Cannes Lions 2019- Day #1

On Monday morning, I woke up at 7:00 AM to get ready for the festival. I ate a croissant at the cafe by the train station and then took the train to the festival with a group of friends. Whenwe first arrived, I went straight to pick up my badge and welcome bag since I was out of town on Sunday when everyone else did that. For the first hour or so, we just walked around to try and figure out where everything is located. I spent a while in the first floor of the Palais I, reading about different entries in my project category, Outdoor Lions, and I had the opportunity to make an account online so that I can view the entries in their entirety later on. After that, I Webb to the Terrace Stage to wait on the 11:15 AM event that I wanted to attend. I got there early enough to get a front row seat. This session was with Wyclef Jean, Moira Gilchrist, and Bonin Bough, titled “Facts, Fads, and a Fugee- Creating a Smoke Free Future.” They discussed the tobacco industry’s desire to eradicate cigarettes and replace them with smokeless alternatives and how music and artists can influence the culture or younger generations through their work and activism. After that session was over, I made it to the Debussy Theater in time to hear the second half of “Inspiration is Undefeated” with Kwame Alexander, Randy Preston, and David Sable. I was blown award by Kwame’s captivating presence on stage and the power of his voice. He and Randy performed a musical reading of an excerpt from Kwame’s book “Undefeated” that had me in tears by the end. Post-crying, I attended “The Future is Female- Women & The Direct to Consumer Economy” with Kerry Washington, Julia Boorstein, Deirdre Findlay, and Kelly Campbell. I loved hearing about Kerry’s work with Neutrogena, Deirdre’s experience at StitchFix, and all of the exciting things Kelly is working on at Hulu. For lunch, I walked with a group of students to Facebook Beach. After we ate, we tried some of Facebook Blueprint’s ever-changing ice cream then had our auras read at the station behind the stage. Next, a couple of us went to Pinterest Beach to experience the interactive sensory cocktail experience where we met some industry professionals from Canada. On our way back to the Palais, we coincidentally stumbled upon the Badass Women panel at Cannes Lions Beach and decided to pop in. To our surprise, Katie Couric made an appearance alongside Alysia Borsa, Kristen Cavallo, Jodi Harris, Shelley Zalis, and Maithreyi Seetharaman. After the panel, Professor King introduced all of us and we got to chat with Katie, then get a picture. We hung around Cannes Beach for a little while, networking with professionals from Meredith, Am Bev, #SeeHer, Georgia Pacific, and more. Around 6:30 PM, I headed over to the Palais again to get in line for the Awards Ceremony. My category, Outdoor Lions, has their ceremony tonight so I attended and took notes to help me when it comes time to do my project. The ceremony really got me excited to learn more about this category and the winners/entries because there were so many amazing outdoor ad campaigns shown on the projector tonight. 

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