The Cannes Story — Part 1

MEDIA Protocol at the Digital Future Council Villa

Even in an idyllic setting like Cannes, people can revert to the same old habits and routines. Thinking back to our time in the South of France for the DFC launch, we witnessed a shift happen before our eyes; that same story got shaken up, in the name of collaboration and progress.

That Awkward Moment

Digital Future Council brought together delegates from a variety of backgrounds. Attendees came from the worlds of marketing, technology, music and other creative industries.

At first, by habit more than by design, natural cliques began to form. Whether through recognition of each other’s backgrounds, the common ground in their work, or just instinct, soon the groups were sorting naturally into blockchain people here, music people there and so on. Moving out of those automatic groups seemed awkward, maybe even a little disruptive.

Knowing Your Own Industry

Though the groups were made up of people from different countries and specific skill sets, over a range of ages and seniority levels, they were still broadly confined by their areas of expertise. Safety in numbers? The comfort of the familiar? Maybe so.

With everyone talking, comparing notes and insights, there was a legitimate exchange of ideas in all directions. So often it’s easy to get tunnel vision, to live and breathe your own projects with only a cursory glance at what the rest of the industry is doing, beyond what directly impacts your company.

A Shift Occurs

Then, the divides were breached. Nodeunlock’s Elliott Callender facilitated this with his cheekily entitled workshop “WTF is Blockchain?” A session that comes with a health warning (wear comfy shoes) will do that. Especially when it promises interactive blockchain games including musical chairs, treasure hunts and scrambles. All of a sudden, technologists began talking to marketers, and the dam broke. Tech turned out to be much less scary with a gaggle of experts on hand not only to answer all those burning questions, but to ask their own about other industries.

What triggered that mingling? The lack of agenda, the absence of a ticking clock ushering people along to their next meeting. The ease of real conversations, real questions, not confined to the structure of a sales pitch. In such a relaxed environment, everyone got a chance to show their human side and not just their USPs.

It was quite an organic shift in the end. A chance to finally ask ‘the other side’ what they thought, to find out what inspired or mystified them in turn.

Find out what happened next, in Part 2 of The Cannes Story.

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