MANILA – Aiming to further women in the creative industry, Cannes Lions is holding ‘See It Be It’, an inspirational program for 12 up-and-coming female creatives who are about seven to 10 years into their careers.
Participants were nominated by their bosses and picked from about 200 nominations. DM9 JaymeSyfu’s Biba Cabuquit was the only representative from the Philippines.
Participants included:
Nivedita Agashe
Copywriter
Taproot, Mumbai
India
Juliana Ardila
Art Director
Leo Burnett
Dubai UAE
Celeste Dalairac
Creative Director
Del Campo Saatchi
Buenos Aires
Argentina
Stefanie Digianvincenzo
Associate Creative Director
Wunderman, London
UK
Jenna Livingston
Copy Director
R/GA, NYC
Usa
Erica Pressly
Senior Copywriter
Barbarian Group, NYC
Usa
Cheyney Robinson
Creative Director
Sapientnitro, London
Uk
Jem Robinson
Design Director
Allofus, London
UK
Angie Sun
Creative
CAA, LA
USA
Ulrike Schumann
Creative Director
Serviceplan, Zurich
Switzerland
Melo Xu
Creative Director
JWT, Shanghai
China
As part of the program, the group attended a mentorship event supported by SheSays. The 12 mentors were:
Shelley Zallis, CEO Ipsos USA
Karen Strauss, Partner, Innovation Officer Ketchum, USA
Laura Jordon Bambach
SheSays, Co-Founder, Partner, Mr President, UK
Elsa Sinstock
Executive Producer at Wieden + Kennedy Netherlands
Sylvia Vitale Rotta
Team Creatif Group
CEO, France
Valerie Petrusson. Chief Marketing Officer & Sales Officer, Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, USA
Caroline Dettman, Chief Creative Community Officer, Golin Harris, UK
Merlee Jayme
Chairmom & Chief Creative Officer, Philippines
Angel Guerrero
Founder, Editor-in-Chief, adobo magazine, Philippines
Fernando Vega Olmos Founder & Chief Creative Officer, PICNIC, Spain
Sonal Dabral, Chairman & CCO of DDB Mudra Group
Commenting on the initiative, Lions Festival’s Director of Brand Strategy Senta Slingerland, said, “We know a more gender-balanced creative industry will result in better work. This programme identifies the next set of female creative heavyweights – they exist, but need an extra push into the spotlight. Mentorship is an important part of this programme.”
Commenting on being a mentor for the initiative, Sonal Dabral, Chairman & CCO, DDB Mudra Group, said, “”See It Be It is great initiative by the Cannes Lions Festival, which focuses on one of the fundamental problems our industry is facing the world over.”
Guerrero observed, “The See It Be It programme is a great initiative. I realized that upon talking to some the female creatives in the mentoring session, there is a strong self belief and confidence in their own creative talent, but they have issues on recognition at the work place, such as the opportunity to work on good and global projects, wanting to learn leadership and management skills, and the question of “is having it all possible?”
Apart from the mentorship program, See It Be It includes guided access to the jury rooms, meet and greets with VIP speakers, and dedicated sessions by industry leaders and by the Berlin School of Creative Leadership.
‘See It Be It’ runs from June 15 to June 17 in Cannes, France.
