THE OTHER SIDE OF CANNES

June 13 2008, 2:56 pm | BY Lynchy | No Comments

Yole_1.jpgPaul Yole, Strategic Planning Director of The Brand Agency sends his blog from the Lions.

Well, here we go again.

For the next week or so the media will be full of reports about who wins what colour Lion, so I thought that this year my blog contribution should take a different tack. Kim will be busy attending to the 19 meetings and 85 party invitations he has reluctantly accepted, while Michael and Heather will no doubt be reporting all the award stuff everyone wants to hear. I will therefore try to shed some light on ‘the other side of Cannes’.

Now that sounds OK in theory, but it did make me wonder, “what the hell is the other side of Cannes anyway?” Is it the Gutter Bar, La Colombe d’Or, the networking, the exhibitions, the parties or the small matter of 50 seminars and 25 interactive workshops? Clearly, Cannes has many sides.

It’s a lot to fit in but I’m determined to see more of every side this year. And get more sleep. Honestly.

Last year I missed the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors’ showcase and got fed up hearing how good it was. This year, we can look forward to hearing from Chuck Porter and Joe Pytka telling us about ‘The Power of the Story’, attend the Berlin School on creative leadership, listen to the likes of Jean-Marie Dru, Organic, AKQA, Razorfish, Maurice Levy, Bob Greenberg from R/GA, Sir Martin Sorrell and a whole lot more.

Let’s hope we’ll also be celebrating some great Aussie success stories.