Innovation That Matters

Navigating the future in a rapidly changing world

Features

Lions Innovation takes centre stage for the Springwise community at the 64th International Festival of Creativity.

Cannes is buzzing and filling up with some of the world’s leading advertisers, brands, creatives and innovators at the 64th International Festival of Creativity.

Capturing the attention of the Springwise community is Lions Innovation, the two-day specialist event, which since 2015 has been looking at the role data and technology play in promoting and shaping creativity. The Lions Innovation Discovery Zone is a hive of activity and the 55 start ups are attracting masses of interest from corporates and agencies alike. Feedback is positive from all sides and the Springwise community is a catalyst for change at the heart of the innovation debate. Lions Innovation is a resounding success and the presentation stages bring to life familiar emerging themes and technologies from IOT, to Voice and Bot tech, Robotics, Geolocation and Virtual Reality – all themes which are extensively surfaced via our Springspotters and brought to our community in our daily newsletters.

Other topics which are lighting up the fringe sessions and discussions in the cafes, restaurants and yachts of Cannes include: extensive debate around the Future of Retail prompted by the upcoming takeover of Whole Foods by Amazon; global politics and in particular how the media and advertising community failed to predict both Brexit and the election of Trump as President of the USA; the rapid rise of President Macron in our host country and the ethics of a world increasingly dominated by the 4 great Unicorns – Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple, two of whom are huge customers of the Cannes Lions ecosystem.

Whilst these debates both polarise and unite, what is certain, is that the pace of change is more rapid than ever before and that the global marketing community need to stay informed. The importance of access to curated innovation intelligence from across all geographies and industries, with an emphasis on innovators driving positive change for our society and planet has never been more fundamental to successfully navigating the future for any organisation.