Yes We Cannes #canneslions2014
I've finally decided to sit down by my computer and write a little something about my trip to this year's Cannes International Festival of Creativity aka Cannes Lions 2014.
I've had a great chance to attend this amazing event that takes place every year in Cannes, France. As a result of winning the Czech round of the Young Lions competition, me and my colleague Matej were given a great chance to compete in Media section again. But this time with our international peers.
I was very busy before my departure. So it felt kind of peculiar to find myself standing in front of the festival palace in Cannes with my suitcase. Walking down the Boulevard de la Croisette on our way to our new apartment I instantly figured that this will be a hell of a week. And indeed it was.
With our festival badges, the world of international advertisement unfolded itself in front of us. As a part of registration, we've received a bag full of invitations for the upcoming lectures and events. It would take a very very long time to go through all those names and professionals who were able to come to Cannes and share their thoughts, experience and ideas.
We've started the week with brilliant and fun lecture by David Hasselhoff that took place in Grand Auditorium. Few minutes after that our 3 day Young Lions competition started. We were working (more or less non stop) on media campaign for an interesting charity organisation from UK. Subsequently we presented the result of our work in front of the jury. Although we didn't win, we've met the winning ladies Zhang Ting Ting and Song Ting Ting from China. I feel that the biggest personal win was the competition itself. The fact that we were able to compete with talented people from the entire globe was priceless.
Well, by the time we knew the results, it was the right time to enjoy the entire spectrum of the biggest festival of advertisement. The range of speakers was breathtaking. I was lucky enough to see and hear Kanye West, Ben Horowitz, Steve Stoute, Courtney Love, Ralph Fiennes, creators of TV series Game of Thrones and Veep and many others. Simply by chance I found myself at the Young Lions zone just at a time when Laura Desmond (Chief executive officer, Starcom), Wendy Clark (Senior Vice President, Coca Cola) and Marissa Mayer (CEO, Yahoo) were talking to the group of young audience. At first I didn't believe that this was happening. But a second later I was sitting right in front of them and listened to a very very interesting talk. It was personal and you could see that every word these ladies said was coming from a real experience. No empty words. This was so crucial for me to witness. I was able to meet these ladies personally afterwards and talk to them for a little while. That was my Cannes moment.
You've probably heard of the famous Cannes parties, right? Let me tell you that we attended couple of them and it was spectacular ;) I enjoyed every second of it (as much as I clearly remember...). My most favourite moment was running through the Carlton hotel with bunch of friends ending up drinking champagne at the hotel's restaurant :)
It was all uplifting and so much fun. I came to Cannes with no expectations. And it surprised and amazed me in every possible aspect. Just like a kid at a toy store :)
The week ran so fast I could not believe the moment we were flying back to Zurich (and then to our final destination - Prague). It was simply phenomenal. I think that it was not the last time I was there. The only thing I will bring next time is the gold card ;)
A.
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