June 23rd, 2025

This past week I was at Cannes Lions, a festival and award show for the advertising industry held annually in the south of France.

Here are my thoughts:

First off, there isn't one Cannes Lions. There are dozens. Whether you are there to scout talent for your next campaign, secure funding for your venture or project, celebrate your work and attend award ceremonies, or enjoy the fun beachside activations and concerts, there are so many things going on.

Second, it's an advertising festival, first and foremost. I noticed online that there's this perception of Cannes Lions as the Met Gala or Oscars of the creator economy, and that's just not true (yet). This isn't VidCon, or SXSW, or Creator Economy Live. The main focus is on the best of the best in traditional big-budget advertising, and creators have been invited for only the second time to be a part of it.

That's not to say that won't change, or that I didn't have a great time! As a creator, I got to connect with so many creators I've been watching for years, like Hanna G​oefft, Chloe Shih, and Adrian Per. And I do think that Cannes Lions is correctly forecasting that media and content will continue to collide, so they're preparing for what Cannes Lions can and must be in the future to evolve.

People are much more relaxed and generally more approachable here. It's incredibly common to rub shoulders with an award winning studio exec, or a major brand CMO while in the elevator of a hotel or at dinner and strike up a conversation with them. Cannes Lions was, and continues to be, a pretty exclusive event, so the people here operate under an assumption that if you're there, you deserve to be there. Which made conversations easy.

AI is no longer a buzzword. It's here. Almost every panel had some tactile mention of how it's changing how companies hire, train, and deliver work. And in conversation it was on the mind of every CEO and senior executive I met and heard from. I can't stress enough how important it is that you learn what this means for your specific industry, and start learning these skills now.

To close this out, I had an excellent time. Thank you so much to Adobe, Meta, & Favikon, who I partnered with to attend and create some awesome content I can't wait to share with you all. I can't wait to be back next year.

Welcome to First Things First. I'm so glad you're here.

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Colin Rocker Founder, @careercolin & For The Firsts ​Instagram | LinkedIn​

The New York Times had an excellent article on how "AI sludge" has caused problems for talent and recruiters. A must read to understand the 2025 job market.

AI will replace some jobs. But it will create many more. Here are 22 examples.​

What ChatGPT taught Ryan Leak, a leadership coach and public speaker, about self awareness​

I picked up The Artist's Way and will be working through it over the next few weeks. Always open to better ways of harnessing my creativity.

My reflections on what attending Cannes Lions meant to me, especially with the last year I've had.

My next For The Firsts meetup is this Wednesday in NYC.

Ok so this is silly but I want to bring the family over to France after Cannes Lions next year and I spent an hour yesterday looking up how to rent those Vespa scooters with a little sidecar for Isaiah. If you have a recommendation or any related tips - let me know!

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It really means the world to me that you show up to explore these topics with me each week, so thank you for reading. If something above resonated with you, consider sharing it with someone else who might need it too.

If you have any feedback, you can always reply or email me at me@colinrocker.com

And remember that you’re not behind. You’re just building something different.

Chat soon,

Colin