Simon Cook promises a ‘Creative Revival’ with Cannes Lions Live
Simon Cook, Managing Director of Cannes Lions, has promised a creative revival with Lions Live, adding that the goal of the virtual event is to offer a widely accessible platform for, and by, the community.
According to the festival’s boss, the world is experiencing rapidly evolving times and creativity is not just a mechanism for business growth, but also a support for industry, societal and organisational change.
“With Lions Live, we’re putting our community front and centre, and the community is actually creating much of the content you’ll see,” he said.
Commenting further, event boss said: “It’s important we provide a platform to reflect what’s happening in the industry and that we not only think about the future in terms of business, but also wider progress. Recent events have influenced the programming, and we’ve had to adapt accordingly.
“The Lions Live debates, which take place at Cannes every year, will address the Covid-19 crisis and its economic fallout, and the challenges around representation and equality.”
In April, organisers of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, advertising’s largest event, canceled the 2020 edition due to the Covid-19 pandemic, marking the first time in nearly 70 years the festival won’t be held.
While the event is slated to return to France in 2021, organisers were determined to provide an outlet to engage the creative community this year, as the industry faces the ongoing impact of the pandemic and heightened scrutiny in response to a lack of diversity.
Over the past two months, festival organisers reached out to industry professionals and content creators to develop Lions Live, a free virtual event running June 22-26, the original dates of the in-person festival.
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