Sam in France

 This is the festivals 72nd Cannes Lions. On day 5,  Friday, June 20, the Palais opened for the grand finale Awards Show. That evening everyone celebrated both the overall success of the week’s achievements and the unveiling of the final Film and Grand Prix for winners. Bronze and Silver Winners Presentation was earlier in the ceremony, the event highlighted the Silver and Bronze Lion recipients across lots of categories. From multiple film entries, jurors awarded 15 Silvers and 27 Bronzes, recognizing powerful work. This included UK’s Channel 4 Paralympics film and L’Oréal’s "Final Copy of Ilon Specht". Glass and SDG categories also highlighted the remaining silver and bronze contestants, showcasing impactful campaigns with social purpose. Creative country award and the show reel presented United Kingdom, United States, France, Brazil, and New Zealand where they each captured Grand Prix honors. A brief “Creative Country” recognition celebrated the global depth and cultural d...

 Today at the festival we started off seeing bill nye the science guy at a panel. He spoke on this panel that discussed laughing at doom. In this 30 minute chat, he discussed how humor can be a powerful way for communicating difficult topics, specifically illness, environmental despair, and other worrying issues. The session undermined the importance of scientific information and critical thinking. By showcasing how comedy can soften heavy content while also keeping audiences engaged and informed in the meantime. His overall outcome shows how he can unarm resistance with humor.  Serena Williams joined Linda Yaccarino, the X CEO of twitter. This was a impactful chat at Stagwell’s sport beach on the main stage. The conversation centered on athlete entrepreneurship reflecting Serena’s evolving role beyond tennis. She is now a busy business leader as well. This chat also highlighted her recent activity with Venus which is launching a new podcast on X. She spoke on the topic of how...

 Today on day 3 we started off by seeing a world winner of ice skating and also an nba champion talk about the future of brands. This was at the freewheel beach who also brought out Jung choo, the producer of wicked. Our second talk was at the brand innovators rooftop of the Plage. Kai cenat spoke on how he has teamed up with State Farm to bring streamers university to life. This also allowed Kai to bring in other brand deals and ads along with State Farm at the same time. After talk pookie and Bethany frankel came up to speak. They explored how creators and brands can co-design campaigns and not just treat creators as paid speakers. Pookie shared insights on monetizing personal brands with authenticity, while Bethany discussed extending influencer reach beyond sponsorships into sustainable enterprise. Jimmy Fallon came on stage later in the day to talk about his new NBC reality series called On Brand. The show features contestants pitching real campaigns for major brands. Some bra...

 Day 2 of Cannes lions festival was learning, networking, and relaxation all collided in the best way possible. My morning started off with an energizing paddle boarding session at Yahoo on the Coast. There’s something incredibly grounding about being out there especially when you know you have a full day of experiences ahead. After that, I headed over to Wall Street Journal Beach, where I implemented myself in a session on event management strategies. It was so intriguing to hear from industry leaders about the logistics behind large-scale events and how they’re leveraging data to improve audience engagement. The focus on personalized experiences and coordination gave me a whole new appreciation for what happens behind the scenes. We also were given a tour by an event management manager which was very extravagant. Middle of the day, I made the way to Amazon Beach, which was so much energy. We had sat in on a Intersting talk about innovation in social media. The speakers explored h...

  Day one of Cannes festival was a blast. I was able to visit places such as adobe, adweek, canva, Microsoft, red note, and 3CV Plage. Out of all of them I believe Microsoft was the best one to gain more knowledge. Alix Earle spoke on a panel about the future and innovation of AI and social media. While adobe provided demos and creative side with stickers that allow you to customize to yourself. Canva also debuted new collaborations between scenery and imagery with also added emotion in the media world. Adweek started to unpack how brands can harness ai and emphasize more of a how to do so instead of why. Throughout the day I seem to have noticed most of the conversations returning to creator economy and the uprising platforms they are using. This new creative ecosystem is led by tools such as ai and other future intelligence platforms. Alix also touches on how authenticity is a huge part in moving forward in any industry. She also shares how this helped her in the journey she is i...