GLOBAL: Top executives from Microsoft and Nokia are among the final round of judges Warc is announcing for the 2017 Warc Innovation Awards. Entry is free and the deadline is Thursday, 26 January.

Kieran Connell, Executive Producer, Microsoft HoloLens London, is responsible for delivering innovative Microsoft HoloLens experiences for large commercial clients that demonstrate how mixed reality (MR) can transform the future of their business. (Some of the possibilities of MR were demonstrated by AOL's Partner Studio at OMD Innovation Week last October.)

Joining him from the client-side is Akin Akintola, Head of Global Innovation Networks, Nokia. From the agency-side the final two judges include Warc Media Awards winner Matt Prentis, Group Innovation Director, PHD Global Business: his paper on Knorr's #LoveAtFirstTaste campaign picked up a Gold in the Effective Channel Integration category.

Also joining the panel is Michael Lieberman, Chief Strategy Officer, Kinetic North America. 

The 21-strong panel will be chaired by Dana Anderson, SVP & CMO at Mondelez International, who recently gave Warc an exclusive interview offering her views on innovation. The judging panel also includes senior executives from IBM, State Farm and VISA, as well as several agency-side innovation experts. Full details of all judges can be seen on the Awards site.

The Awards, which have a $10,000 prize fund for the winning papers, are free to enter and open to entries from any country and any communications discipline. The deadline is Thursday, 26 January and entry details are available here.

Data sourced from Warc