We very rarely spend any time gazing at the ad industry in other countries. America is big and bad enough to keep us quite occupied, but we couldn't help taking note of The Advertising Agencies Association of India's (AAAI) annual festival, Goafest, which kicks off on April 3rd.

Goa. When we hear the name, we immediately think of acid trips, our DJ dreams and the late 90s. Got a feeling that this festival isn't going to quite be like that. Yet, the festival does start with an "Industry Conclave," which is to be a hot headed debate between eminent professionals including: Donald Gunn, the author of the famous Gunn Report; One Club's Kevin Swanepoel (the must be on some awards ceremony exchange program shit); John Harlow, the founder of Naked; Craig Davis, worldwide creative chief of JWT; Scott Goodson, founder-CEO of Strawberryfrog; Saatchi & Saatchi NY's chief creative officer Tony Granger; and CP+B's Alex Bogusky.

"The objective is to present young professionals the opportunity to interact not just with Indian gurus but also meet international personalities extremely well known in their respective fields," said Goafest 2008 chairman Jagdip Bakshi.

Well, you can check that one off of the list. The only person missing from the roster is Droga. Hmm... and are they not covering interactive? What a strange omission.

AAAI president Madhukar Kamath said that:

"The coming together of AAAI and Ad Club is a landmark event made possible by the desire of the entire industry to have one award and one glorious festival."