Ad Black Sea International Festival of Creativity in support of gender equality

At this year’s Ad Black Sea International Festival of Creativity, messages on gender equality and women’s empowerment were once again echoed from the stage. Held from 11 to 13 September in Batumi, the three-day event, organized in partnership with UN Women, featured a range of initiatives highlighting women’s issues for professionals from the advertising and creative industries.

On the opening day of the festival, Rebecca Rowntree, Creative Director, speaker and founder of the Get Sh*t Done platform, delivered an inspiring speech to the audience. Ms. Rowntree has led creative departments for prominent global brands and developed narratives focused on social issues that have become integral to cultural discourse in various communities. She is also a key creator of the acclaimed #WombStories campaign, which sparked open discussions on women’s health, including traditionally taboo topics. During the festival, Ms. Rowntree shared materials developed for #WombStories as well as her personal experiences with the audience.

It is noteworthy that Ms. Rowntree is currently engaged in advancing work on artificial intelligence, with a particular focus on reducing gender inequality in this field. Reflecting this commitment, she selected the same topic for a practical session with representatives of the creative industries, held on the third day of the festival. During the discussion, she highlighted how women can leverage artificial intelligence to amplify their voices and make their contributions to the industry more visible and impactful.

Workshop participant Ana Orbeladze, Brand Manager for TBC’s Loyalty Programme, reflected after the discussion: “For years now, I have been using artificial intelligence on an almost daily basis, though mostly at a surface level—primarily for generating ideas. I wanted to gain deeper insights and understand how I could apply AI more productively, both in my professional tasks and in everyday life. In this regard, the session with Rebecca Rowntree proved to be particularly valuable: I learned about additional advantages of artificial intelligence, such as how to create my own personalized GPT and use it to complete simple tasks more efficiently.”

Advertising and creative industry outputs serve as powerful tools for shaping public opinion, destroying gender stereotypes and fostering positive change. For this reason, UN Women works in close collaboration with professionals from the sector. The partnership with Ad Black Sea—the region’s largest advertising and creative industry event—is also part of this initiative, serving to promote positive values within Georgia’s creative industry and to support its progressive development.

“The collaboration between the festival and UN Women, now in its fourth year, stands as one of the most meaningful and results-oriented examples of partnership for us,” noted Tamar Tsintsadze, Executive Director of the Ad Black Sea Festival. “Together, we strive to make the programme more diverse and gender-balanced with each edition, while also using the main stage to address issues that have not yet received sufficient time and space.”

It is noteworthy that this year, the festival introduced a new platform, “Ad Black Sea for Gender Equality”, which includes a special award for “Creative Initiatives Promoting Gender Equality”. The award aims to encourage industry professionals whose work challenges gender stereotypes. Nominees for the award are selected from recipients across the festival’s various categories, with the final winner determined by a jury.

“This year’s award went to the agency Supermarket for its video ‘Women Do Not Need Empowerment’,” noted Sopo Kechkhoshvili, Head of Awards at Ad Black Sea. “The jury recognized it for its unconventional idea. The video message was particularly compelling, offering the audience a fresh perspective on the issue. The award will remain an integral part of the competition in the future. In addition, under the ‘Ad Black Sea for Gender Equality’ platform, educational initiatives will continue to provide support to industry professionals in recognizing and addressing gender stereotypes in their daily work.”

The partnership between UN Women and Ad Black Sea was implemented within the framework of the UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia regional programme “Women’s Increased Leadership for Resilient and Peaceful Societies”. The programme is financially supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.