Techies on the Croisette: Ben Jones on Cannes 2015

I’m no clairvoyant and I don’t own a working crystal ball, and if I did, no offence but I wouldn’t be sitting here tapping away at this article. Instead I’d be relaxing on some remote beach, a cold beer in hand and a wry smile on my face due to the sale of my billion dollar business built through the operationalization of my ingenious mind to AOL… actually, make that Verizon. 

So, what you read from here on is more my hope than the reality but I believe we are going to see a different, exciting and much more progressive Cannes this year.

We are going to see techies on the Croisette, and Cannes will have an authentic digital attitude. It will be more relevant and more exciting than in past years. It’s going to take on the SXSW’s of this world with the style and debonair attitude that only the Cote d’Azur can bring.

Of course, beautiful design, poetic copywriting, simply stunning cinematography and original thinking will, as always, have its stage, and rightly so. Creativity, art and storytelling will never fade, it’s at the core of human society. But so is relentless progression. Innovation through technology is the very thing that has driven our rapid evolution and exploration of this planet and the wider solar system, for that matter.

As Arthur C Clarke  [right] once said: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. And it is this harmony between beautiful stories and new technology that will be celebrated at Cannes 2015. 

This year we will see the emergence of the Innovation Lions, a two day ‘festival within a festival’ which aims to shine a light on products, services and experiences that we once thought would be impossible; a place where artists and geeks hold hands. 

My prediction is this: As normal, the Palais des Festivals will still have queues around the block as people clamour for the chance to listen to a celebrity who, quite possibly, generates less creative output than my six-year-old daughter does with a box of Crayolas.  But I think you will see a new queue emerging; a queue with a different vibe. A queue leading to a much smaller stage, but a stage where the real insight will be shared by people who may have lower profiles but who are the CTO’s and scientists of some of the most inspirational companies in the world.

I’m not just saying this because I’ll be presenting with Chris Satchell, CTO of Nike [pictured below], sharing insights into how you create products, services and experiences that cut through, endure and surprise. I’m saying it because for us to get ahead in our chosen industries, like in evolution, it’s the early bird that catches the worm, and the Innovation Lions is more about what is possible tomorrow than what was achieved yesterday.

What comes with the Innovation Lions is a new wave of awards too. Part of me is dreading this, purely due to the honour (and I do mean honour) of being locked away in a windowless room for a week of judging while most grab a few rays on the Google beach en route to the next session or meeting.

The Innovation Lions will recognise the impact of data science, of hardware and of products from brands highlighting that the future of advertising is more brain than brawn. It will recognise that for companies to succeed they must have limitless intelligence rather that the power and money to advertise on mass. Where the little (but very clever) guys can think, create, make and win against the giants who once had the power and assumed right to monopolise.

We will see awards which recognise how technology has democratised what was once for the elite. Who, for example, would have thought that they would have been able to have their own personal chauffer at the click their fingers (or in Uber’s case, the press of a button)? In fact, forget cars, in Cannes this year we will see UberCopter!

We will celebrate services and products, not just campaigns, which have been created in a new world of connectivity. Where everything is connected and so the clever part becomes taking 1, adding 1 and making 3. i.e completely new services and ideas emerging by combining unexpected things. It’s a return of the Google Maps mash-up era where the evolution of technology became the creative playground.

So, here’s to the brave and innovative. You now have your stage. Welcome to Cannes Lions 2015.