I probably do just about everything with my heart in my mouth. Absolutely terrified. So when I boarded the train for Cannes See it Be it on Sunday, I did it jittery with trepidation (knees weak / palms sweaty). 

But deep down, I think I like to be scared. Last week, I would have edited, edited, edited, edited. Posted something brief and easy to ignore about how my life changed at Cannes. This week, frankly, I’m a different woman. And she edits herself less (and her work more – we’ll get to that).

So, I hope you won’t mind that this is going to get long: you don’t have to read it. And it’s going to be split up into a few posts, because sometimes experiences can be squeezed so hard for their essentials that you only end up with platitudes. Anyway, it’s cathartic for me to imagine that one of you (really, just one) will actually read all of this, will know me a little bit better (real and unedited), and will feel like you yourself can also be real and unedited. So, I’ll save best practices for my briefs, and let this one be myself. (I do promise to edit a little, because my husband/copywriter gave me an earful when I told him what I want to write).

/start: Day 01.

Meeting up with strangers is not one of my strengths. Hopelessly 4’9 and a healthy dose of shy, I set an intention against my desperate urge to stay invisible, and posted on our SIBI whatsapp group. 

Along with the incredibly humble and inspired Ellen Fromm (She/Her), and Nedal Ahmed, who happens to have made my favourite spot of all time, I also met Rachel Chew at the airport – and I’m still thanking all my stars for it. She immediately felt like my other half – the breezy insight at the end of my soulful paragraph. She matched honesty for honesty, and I fell in love with her right away. Rachel caught me so off-guard that, completely by accident, I ended up being myself.

Ok so yes, we should have booked a car in advance. And we did miss the train while looking at the bus, and then the bus while looking at the train. But part of your first time at Cannes is making rookie mistakes, so we made them, and next time we won’t be noobs and we’ll book ahead. And we did make it (by bus, in case you’re wondering) eventually.

Let’s fast-forward.

Along with a gorgeous introduction by Swati (a natural storyteller, I could listen to her for hours), Madonna Badger baptised us with three pieces of advice. The woman has incredible intuition, because almost every single girl has told me that this advice absolutely made their experience at See It Be It. 

1. Find your similarities.

Instead of seeing what other girls had accomplished, and feeling my own lack, I saw the passion / struggles / fears / hopes / unrelenting femininity that we all had in common. In fact, I found myself focusing on similarities with everyone I talked to. As we were introduced to some of the biggest creative names over the next week, I learned that every single one of us has interests, ignorances, passions, questions, things we find boring, favourite books that no one else has read. We’re all very, very human.

2. Focus on the positives.

Madonna told us, it’s never interesting to say “it’s hot”. People say it all the time at Cannes, so say anything else. We tried, but it was hot. So, we followed it up with the positives. It wasn’t just about putting ourselves in a positive mindset, but with this advice we embraced experiences like there was no tomorrow. Even when it was 2am, and there most certainly was a tomorrow.

3. Be vulnerable.

Not only was vulnerability the keystone to my week, but I learned so much about myself in this state, that I’ll be embracing vulnerability as a core value going forward. It’s why I’m writing this – why I’ll leave it a little too long, a little too honest. It’s why I shared my whole heart in every conversation, and how I could embrace the authenticity of my (sometimes long-winded, sometimes too sincere) self.

Vulnerability is going to saturate my work, and my relationships. I learned during this week that vulnerability is the reason I love to be creative, my superpower, and that my learned fear of exposure has been holding me back from my best. My life has changed so much in a week of being radically vulnerable that I don’t think fear is ever going to scare me again.

We kicked off the welcome with Swati, Madonna, Mike Wente, and Simon Cook.

We toasted to ourselves. 

Then, always sharp in our priorities, we found the coffee machine and toasted again. 

I think that there’s something fundamentally warm and generous about womanhood, and so although we had gathered as some of the brightest young creative minds around the world, it didn’t feel like a networking event. It felt like a celebration of shared stories, and as I looked around the room, I saw women making space for one another, making sure each of us were heard in our own ways. 

Now, not every person cries. I’m a cryer. It happens, and I’m learning not to apologise too much for it. But Denise Tee gets the award for being the first of many to make me tear up this week.

As we mingled, basking in the electric energy of one another, Denise brought out gifts for us all. Personalised gifts for every twenty-one of us, with gorgeously handwritten notes, brought along with her from Manila. 

She certainly didn’t plan it to be, but this was the perfect introduction to herself. Denise went on to be one of the most generous people I have ever met. With her time, her experiences, her love, her advice, her forgiveness, her insights and creativity. This week, women like her showed me what the future of female leadership could look like: generous, open, vulnerable, insightful. There were plenty of mentorship sessions, but I learned my biggest lessons from the other girls at See It Be It. They’re the kind of leaders I want to be.

After awkward introductions had evolved into laughter, comfort, and sorority, we headed to dinner.

Our ambassador this year was the eloquent and audaciously romantic Swati Bhattacharya. I could be cool about it, but frankly, it was love at first sight. She is femininity, and I have never wanted to be anything else. So it was glorious to watch her be a creative fireball, a distinguished leader, a visionary, and such a girl. She exuded generosity and love, and her passion for life was absolutely contagious.

Her best friend joined us for dinner (and much of the week), and we all swooned at the love story of their friendship. Who wouldn’t want to travel the world with their best friend, to explore the streets of Cannes with someone who had been by their side through laughter and pain? Who taught us that we shouldn’t? I loved that her lust for life was best shared with an old friend, and so she just did it.

Anyway, dinner was incredible.

Tomorrow, we had growing to do.

Day 02.

Finding positives: I don’t always get to start the day at 6am.

Today, my mind woke up minutes before my alarm, so that when it rang, I was raring to go. I tried to get ready, but couldn’t really settle myself down enough to focus. I paced back and forth to the bathroom a few times, forgetting what I needed to do.

Sometimes when you have too much you want to do, it helps to stop everything and start from the beginning. I picked a quick 10-minute mindfulness meditation on Spotify, calmed my breathing, took in the morning, and started fresh. It made such a huge difference that I resolved to do this every day in Cannes.

We walked down to the Palais to join Katherine O'Brien, our guide, SIBI class of 2016, and a creative legend in her own right. She felt like a big sister, tacking on fierce insights to every talk, lamenting with us, answering questions, brainstorming with us, and inspiring us at every turn. Kat gave us a lot of room to enjoy the program in our own way, and so although the schedule was jam-packed, we felt like there was time to do everything we wanted. We were half an hour earlier than the Palais opens, so we went in through the Cannes offices (glamour, glamour).

Our very first session was with Makenzie Chilton, founder of Love Your Mondays. I could tell you all about how this breezy badass has coached some of the most incredible minds in advertising, how she helps brilliant people advocate for themselves, but instead I’ll tell you: we walked in with simple questions, and walked out with the roadmap for finding really big answers.

She helped us to define our values: those non-negotiable but totally individual things we should be looking for in a job that actually makes us happy and fulfilled. Not just the baseline (respect / work life balance / honesty), but the traits that truly gave us energy as individuals.

Under her guidance, everyone came up with something different. Here’s mine:

Self-Expression: I want to be able to tell my own stories. I want to capture characters and their unique passions. I want to approach briefs for specific people, not just the average target audience.

Love: I want a community that has room for forgiveness and individuality, where people are free to be their weird selves. I want kindness in all my interactions. I want to get to know people on a deeper level, and feel comfortable being vulnerable.

Ultimate Minigolf: I want the chance to play, experiment, and fail. I want to invent my own way of doing things, and have the room to change that every day.

I’ve also heard food, fleeting, blue, ocean, pet, shrimp risotto, freedom. Everyone had their own answers, and their own way to define them. But we all walked away feeling that we knew what we wanted out of our professional lives (and to an extent, our personal ones).

Next up: A visit to see a real, Cannes Lions jury in action.

It was really early in the day, and even earlier in their judging process (I think they were one coffee past “hello”). We weren’t prepared with questions, and kind of cast around for a minute. Karo Gomez (an unstoppable force if I’ve ever met one, what I would do for an ounce of her bravery) dove in with the first. She said that she’d love to serve on a Cannes jury one day, and asked what advice they would have when it’s her turn (hopefully, next year).

One of the members actually laughed a little, and said “It won’t be next year”. He said you would need a Lion to serve on the Cannes jury. And then he talked about how prestigious and impossible a goal like that was, the achievement of a lifetime, and repeated at the end that there was no way Karo could expect to be on a Cannes jury any time soon.

I wanted to include this story because it made me realise that a lot of people don’t actually know what See It Be It is. We weren’t a lot of students asking for a tour around the festival, but a chosen group of rising creative leaders noted for exceptional thinking. Not only had half of us won Lions before, but a few of us won during this year’s festival. It was no small deal that we were given this opportunity, and we all felt it was audacious for him to assume none of us had won before, that hoping to serve on the jury was a far-flung goal. We had been selected out of hundreds, all over the world, to be here. 

I think it put a little fire in our steps. 

The next time someone asked us what See It Be It was, we made sure to tell them.

Our next session was with Maddy Kramer, a tornado of creativity, initiative, and invention. She was part of See It Be It 2015, and taught us ‘The Art of the Side Hustle’. Although, I liked her paraphrasing more: ‘Maddy does ideas’.

Essentially, she talked about trusting your intuition and fearlessly being the creative you are. So often we’re asked to define our creativity and put a box around it. But we’re not ‘digital creatives’, ‘all about craft’, ‘storytellers’. We’re creatives. Maddy does ideas. When you step out of your box and just make the ideas you love, I think there’s a lot more potential to start making amazing work.

“Done is better than perfect”. 

She also said that if you wait for something to be perfect it will never get made. But if you make it, you’ll get better every time you fail. In fact, Maddy started her presentation with her failures. And for each one she was able to sharpen her intuition, and it allowed her to give herself the space to take risks and try something new again in the future. Creatives have to be able to be risk-takers, and that means we have to be able to fail.

Her talk was absolutely a highlight for us all, and we all walked away with renewed purpose as creatives. Personally, I have notebooks on notebooks full of ideas that I put away because there was no brand to attach to them, no brief asking for those ideas. Maddy reminded me that I’m here on this Earth to create. And if there’s no client, I can still make ideas for myself. It’s through those experiments and failures, and really just the personal projects, that I’ll sharpen my pencil and gain that experience which will help me grow into an outstanding creative.

We talked to Maddy a little too long (an inspired audience is always brimming with questions). So afterward we ended up running around, trying to catch a 15-minute lunch. Some of the girls discovered that our passes got us into the VIP lounges – solid gold. We ate, collaborated on personal projects (couldn’t help ourselves after hearing Maddy), and stuffed our pockets with bread rolls for the next session.

Next up was Chief Creatives on the Terrace with Bas Korsten, Nadia Lossgott, Lucy Aitken, and our own Swati Bhattacharya.

Afterward (and after a little getting lost, a little running around) we headed to The Hub to listen to Tea Uglow.

I’m having a lot of trouble keeping this at any kind of word limit, because Tea is someone I could listen to for literally days on end. She has an endless fascination with words, and the etymology of ideas; and an unselfconscious way of speaking and speaking about those ideas without feeling like there’s one end-all answer for anything. 

She talked about ‘literally’, and how the dictionary definition has actually been updated to where ‘literally’ literally means ‘figuratively’. And how gendered terms like she/him are inherently biased, whereas terms like they/them inspire fairness. When you say “he does the cleaning”, does it spark anything different from when you say “she does the cleaning”? She imagines it does.

She talked about ‘normal’, and how it only really means anything in math. And how there’s not really such a thing as ‘fair’; only ‘unfair’ – and how while any child can define what is unfair, we all have trouble agreeing on what is fair. So maybe the definition is really just ‘that which is not unfair’?

I think the fascinating thing about listening to Tea is not that she has all of the answers, but that she asks a lot of fantastic questions. And while a little bit of this talk, yes, was about gender – most of it was about how we think, and how we form boxes around those thoughts (literally/she/him/normal/fair) as if it gives them definition, when it really doesn’t. And maybe by keeping our minds open to the fact that nothing is well-defined, nothing is set in stone, we will be better able to empathise with and absorb new ideas.

Next, we met the Glass Jury. They were wonderful, they were inspiring, generous with their insights and passion. I think it was a joy for us to meet them and see how the future of advertising is being debated and defined.

Afterward, we had a private session with Karabo Poppy and Nkanyezi Masango, to talk about Cultural Appropriation vs. Appreciation. Karabo is a brilliant South African illustrator, and Nkanyezi is the Group ECD at King James.

They talked about equity, and ensuring that brands reference cultures in an ethical way. When you reference (read: take from) a culture, how are you then giving back to that culture?

One key suggestion they had was collaboration, working with artists from that culture to ensure 1) it’s appropriately referenced, 2) you are giving back to the artists of that culture, and 3) proper credit is given to the culture.

Some other things they shared were to

• Challenge brands to give back better

• Pay up-and-coming artists market rate

• Don’t just take the aesthetic, actually get involved and give back

• Demand accountability

Like a lot of cultural equity discussions, our Q&A dissolved into an “is it ok when I do this” “how about if I do that”. I think that it’s extremely helpful to have a proper forum where people can ask these questions, but a point came up in our discussion that a few of us had to side-bar after the talk. 

Someone asked about a specific situation in Asia, where her client couldn’t afford a Korean talent, and so they cast a Thai talent instead, and it blew up in their faces when Korean audiences called out that the actress wasn’t able to speak Korean.

This wasn’t a shock to those of us coming from Asia, where racial casting horror stories like this are a dime a dozen, but it was a shock to everyone else. We found ourselves sharing all of the insane stories we have from APAC, where model rates are decided by the colour of their skin, and where outrageous stereotypes or even brown-face are still commonly seen in TV and advertising. It was liberating for all of us to share these issues to an audience who did actually see that it was atrocious, and I think refreshing to talk to one another about what we’ve been through and how we could fight it in the future.

We got so wrapped up in our discussion we missed the next talk.

After the daily regroup (to vent/ask questions/share favorite moments), some of us headed over to Meta Beach. We laughed, danced a little, ate a lot, cried together, and yes, we talked about boys. It was spectacular to hang out with the girls and remember that underneath all of their incredible strength and creativity was still just kind people with open hearts and real lives. I know it seems terribly obvious, but I think it’s easy to forget that we’re all just human beings. We have a lot more similarities than differences.

Talking to the girls about our shared insecurities, as well as our personal accomplishments, brought us all closer together. I heard a lot of “I was shocked to get in”, but each woman I talked to was so fiercely intelligent, creative, and open-minded, it was obvious that each and every one of them belonged here. 

Which meant admitting that I probably did too. 

Day 03.

It was an incredible night. 

I got cleaned up, googled how much longer until I’d be fully sober again (about 2 more hours), meditated, and managed a croissant on our way out of the door.

The morning began with Madonna Badger and President of Badger Agency, Natalie Troubh, in “Running the Show: How to start an agency”. Madonna is not only the See It Be It Chair, but she’s an incredibly resilient and inspiring woman, pioneer of “Women, Not Objects”. She has fantastic vision, and the kind of determination that moves mountains. I absolutely loved hearing about how she set out on her own, with little more than a cash box, and grew every opportunity she could find until she had created a legacy.

By the time she finished her story, you could feel everyone’s questions burning electric in the air.

It speaks to both Madonna and Natalie that the questions didn’t follow any single thread – it became a group mentorship session, where we asked about our specific problems, our bigger questions, about womanhood, politics, and building better relationships. They graciously answered everything, absolutely generous with their time and experience, and we learned so much from a very honest discussion.

There’s a lot I took away from the conversation, but here’s a little bit for you, my imaginary reader:

• There is enough (business) for everyone.

• You’re not going to know everything, and that’s ok. Be vulnerable.

• Complacency is the cancer of creativity.

• If your team is struggling to meet your expectations, ask “What are you not getting from me?”

The talk spilled over our next session, and through lunch. Again, I’m so incredibly grateful that Kat was in tune with us, and when she saw how valuable the discussion was, she bent the schedule so that we could stay. Everyone was absorbing so much from Madonna and Natalie that we kept them for over two hours. One of the amazing staff members at Cannes helped Kat ferry food down from the terrace lounge, and we ate lunch while prospecting for wisdom.

After we finally let Madonna and Natalie go (to a sea of thanks), we met David Griner, Editor of Adweek.

David was another vital and completely practical experience; since Cannes, I’ve checked my notes from his talk the most often. His session was called “Make Them Talk”, about getting press for yourself and building your brand. I think this is something absolutely all creatives understand the importance of, and probably struggle with. Attention is everything in our business – even the obsession with awards boils down to getting that attention. After all, a good idea in your book is still good without any metal. But metal is how you get eyeballs on it.

His session was broken down with an editor’s eye, so it’s really easy for me to share with you now.

David’s Rules:

1) Everyone is your equal.

Never worship anyone. Not because people aren’t worth admiring, but because when you worship someone, you create a relationship where it’s impossible to converse as equals. Humility is fine, but be confident that you deserve to be in every room you’re in.

I like to be humble. Humility is how I maintain a “beginner’s heart”, where I’m giving myself ample opportunities to learn. But it gets in my way. Sometimes I’m so absorbed in making sure I’m learning everything, that I forget to share what I can bring to the table.

2) Never apologise (unless you’ve fucked up).

Don’t start an introduction with, “I didn’t go to ad school, so...” or “I’m only from Utah, so...”; never apologise for your background or lack of experience.

3) Use social media.

And when you do, talk the way you talk. Don’t try to keep your social media separate from your professional life, because it’s not. Use your platform to share your opinions, your thoughts, and yourself.

4) The worst they can say is no.

You can ask to write columns, join juries, speak at Cannes. Don’t wait for things to be offered.

I could go on about how relevant and important his advice here was, but honestly, I think it speaks for itself. So I’ll say that I’m taking it seriously. I’m writing. I’m posting. And I don’t know what I’ll ask for yet, but once I’ve figured it out, I’ll do that too. This was an incredibly useful and inspiring talk.

Next up, we walked to Bloomberg Villa, where David’s new business partners were about to launch their next amazing project.

I’ll take a little break here to say that if you’ve been reading since the beginning, you’re probably a little overwhelmed. You ought to be. By now, we were absolutely brimming with inspiring words, actionable advice, incredible experiences — and at this point I was starting to overflow. I had set out to absorb everything, and take in every second, but I began to worry if it was too much to ever sink in.

We were all starting to have these same feelings of “Am I taking in everything I can?”, and realising that we weren’t going to be able to go back home and do absolutely everything all at once. Some of this was advice we could use now. Some of it we could use later. Some would have to wait until the opportunity arose. It began to sink in that it wouldn’t all sink in at once, but that having had these experiences, no one could take them away from us.

Anyway,

The Bloomberg Villa was absolutely stunning. We walked through the foyer onto a stunning terrace, hemmed in by green and purple foliage, summer blooms, and a bright blue pool. Allie and I got distracted by a couple of iced coffees, so that by the time we entered the tented area to find seats it was already crowded. We made our way to the edge, where the panel was blocked by a big fan pointing the wrong way from us, and settled in to catch a look at Ryan Reynolds.

We were here for the announcement of Creative Ladder, a non-profit organisation that would offer programs and services to bring undderrepresented perspectives into creative careers. Led by Ryan Reynolds, Dionna Dorsey Calloway, and David Griner, the initiative would build a pipeline to creative career paths to which many people from marginalized communities don’t have access.

I know the session was on the schedule for its celebrity factor, but every single one of us fell in love with the panel’s Dionna Dorsey Calloway (Co-founder Creative Ladder) and Wendy Clark (Global CEO Dentsu). They were fiercely intelligent, eloquent, and generous women, and we believed in their mission right away.

Danny Robinson said, “76% of non-white creative professionals didn’t even know this was a career when they were in high school”.”

I certainly didn’t. I’ve always felt it was a wild stroke of luck that I’m here, because where I come from, there are no creative careers. You could hustle and hope for the best as an artist, but we would have never known you could have a career, a solid future, as a creative. If I hadn’t found myself far, far from home, I would never have known about advertising. So I love the mission of Creative Ladder — we cannot hope for a diverse generation of people to just wander into advertising/production. We have to start with telling young people that this is even on the table, give them that open door to walk through.

We were buzzing by the time it was finished.

Our next stop was FCB’s yacht, for a private Q&A session with Susan Credle (Global CCO of FCB, who sat on the floor like we were a group of best friends, and flowed love with every word), and Tarana Burke (Activist and founder of the Me Too movement, whose undeniable fire and passion were tempered with such peace and self-love that we felt healed just listening to her).

We took glasses of prosecco, and even more water, and settled in for a conversation. It was a luxurious backdrop, but a sincere moment that really could have been anywhere. There wasn’t a specific theme to our talk, but my summary would be: women believing, and believing in, other women.

It was clear from the get that Susan is a huge champion of women. These days, there are a lot of people in the world who make room for women. It’s not the same thing. There are a few people, like Susan, who aren’t waiting around for a girl to show her worth. Instead, they see her potential, create an opportunity, and advocate and fight for and listen to that woman until she realises her worth.

If not for a woman just like that, I wouldn’t be here. 

You learn early on: No one hands out chances, you have to ask for them. But I had asked, and asked, and been told over and over (sometimes not kindly) to wait my turn, until finally I learned to keep my head down. It wasn’t until I met Anna Tomasetti, another champion of women, and for some reason I’ll never know, she gave me an unasked-for chance. I took it, both hands, and my life changed. 

Sitting cross-legged on the floor between Tarana and Swati, big fearless laugher and reaching out to hold the hands of the women beside her, it was clear that Susan is a life-changer. I know that the industry is better because she’s actively looking around for women who don’t even know how badly we need them here.

Tarana is pure fire, bottled in a woman who’s learned to protect herself and those around her with love and kindness. She shared her journey as an activist and advocate for human rights, how deeply personal her work is as a Black woman, and what we all knew: Me Too is an ongoing movement, a story we need to keep telling.

Almost all of us have a story where we were made uncomfortable or sexualised at work. Many of us have experienced real trauma, or even outright attacks, or know someone who’s survived them. It’s not at all easy to talk about, but once we do, there’s power in our shared experiences. There’s power in believing one another’s stories, and knowing that if we share, we will also be believed. That’s the potential of #MeToo.

The reality is: it’s not that easy.

Many women sharing their stories are still silenced, or worse, villainized. We’ll only see more of this after the Amber Heard case, where a still-patriarchal society will take the example of one woman and apply it to every woman across the world. The truth is, victims are still rarely believed, and the stakes for calling out your abuser are still too high for most women.

Many men called out for predatory behaviour are quietly let go, or the complaint is quashed because he’s “too talented” to lose. Both allow abusers to remain in the industry, climb through the ranks, and continue violating women.

As we shared together, it was clear that Tarana is right: Me Too isn’t a moment or a trend, but a conversation we’ll need to continue having, a system of belief and support that will always be ongoing. It’s a humbling thought.

Which is why we so appreciated her advice for self-love and self-care. Making distance between those moments where we’re trying to save the world, and where we need to stop and take care of ourselves. We can’t shoulder anything if we don’t take the time to heal.

Hearts full, we went to the Adweek 100 Event, where our incredible Katherine and her teammate Jackie Blaze were being honored as two of 35 creatives to watch. Drinks, great conversation, and more kickass women doing their thing.

We headed down to the awards show (tonight was Design, Film Craft, Digital Craft, Sport, Music, Industry Craft, Entertainment). I had no idea how long those lines to get in were — people queued for an hour beforehand, in the glamorously unforgiving French sun, waiting to get a decent seat.

Kat ushered us straight past the line, into the theater, to our reserved seating right at the front of the audience. Maybe it was a little thing, but it was a beyond-cool experience for us. The damn chairs had “See It Be It” on them, okay? That was us.

Watching the award winners was, no surprise, amazing. There was a really incredible selection that night, and some of the films (special shout-out to Penny’s The Wish by Serviceplan Campaign and Marcus Ibanez) brought me to tears. 

But it was gut-wrenching to watch the political pieces.

• The Portuguese (Re)Constitution (Penguin Random House + FCB Lisbon),

• Backup Ukraine (UNESCO/Blue Shield Denmark + Virtue Worldwide),

• This is Not America (Residente + Doomsday Entertainment LA),

• And even Black-Owned Friday (Google New York + BBH New York)

Ideas like these allowed creatives to express their pain and their hope on a global stage. In Hong Kong, we didn’t have that opportunity.

I looked down at my Cannes pass, where this year it said:

Anastasia Simone, Leo Burnett Hong Kong, China

And I was heartbroken.

At dinner, we gushed about the work we loved, the ideas that excited and inspired us. I told the other women about Hong Kong, and how watching the work had opened this hole inside me, where I knew meaningful work should be, had we been allowed to make it. I felt like a coward for leaving the city, for not trying to find a way to fight the universe with creativity, even if it meant putting my future on the line.

Sobbing, I showed them my pass.

Karo ripped the corner off of a green sticker, doodled ‘HK’ next to a smile, and stuck it under my name.

I know that I can’t do everything, and that no matter how much we wish it, there are a lot of ways that advertising can’t save the world. But I also don’t have to suffer in silence. 

If I can’t sell an idea to a client, I can still make it. And if I can’t make it, I can still talk about it. Over and over and over this week, I learned that there’s healing in sharing. Advertising is only one of the ways I can do that.

Day 03 (night).

It’s well past midnight, and although tomorrow would start extra early, I couldn’t sleep. My brain felt jam-packed with new experiences, and ideas were popcorn-ing around my mind.

Tomorrow we had the speed mentoring event, where each of us would get one-on-one time with some incredible women from across the industry. I googled and googled them, writing out thoughts and questions just to get the clutter out of my head. I was so excited, I tried meditating again to calm down.

Day 04.

I was barely calmer than the night before. Tried to meditate, but honestly, my eyes were just closed. I had a coffee downstairs, blinked bleary at my fellow SIBI early-risers, tried to decipher my 2am-addled notes, and we paraded down to the Martinez.

On the Equality Lounge terrace, alongside glamorously sweeping views of the city, the coffee machine was broken. The air was heavy and wet with a half-hearted drizzle. We lined up in front of the poor barista as he hustled to save the morning. I tried not to fangirl all over Grace Francis (who I’ve been stalking on LinkedIn for the better part of a year) as we all tried not to stare at the barista’s progress.

Looking around, we had all changed so much that it hardly felt like four days. Our capacity felt low but our energy was high, still pushing against a ceiling to absorb more, absorb everything.

I took a seat at the back as Senta Slingerland introduced us all to one another — incredible creative mentors from all over the world, who had accomplished so much, and the next generation of women to receive that and accomplish still more. We would each have an opportunity to talk to three assigned mentors, curated to our ambitions. I couldn’t have a dream this grand.

I spoke to Maria Lashari, Global Creative Lead at H&M Brand. I had questions ready, but she asked me better ones. She saw that I was really passionate, but that a lot of my emotional and time investment went into things that no one saw. She helped me reorgnise my priorities, from my longtime, maybe unhealthy, obsession with pretty decks, to how I shoulder and delegate creative tasks. But we also had a ton in common, and laughing/lamenting over them, it was so good to hear that someone out there had my experiences.

Next, I spoke to Margaux Revol, Strategy Partner at AMV BBDO. I’ve always loved strategy, and she knows how to turn an insight into a brilliant solution. She knows how to change lives, and that’s what I want to do. She talked about the importance of creatives and strategists working in tandem, sharing ideas earlier and collaborating more openly. She also taught me how to build a strategy around a risky idea, when the numbers just aren’t going to cut it, but a minority story is still worth being told.

Finally, I spoke to Claudia Cristovão, Google’s Head of Brand Studio. She’s based in Tokyo, and shared my experiences working across culturally diverse markets in Asia. While I’ve learned not to be boxed in, a “digital creative”, my heart leans toward innovation. So I was brimming with questions about her process, how she builds her team, how she measures ideas that haven’t been seen before. We’re working in a brand new media: pure ideas, and that’s a lot easier said than done when it comes to “right, how do we make it”. She emphasised the importance of getting the right people, and then letting them do their jobs. They’re the experts. She said that what really matters is getting the idea so right that it’s absolutely bullet-proof, because it’s so much easier for the execution to be built on that very strong foundation.

She also taught me that if people aren’t brimming with excitement over an idea, jumping on board, seeing how they can help, it’s probably just an OK idea. I love that bar. As an industry, we burn ourselves out too often on mediocre ideas. If you’re going to give it your all, it should be better than good. Good ideas are everywhere.

Before she left, Maria said “Hey, you had a goal to be more present on social”, so we took a photo for my story.

We half-ran to make our (glistening) way back to the Palais for ‘When Women Tell the Story — Shifting the Culture of Inclusive Storytelling’ with Regina Hall and Ukonwa Ojo. It was incredible, if not unsurprising, to see how a woman’s lens could open storytelling to a whole new level of realism and craft.

If your brain’s feeling cram-packed, imagine ours. We had an exhausted but exhilarating lunch at the Clubhouse, and went to check out the gallery of work and listen to the Film Craft Lions Debrief. Glued now to the closest water machine, we made our way to the final SIBI debrief & wrap session.

Over the course of the week, we had fallen in love with each other. We felt like a sisterhood, and I carried absolutely priceless memories laughing and crying with these incredible women. It felt bizarre that we had just met. This was not your average networking event.

After nearly an hour of catching up, sharing stories, and laughing our asses off, we got down to business. Everyone had grown. Everyone had reshaped her own vision of her future, and felt they had a roadmap to see it happen. We all had so much to process that Nedal suggested taking turns sharing each of our experiences, making sure that in a room full of big voices, each and every one of us had a chance to be heard. As we each opened up about our experiences, I thought again about how we were all so incredibly similar. But at the same time, all around me were impressive women who were each gifted with ambitious dreams and the drive to make them happen. They had each blazed a trail and were hungry for more. Together, they dreamed of a kinder, more open world, where everyone was given a voice. I realised that this week, and every year at See It Be It, they were shaping a new generation of leader — and she was undeniable.

Thank you all for the journey.

— Anastasia