Hi all!
For the first time… allow me to race out of my egg shell for a meet & greet.
My name is Yujia, or Jia in short, and this blog is a new pilot project of mine. It will be used to document my magical first-time experience at the 56th Cannes Lion International Advertising Festival, taking place in France from June 20-26th, 2010.
Specifically, I will be attending the Roger Hatchuel Academy (RHA), which provides an intensive week-long training for a selected 30 students around the world, ages 18-26, on the field of Advertising. We will have full access to the already sizzling offerings at Cannes: workshops and presentations by the biggest names in the communications industry – Global chief creatives from the most successful agencies, CEO’S, CMO’s, and COO’s from Forbe’s strongest pillars, and as well; Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook, will drop by to spill some beans while swapping some intelligent insights for the Media Person of the Year award.
Aside from all this, as RHA students, we will also get the privilege to meet ad legends such as Neil French and Bob Isherwood as they hold exclusive seminars just for us!…okay, and let’s not forget the award ceremonies and grand galas attended by a few thousand industry geniuses… flash bulbs on red carpets and Burgundy glasses on gesticulating attires… the game is on, on, on.
I know, it almost sounds unreal. But it’s happening, and precisely, in thirty four days.
As of now, the beautiful Côte d’Azur is occupied (casually) by some incredible studs and beauties from the film world – you’ve guessed it, the 63rd International Cannes Film Festival is currently in session!
Of course, this is an opportunity worth more gold one could dream to dig in this world and I cannot express more gratitude for the kindest contributions from my sponsors: namely, the Institute of Communications Agencies, Globe & Mail, and Queen’s School of Business at Queen’s University. It is not only the financial support I’m in absolute gratefulness for; moreover, it is the extraordinary amount of hope, strength, and motivational powers they’ve endowed me. Thank you for believing in my passion and instilling more confidence in my soles to pursue my passion, and more importantly, giving me the power to share my journeys and dreams with thousands of young people around the world.
I invite you all to find out more about these three successful organizations, found in the Sponsors section. They all carry excellent visions and have provide such wonderful support to not only me, but tens and thousands of passionate people before, around, and after me.
Without say, this summer entails one of the most life-changing adventures I will embark on, and this blog will be my way of recording the bits and bites of events leading and following Cannes. As I have just blew some bills on a new Canon 450D, it is safe to say that there shall be some ferocious updates on my Flickr account with snippets of wonders, that words simply cannot do. You can enter my Flickr gallery by clicking the photos on the right sidebar.
Lastly, to make this more fun, I’ve added a Q&A section so for all you curious and loyal readers out there, shoot me any questions (…with somewhat of a connect to this blog, haha) and if it takes hunting in the deepest woods for an answer – I might just do that, and post the answers on the site within 48 hours! Remember, this is your one chance to have all your curiosities fulfilled regarding what goes on inside the biggest celebration in the ad business… so capitalize on it.
I think this is it for today, a nice 500-something word document I’ve just finished crafting. Thank you for perusing my spell-checked words and I will write again in the near future.
Lots of love with unquestionable elements,
J J J J-ia