Cannes impressions: This festival versus the other Cannes festival

Right now I'm sitting at the underground floor of the most famous and most respectful building in the creativity world. Yes it is Palais Des Festivals at Cannes.

It is actually a very plain and uncharacterized building, compared with the other buildings along the beach. Come to think of it , we hardly see the perspective view or bird's-eye view of this building, only the red carpet scene.

My first day here at Cannes was a little strange, as this is my second time visiting here. The first time was as a film distributor. The differences are quite obvious, especially the conversations and topics.

With the film festival, everyone talked or paid attention to high-profile directors and producers, major studios (which rule the world) , blockbusters, art-house or controversial films and of course the actors/actresses.

At the advertising (now I should say 'creative solution') festival, most people are talking about work, work and work. I have been hearing about 'Dumb ways to die' at every table I sat, with every group I talked to.

I don't hear much about big networks dominating the business nor awards. Seems to me that ad people are very focused on the creativity rather than business side of life, but you can't have one without the other).

The other thing I am hearing is that multinational clients are much more involved in the awards. They now realize that good work done in an impactful way, even in a small country, could well be noticed, liked and engaged with in different parts of the world.