Weekly Blog 2

The second week of this France GFI, we had the pleasure of spending a week in Cannes to experience the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Throughout this week, there were multiple marketing/advertising events and activations that I truly enjoyed. Some of those being - Adobe's Brand Activation, DoorDash's "The ‘Oh Sh*t’ Opportunity: How Real-Time Commerce Turns Chaos Into Conversion" panel discussion, TikTok's "How Corn Dogs, Cucumbers and Creators Can Change Everything" panel discussion, and Havas Café's "Then and Now: My Life in Advertising" panel discussion. Although I found each of these discussions to be inspirational in terms of gaining more knowledge about the field of marketing and how it has developed over the years, I would have to say that Havas Cafe's "Then and Now: My Life in Advertising" panel discussion was my overall favorite event. I really enjoyed this panel discussion because of the authenticity and realism that each of the members shared during the conversation. It was inspiring to see the way these creatives initially came into the industry and how their work progressed over the years. Something that really stood out to me during this discussion was when Havas Lynx New York's Creative Director, Tiffany Scurlark, shared her words of encouragement to us students, being "Say yes to everything." This is something I will definitely take with me as I continue to pursue my career aspirations in the field of marketing. Although I know the creative field might not be the easiest to navigate, especially with the growing use of AI, I'm confident that the insight that these individuals, and others that I have been able to connect with during this GFI, will continue to guide and motivate me to pursue any and all opportunities that I believe can contribute to my professional skills and goals. Overall, I feel this GFI has allowed me to grow in my confidence of pursuing my career goals, and I am thankful that I have been able to immerse myself in an environment surrounded by like-minded creatives, each coming from different journeys, that have been able to successfully create the roles that they play in these marketing and advertising agencies.