Kinsale's Crystal Maze; Sharks Deadline; Golden Drum's Big Bang; AdPrint judges announced; E4's Grand Master Flash; Elastic Launch; Dodd at the IPA

Fans of the Crystal Maze and Rocky Horror rejoice! Richard O'Brien has been announced as the guest speaker at this year's Kinsale Sharks, to be held on 11-13 September. The judges have also been announced, and are set to include Saatchi & Saatchi's RCD for Europe, Middle East & Africa John Pallant, Fallon London's ECD Richard Flintham and Irish art director Keith Doyle of Publicis QMP.

And if you still want to enter the Kinsale Shark Awards, get your skates on. The deadline for submissions is Thursday August 14.

Golden Drum are hoping that this year's event will go off with a Big Bang. They've announced that renowned physicist John Ellis will be speaking at this year's festival, to be held from October 5 - 10 at Portoroz. This Autumn Ellis and particle physics research centre CERN will be attempting the largest ever simulation of the Big Bang, and Ellis will be filling Golden Drum's traditional 'Voice From the other Side' slot.

AdPrint Festival has announced its third judging team made up from the Spanish couple Julián Zuazo and Antonio Botella responsible for the creative output of Tapsa, Madrid. The 10th Ad Print festival will take place on 12th-15th of February 2009, in Brasov, Romania. The call for entries period will start on the 1st of September 2008 and will end on the 19th of December 2008.

E4 has partnered up with the Golden Joystick Awards, the UK's most prestigious gaming awards. The 'E4.com Grand Master Flash Award' is a new award category that will challenge web-based flash game developers. They are invited to submit their unbranded games to www.e4.com/joystick where they will be shortlisted by a panel of expert judges.

LA editorial company Rock Paper Scissors and visual effects company a52, have launched a brand new design-driven company called Elastic. Nikelab spot Spider by a52's Andy Hall represents the first piece of work to emerge from Elastic.

The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising has appointed Simon Dodd, CEO of RLA Group, has been appointed as Vice-Chairman of the Regions. Dodd will assist Mike Leeson, Managing Director of Golley Slater, in his Chairmanship of the Group, which promotes the value of work undertaken by regional agencies