Matt Gill’s Cannes Diary: Day One

Matt Gill, group CD, Healthy Thinking Group is Australia’s representative on the Health & Wellness Lions jury. Gill, along with most of the Australian and NZ jurors, is reporting exclusively for CB.

On the way to the airport I couldn’t help but talk incessantly about healthcare advertising, creativity, technology, what trends we might be exposed to and my list of must see speakers at the festival. I think the cab driver was happy to see the back of me.

Things started to go bad when we were delayed in Singapore for 2 hours which made me worried I’d miss my connecting flight to France. When I eventually got on the plane it looked like I was lucky enough to have four seats to myself and could lay down for a sleep as it was 4am by this point and I needed one. Just my luck a woman got on at the last minute and took the seat at the other end. We all know there are unwritten rules of engagement between passengers and therefore I thought at least Id get two seats to myself. As soon as we took off she nicked all three seats like it was an Olympic sport that I wasn’t very good at and came a poor second. I then had to have her feet pressed against my arm until I finally dropped off to sleep. When I woke she decided it was a good idea to trim her toenails – that’s got to be another unwritten rule, just don’t. Got to Zurich and missed the flight, but did have there pleasure of spending the three hour wait with drunken Polish football fans. The last leg from Zurich to Nice I sat next to a Jack Russell, since when were dogs allowed on planes! 32 hours in total, hopefully things will get better from here.

Checked in at hotel Grey d’albion and had planned to met Pete Smith and Phil Brown from the Pharma jury and Gerrard Malcolm from Health and Wellness for lunch. Unfortunately because I was so late I missed them and just spent a couple of hours wandering about getting my bearings and looking for some good spots to watch Euro 16. I’m a big football fan so it’s great to be in France during the tournament and soke up some of the atmosphere.

All the jury members met up tonight for the first time at La Côte restaurant at the Carlton hotel for welcome drinks. Everyone I’ve met so far seems genuinely excited to be part of the festival and looking forward to absorb the work on show over the coming days.

‘Wearable Tech’ seem to be the topic of the day and it’ll be interesting to see what’s on show as we know this area is moving rapidly in health. We are here first and foremost for the creativity but when health, technology and creativity hit head on it’s a powerful mix.

All of the jury have seen a large number of the entries in the pre-judging on-line in May and another topic that has come up tonight is what should be considered Health and Wellness and what shouldn’t. I’m sure they’ll be different opinions on this in the coming days but working in healthcare for 20 years I struggle with a beer brand telling you to drink in moderation or a fast food company showing you their calorie intake and putting it in a healthcare show – yes its responsible and I’m all for that but I’m looking for much more as a juror.

Happy birthday to my wife today who’s back in Sydney celebrating with the family.

Se sentir exité