leaves it up to companies and agency networks that support LIA to put forward candidates. Additionally, LIA collaborates with different ad clubs, associations, and trade press by allocating spaces to winners of creative competitions organized by them.

To cast the net even wider, the Creative LIAisons Virtual Coaching Program does accept a certain quota of self-nominations.

Laurissa Levy shares some advice for the mentees: “As the e-coaching sessions are underway, I urge all mentees to make full use of this rare privilege to be part of this program. Your mentors will most definitely challenge you, push you out of your comfort zone, be your confidant, cheer you on to do greater work, help you develop skills or even teach you new ones. But more importantly, they will coach you to aim higher and achieve those aims. It’s the start of your journey with not one, but three top creative minds. Enjoy the ride.”

View the full list of Virtual and Onsite Mentees here.