Cannes Lions

Every time I sort through photos for a post, I always come across this set which I've been meaning to upload for ages!
Had the honor of being the speaker for Asia's biggest advertising agency Dentsu at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival last year.

I worked with Dentsu for about half a year on the presentation which was about Anime culture and in the process also got to work with the folks who created the Original Macross Movie "Do you remember love."

Cannes, France. Picking up my speaker pass.

Been rehearsing many times back in Japan - today we just do a technical rehearsal to see if everything works when connected together.

If you are going to give a presentation, its very important to rehearse and speak aloud - when reading in your mind, you dont make mistakes, but when you speak, you will come across areas which you stumble upon.
How many of you have given a talk infront of a large audience and how did it go?

The advertising industry still uses tapes and DVD's - hence all the equipment.

All my presentations are done on a Mac on Keynote.

Even without a WiFi connection, you can pair the iPhone with an iPad over Bluetooth and use it as a controller. Probably OK for smaller audience prestations but when presenting infront of thousands, I prefer push button controllers - too much room for error on the iPhone - accidentally hit the home button, call from screaming client, lost connection and wot not.
Also, if the image size in the presentation is large, the iPhone will try to download it to show a thumbnail which can take a while.

This is Kagami Akira [鏡明] - one of the top guys at Dentsu and also a sci-fi writer. He is currently my boss for this project.

There is only one thing I miss about the iPhone now that I'm an Android user - the suite of office applications such as Keynote.

A peek in the auditorium.

A load of huge name brands presenting over the period of the festival.

Its the day of my talk - going though last minute bits n bobs.

Preparing backstage.

While folks from the previous talk clear out, we set up our equipment.

Yuki-chan is a popular girl.

Given a large audience, you cant expect every single person to be listening - some maybe fidgeting on their mobile device (another term for when somebody's hand moves around suspiciously in their trouser pockets), busy digging nose or they could even be asleep ^^;

Its important to stay focused when you spot this and remember one thing - the people who are not paying attention dont matter - people who *are* listening *do* matter. Focus on the folks who are listening or what will end up happening is that your performance drops on stage and you could end up making *everybody* fall asleep ^^;

This rule can be applied in real life - people who dont get it dont matter - people who do get it do matter. Dont waste time trying to make people care - focus your time on people who already do care.

I've been through quite a few slide remotes but have been looking for some heavy duty ones like the one one I'm holding here - been trying many search terms with no luck ><

Interviews and photos after the talk which went well!

My younger sister came to France to visit us.

Younger sister cant be tipping Yuki-chan forwards.

Free drinks are good!

Everybody loves Yuki-chan.

Caption this photo.

Somebody trying to chat up my younger sister.

Presentation is done - time to chill out with a photo session of Yuki-chan.

I must go. My planet needs me.

Time to look around the festival hall and exhibits.

Is that Ken?

And a load of clever ad campaigns. Any of you interested in working in the advertising field? How about in anime advertising?
If you can show me something interesting with the materials in this post then I would hire you. I'm looking for something clever rather than just something that looks good.