The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity boasts 15,000 innovative advertising leaders, eight days of inspiring speakers, and some killer views.
AOL Advertising’s Digital Prophet in residence, David Shing, invited ImageThink cofounders Nora Herting and Heather Willems to create a graphic recording of the sessions and make their conference even more interactive. The content was captured in real-time & attendees were so engaged they rushed the stage to shoot video & pics, which became instantly shareable on social media.
Speakers Who Define The Creative Ecosystem
Every year, hundreds of experts from all over the world share their insights and experience on the stage in Cannes.
From game-changing thinkers and some of the biggest names in music and film to advertising’s creative luminaries and legendary business leaders, everyone speaking during the Festival will inspire you to think differently about today’s most pressing issues.
AOL’s focus centered on technology as a tool to unlock creativity, and the ways in which creative practices can transform the world.
Gender Equality Through New Media
AOL teamed with the #GirlsLounge for a panel discussion on women empowerment in the workplace, Creativity Is Confidence. To truly transform our society, said the panel, we need to use the power of media to move away from the “woman as victim” story towards the empowered woman story. We need to be more creative in our approach to traditional media, changing the stories that have been told over and over to reflect women in leadership roles, and to encourage companies to give female employees as much support as male employees. As you can imagine, being a female led company, we were incredibly invested in this discussion around promoting gender equality. The interplay between the visuals inspiring the talk & vice versa creates an exciting atmosphere that we thrive in.
Creativity In Business
David Shing led Ethereal to Empirical: Ideation and the Art of Capturing Creativity, where he discussed how to pull creativity out of the clouds and into reality. Shing emphasized numerous thought tools. For the individual, radiant thinking and mind maps are a great way to explore thought streams as they branch in different directions.
For group thinking, organizing information into quadrants that the team can see will help keep people on the same page. Shing also encouraged his audience to place imagination over knowledge in the quest for innovation. It is all to easy to get bogged down by doubt & details, but the best ideas come when our minds are free to discover & explore. Our book Draw Your Big Idea, features many exercises to help with innovative thinking and creative collaboration.
The New Frontier of Virtual Reality
It was once the domain of sci-fi alone, but within the last couple of years, virtual reality has become a viable media. Companies like Samsung have introduced VR headsets that connect to your phone, and the NY Times’ VR documentary series has proven that the medium can be used for more than gaming. VR was a big presence at Cannes, where new media forms garner a lot of attention.
How do creative practices move you forward in life and in business? Tweet at #imagethinking and #AOLCannes to share your thoughts!
