Sally Hastings’ Cannes Diary: First Highlights

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20150624_170715[2] (1).jpgSally Hastings, senior art director, Ogilvy Melbourne talks about her participation in 2015 Cannes Lions See It Be It. Its aim is to highlight the existence of very talented creative women in the industry, accelerate their careers; expose the powers these women bring to the work, and encourage agencies to nurture women’s careers from the inside.

Being one of the 12 selected for the 2015 Cannes Lions See It Be It program was a dream come true.

I am acutely aware of how uncool that sounds, but who cares? I was going to Cannes for the first time. I was about to be crazy inspired.

But I didn’t know See It Be It was going to be life altering.

I know that sounds OTT, but I swear it’s not.

In the last three days I have had the pleasure of meeting some of the smartest people I think I ever will. And they have all been so generous with their time and advice.

It’s hard to pick out highlights for you, as there’s been dozens. But as a little Aussie battler, I’ll give it a go.

Jury room tours. Having never sat on a jury before, the experience of being able to hear from the judges as they were judging was invaluable. We had the pleasure of meeting Wendy Clark from the Creative Effectiveness Jury. Her view on having a family and managing a high profile career was inspiring.

Don’t apologise for it. Don’t ‘balance’ it. Instead, integrate them and own it.

Meeting Keith Reinhard. My god. What a dude this guy is. One of the original mad men and a keen supporter of creative women in business. ‘Be persistent’ was his advice. Don’t take no for an answer. He even suggested that women should rule the world and just tell him what to do.

Can do, Keith.

Hugging Monica Lewinsky. Probably not the most refined thing I’ve done, but I challenge anyone to watch her TED talk and not want to give her a cuddle afterwards. Hopefully her session on Thursday inspires others to do the same. And she didn’t seem to mind. I actually think she quite liked it.

You’re only human, Monica.

IMG-20150622-WA0013 (1).jpgBut for me at least, the most inspiring thing out of See It Be It was also the most unexpected; the friendships I have made with 11 other amazing, talented, funny, extraordinary, driven women in the programme.

We’ve forged a network from all over the world. Women who will look out for each other and drive each other to be better. And, most importantly, we’ll help each other to stick with it.

Just like Keith said.