Matt Williams at the Cannes Seminars
Matt Williams, content editor at The Engine Group, London offers his take on the Cannes Seminars running throughout the week, exclusive to CB.
There are three different types of speakers at Cannes Lions. First you have the celebrities – the Jack Black and P. Diddy types brought in by the organisers to generate headlines and attract the big crowds.
Then you have the Admen. The people who work in this industry on a daily basis, who will tend to discuss future trends in the industry or give a ‘state of the nation’ type talk.
And then you have the third set. These fall somewhere in between the first two categories – they don’t work in advertising directly and they’re not celebrities per se, but they are creative types who are recognised as leaders in their respective fields.
Usually – because they are chosen on the quality of their thinking rather than their name – these seminars turn out to be the very best of the lot. Indeed, my favourite session of all at last year’s Festival was when street artist JR took to the stage to give his philosophy on life.
Today, Ogilvy & Mather attempted to go down this route by inviting renowned architect Rem Koolhaas to give a lecture. Koolhaas is the mastermind behind buildings such as the Seattle Central Library, Casa de Musica and the China Central Television building.
He came on stage to talk about how function and human activities help to shape creativity, and by doing so made an important point to the audience: don’t get comfortable.
“Today comfort if vastly preferred to challenge,” Koolhaas explained. “Not just in advertising but across the whole world.”
Using media company offices as an example, he went on to ask “everything is predictable and everything is identical, why were we once so open to adventure but now feel more comfortable with creating a predictable future?”
We make our spaces very neat and very safe, and that, Koolhaas says, is very dangerous for an industry that relies on creativity and ideas.
So how to solve this? Koolhaas as some idea. “A degree of enthusiasm or adventure is needed. Every department needs to encounter other departments. There’s a big problem in creative companies that departments are siloed in a way that no-one meets each other.”
It’s an approach that Koolhaas is conscious of designing into his buildings, much like he has done with the China Central Television offices. The building is shaped so that the company maintains an energetic diversity.
“We need disruption, but we’ve forgotten that we need it,” said Koolhaas. “Be on the side of challenge.”