Cannes this year is again, dare I say it... bigger and better. There's more attendees, more award entries, a new stream on Innovation - plus the New Glass Lions to celebrate gender equality and diversity.
This year I am experiencing a different perspective of the festival as I am a coach for the new Masters of Creativity.
Training and development is an important pillar of the festival and I think sometimes it gets overlooked and lost in all the glitz and glamour of the awards, celebrities and fancy parties .
So much happens in this area with nine educational programs, five under the incredibly well respected Young Lions Academy and four leadership training courses. The Academy Zone is buzzing with excitement with over 700 people from all over the world here to grow, learn and have fun.
This year the chairman of the new Masters Of Creativity programme is Keith Reinhard (chairman emeritus of DDB Worldwide) a real legend. Plus other creative legends including David Droga, Mark Tutssel, David Shing etc.
The participants get a real live brief from Mondelez at the start off the week on reinvigorating the Bubblicious brand and this is a high pressure full on learning experience. The teams present their work on Friday morning to the Global CMO and category brand director of the client.
In our Academy we have 58 incredibly talented people from multi disciplines across 29 countries who speak 21 languages and have all come together to learn, be challenged, inspired plus crack a challenging brief but ultimately to win a Gold Lion.
The creative legends across the board who so generously give their time, passion, knowledge and insights to the Academy is outstanding. I have to say for the Masters Of Creativity Keith Reinhard is the real deal and is incredibly inspiring plus to see the reaction to our own Aussie legend David Droga made me extremely proud.
The Festival and in particular, Steve Latham, head of talent and training, and his team, should be applauded for their effects in training and developing the next generation of legends in this amazing industry.
Now for some well earned rose.