CANNES, FRANCE – The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is not just the biggest and most prestigious creative event in the industry, it’s also a platform that gathers individuals who are passionate about elevating and empowering the creative community together. One of the activities centered on this is the See It Be It program that ultimately champions female creatives. As one of the participants and one of the few Asian representatives, Hire Mohibullah Amin, Creative Director of BBDO Pakistan shared her experience with us in this piece:
On paper, See It Be It is a three-day, all-expenses-covered program created to boost the careers of females in senior creative roles to fight gender inequality in the advertising work space. But in reality: it’s a sisterhood, career support network and creative school all rolled into one!
“Invite Yourself” was the theme to this year’s program. And invite myself I did! When the applications opened, I almost didn’t apply. I mean, I was pregnant, and surely couldn’t do an exhaustive program in Cannes in my third trimester? But here I was, faced with the hard choices that only a woman has to make, and I JUST couldn’t get myself to call it quits without at least trying. So that’s what I wrote in my application (thanks Atiya Zaidi for telling me not to be afraid to show vulnerability), and I was on the shortlist to be interviewed by the wonderful Swati Bhattacharya (the 2019 See It Be It Ambassador)!
Fast forward to me arriving in Cannes with my husband and my kid: chock full of nerves.
But they quickly wore off at the introduction session, when I met the power pack of women in the program.
The imposter syndrome was discussed at length and it was surprising to see that the feeling ran across the group. I mean, who would’ve thought Madonna Badger (the See It Be It chair, CEO and Founder of Badger and Winters, the brains behind #NoKidsInCages and #WomenNotObjects) felt the same?! Sadly, Swati couldn’t join us due to an emergency back home, but we felt her there in spirit, with Madonna and the vivacious Tea Uglow (Creative Director, Google’s Creative Lab in Sydney) leading the girl gang.
Day 1 kicked off with each of us finding our own unique brand type with the BrandYOU Workshop by Invisible Creatives (apparently I’m a Mother Warrior type), followed by a Conversation with the Cannes Lions Mobile jury and a session on How to Win a Lion by Susie Walker, head of Creative Excellence Development at Cannes Lions. We then rushed off to another workshop by Spotify called Inviting Yourself: The Power of Allyship where we shared our personal stories and learnt how to first be a champion for ourselves to be able to do the same for our girl clique around us. We finished off the day with the Awards Show (skip-the-line-reserved-seats FTW), where in a humbling moment I was cheered on by my wonderful girls on winning two Lions!
Day 2 found us scuttling from one speaker session to the next! To break it down, I’ll pair it up with the one key take away that stayed with me after:
Annette King (CEO, Publicis Groupe UK): “Never say you got lucky, you create your own luck.”
Alfonso Cuaron (Academy Award Winning Film Director): “Make your partnerships transformational, not transactional.”
Richard Ting (US Chief Creative Officer and Global Chief Experience Officer, R/GA): “Find the kind of workplace where you can go and be yourself.”
Lisen Stromberg (COO, 3% Movement): “When in a fix, look at your life like a novelist.. what would the writer be saying about you that you can’t see?”
Tea Uglow (Creative Director, Google’s Creative Lab in Sydney): “Ask yourself: Why are you this version of yourself?” (and you’ll know why you’re doing what you’re doing.)
Tanya Livesey (Global Head of Creative Talent, The Talent Business): “Recognize your inner critic. Where does the voice come from, who does it sound like? Once you recognise it, turn down the volume.”
Maureen A. Bryan (Founder and CEO, The Voice of a Woman): “Only 4% of directors are female.” (Yes, let that sink in)
Up until Day 3, post the curated workshops and sessions, I was walking around with a head dotted with several disconnected ideas and plans. That was about to change because Day 3 was the day we were meeting a powerhouse of three super accomplished mentors. Here’s what my mentor panel looked like:
Laura Esteves (Creative Director, Y&R)
Nicole Michels McDonagh (Creative Director, POSSIBLE)
Julia Hammond (Managing Director, Heat/Deloitte
I went into the 25 minute sessions, prepared with questions, about all my possible future plans, my passions and my struggles and came out with a distinct advocacy plan for women (which you will soon be hearing more about).
After that, we were literally “shipped” off to Google Island for lunch and speaker sessions by Google Create. What followed was another powerful lineup of speakers waiting for us back at the Palais, including Cindy Gallop (Founder, MakeLoveNotPorn), Joanna Coles (Former Editor-in-Chief, Cosmopolitan), and SIBI Alumni.
Before heading out for the closing dinner we sat around Madonna for a final heartfelt talk where she inspired us to power through life and all its struggles with our heads held high and asked us to lead with love and not hate. (In this fight for equality, women must make the men their allies.)
We then made way to the FCB Yacht (yes, in all its fancy glory) to attend a screening by the Athena Film Festival, where we applauded Swati’s amazing Sindoor Khela project, and listened to a heart warming ode to her achievements and strengths by Susan Credle of FCB.
The last stop was the Spotify Concert and Party which I couldn’t make it to, because my legs couldn’t carry me and my super pregnant body any further! But I was happy to live it vicariously through the insta feed from my SIBI girls!
I am now on a train out of Cannes, with a solid plan in place, my heart set on my vision, 5 fresh Lions under my belt, and my baby kicking harder than ever (who funnily enough, happens to be the only boy to have taken part in the SIBI program). Here’s a picture of me with both my future feminists on the Cannes Red Carpet!
