The DStv Seminar of Creativity takes place on Thursday, 6 October from 10:00 to 15:00 at The City Hall in Cape Town.

Tickets are limited and can be purchased here. The ticket price includes a light lunch.

The DStv Seminar of Creativity international speakers are as follows:

Natalie Lam, chief creative officer at Publicis Groupe Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa
According to the awards, Lam has roots in design, a strong digital background and is a hopeless romantic for big ideas. Lam says that she advocates for strategic creative work that brings optimism, joy and beauty to the world in truly media-agnostic ways to help build the world's biggest brands.

Lam's seminar topic is 'What rivers, widows, near-misses, repeat visits and more taught me a thing or two about creativity'.

Lam adds that the topic will see her sharing some important learnings that helped her through her career path.

Debbie Vandeven, global CCO at VMLY&R in Kansas City 
Vandeven is a global CCO at VMLY&R, a brand experience agency delivering contemporary, integrated work to clients worldwide.

Throughout her career, Vandeven has continually fostered a collaborative creative environment that delivers smart and innovative solutions in partnership with clients across the globe.

According to the awards, Vandeven's creative philosophy is to focus on the idea, rather than a specific channel or execution. As is fitting from her Kansas City base, come and here Vandeven will share insights themed around her topic 'Follow the Yellow Brick Road'.

Esra Gülmen, artist and designer in Berlin
After graduating from Marmara University Faculty of Fine Arts in the Department of Interior Design, Gülmen worked as an assistant professor teaching basic design at the same faculty. After three years of working as an academic, she moved to Germany and started her new career as an art director and designer at Ogilvy Frankfurt.

According to Gülmen, she continued her career at Ogilvy Amsterdam as an art director and four years as a head of design at Heimat Berlin. She says that she will share how she built her artistic side while working in advertising and how she approaches and develops ideas with her topic 'But is this Esra enough'.

Karin Onsager-Birch, vice president creative at Lyft San Francisco
Onsager-Birch joined Lyft as vice president of creative in February 2021 to steer the iconic rideshare and micro-mobility brand. Onsager-Birch says that she leads an entrepreneurial in-house creative team and agency partners to make bold work that shines across every brand touchpoint.

Onsager-Birch is a frequent speaker and is passionate about connecting across cultures and creating space for creatives to thrive, using creativity as a catalyst for transformation and growth and being a part of the larger sustainability movement to design cities around people, not cars.

Onsager-Birch will be speaking on the topic 'The Art of Disruption Starts From Within' — which will focus on how an existential un-crisis led one CCO to jump ship and find a bigger creative platform.

Mariana O'Kelly, global ECD at Ogilvy Chicago
According to the awards, O'Kelly is a human-first creative leader who is driven by the love of people and her belief in the immense creative power they hold inside them. She has over 27 years of experience working for top global brands and agency networks.

Currently O'Kelly holds the position of global executive creative director at Ogilvy Chicago, where she oversees one of their largest pieces of business. O'Kelly's seminar topic 'Lost in Translation' explores how individuals are finding themselves in a post-Babel period of advertising and communication.

O'Kelly adds that there's a specific language for everything and it's hindering individuals to build brands and campaigns quickly and efficiently with small nimble teams.

Monique Nelson, chair and chief executive officer of UWG, New York
Nelson says that UWG is the country's longest-standing multi-cultural marketing agency, a post she has held since 2021. Her leadership extends beyond her C-suite at UWG.

Nelson sits on the following boards:
  • Audacy Board of Directors 
  • Advertising Week Global Board
  • AdWeek Diversity and Inclusion Council
  • The Brandeis Board of Trustees
  • The Eagle Academy Board, and
  • the New York Advisory Board for The Posse Foundation, of which she is an alumna and is a participant in the ANA's Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing.

Nelson received the United Way of New York City's Women's Leadership Council's Power of Women to Make a Difference Award in 2016. Her other distinguished honours include:
  • The Network Journal's 25 Influential Black Women Under Forty,
  • Ad Age's 40 Under 40, and
  • the 2015 Advertising Working Mothers of the Year.

Nelson's topic is 'Global Growth through Black Creativity'.

Allan Sperling, executive head of content, Showmax
According to the awards, Sperling is a content and long-form production extraordinaire. Sperling is responsible for commissioning, acquiring and curating a diverse slate of international and local content for SVOD across the African continent and diaspora.

The Showmax slate, in the form of movies, series and telenovelas includes:
  • scripted
  • unscripted
  • reality
  • documentaries and
  • kids content.

With over 20 years of experience in the film and television industry, Sperling has a track record of producing award-winning work spanning from commercials, trailers, music videos, advertiser-funded programming and long form.

The awards conclude that Sperling has worked in various territories and built remarkable networks within the European Union, United Kingdom and Africa. Sperling rounds up the day with an exploration of 'Content Creation and Brand Integration in the SVOD space'.

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