The advertising and marketing industry isn’t shy when it comes to organising awards ceremonies but, for Irish creatives, the most prized gong on the mantelpiece is still a Kinsale Shark.

The annual awards festival, which starts today in the Co Cork town and runs until Sunday, attracts international speakers and judges who are led again this year by the honorary chairman, John Hegarty, whose verdict on the festival is: "Cannes may have the sunshine, D&AD the yellow pencil, but only the Sharks has the craic."

A new speaker announced to the already released lively line-up is Donald Gunn of The Gunn Report, the global index of creative excellence in advertising, who will give a session tomorrow on the power of print.

For such a major event on the Irish advertising calendar, the Kinsale Shark Awards keeps a low media profile, but this year it has included several new initiatives, a sign perhaps of new energy and expansion plans behind the organisation.

Included are educational workshops (highlights include a session with Osama Saeed, head of media at Al Jazeera), and a Young Sharks Award for newcomers to the industry.

Sound advice

Judging sessions took place over three days in Dublin in August, with judges flying in from South Africa, the USA and Europe.

Afterwards Gerry Human, chief creative officer at Ogilvy and Mather London, had some sound advice for next year's entrants – or for those entering any awards: "Try to get the point across. There were way too many case videos explaining an idea rather than simply showing it. You have to have an original idea. Judges look at the work and if they've seen something before and it's a bit familiar – it's out! It doesn't get through.

“Once you have that great original idea, then it’s all about how you make it.

“All the work that actually wins should be original and beautifully made.”