✍️ how we survived Cannes

The storyarb team is back at HQ after an enthralling, exhausting, and extremely sweaty week at Cannes. 

After being on the ground for the most hyped event on the marketing calendar — the yachts, the keynotes, the whole Croisette — we have some thoughts.

(Or if you wanna skip the thoughts and get straight to the resources, we put together templates for how to game plan a multi-stage event and prepping your virtual war room for live social coverage. We survived our biggest event of the year; these will help you survive yours.)

We spent the week interviewing marketers, filming content, and seeing whether our ideas actually held up in the wild.

It was très overwhelming.

And fantastique.

So … what lived up to the hype? 

In short: the unplanned hotel-lobby conversations, the late-night parties where people AirDropped us their numbers, our Marketing Minute convos with smart, cool marketers, and the energy in the B2B space.

Not worth it: far too many stale panels, every 4:30–6:30 happy hour where everyone is too fried to network, and 90% of the swag. 

We braved a European heat wave and roughly 47,000 steps a day to figure out how to make a massive industry event actually worth the plane ticket.

Let’s get into it.

What our first trip to Cannes taught us about getting more from big industry events.

We came to Cannes as a 3-person team on the Classic Startup Pass. Our CEO, Chief of Staff, and growth marketer. Before we booked our flights, our CEO genuinely asked:

"Are we even allowed to be there?"

Turns out, yes. 

You're probably already scrolling past a dozen Cannes recaps in your feed, so we'll share what matters most: what was actually worth the trip, what we’d skip entirely next time, and how you can steal these tips to make the most of any industry event. 

Tip #1: Don’t overschedule yourself

We arrived with a spreadsheet full of meetings, events, panels, activations, dinners, and enough calendar invites to make Outlook nervous.

By day two, we realized our favorite conversations weren’t on the calendar.

They happened while we were picking up iced coffee. Walking between events. Waiting on the bill for lunch.

Our ideal boots-on-the-ground day became very simple:

• 2 meetings (pro-tip: hang onto the fries when the lunch table’s cleared and just … have the meeting)

• 1 event (bonus if it’s on a boat away from the madness)

• 1 dinner (with an intimate, curated group)

• Plenty of time to wander (and yes, it counts as work)

This can apply to any event, not just Cannes. Focus on quality > quantity when making connections. And give yourself some space for spontaneity and fun!

Tip #2: Prioritize people over panels

Given the stacked lineup, we expected the panels to be the highlight. By the third, our notes were looking suspiciously identical. Dare we say… we felt a little bored?

The conversations we’re still talking about happened somewhere else entirely, like the AirOps yacht and the Female Quotient cabana.

We popped into The Wellness Oasis™ presented by LinkedIn to recharge our phones. We stayed because nobody was trying to "network” — they were just talking.

Next year? Fewer keynotes. More places where people actually have time to talk.

Another thing that surprised us was just how much B2B showed up.

AI companies, SaaS brands, infrastructure businesses — even creators put up in the Carlton to explain how legacy brands should be online.

Cannes isn't just a consumer-brand playground anymore. Maybe that’s because B2B is finally remembering that business has always been personal.

Tip #3: Sweat the logistics (literally 🥵)

Nobody warned us that Cannes is basically a logistical obstacle course disguised as a marketing conference. Easiest way to win someone over was to have access to great Wi-Fi (thank you, LinkedIn) and a place to cool down. 

Here’s our insiders' logistics guide, courtesy of our Chief of Staff’s notebook and a few people who have been doing this far longer than us (hey, Suz 👋🏻):

• Wear comfortable shoes. Cobblestone do not care about your outfit. (Consider this our unsolicited Camper endorsement.)

• Bring a buddy everywhere. The best conversations, easiest intros, and quickest exits happen when you’re traveling in pairs.

• Build an extra 15 minutes into every trip. Then add another 10.

• Figure out your outfits before you leave the hotel room.

• Buy water immediately upon arrival. Verify the sodium content. (We learned this the hard way 30 bottles of St-Yorre and one additional Uber stop later.)

• If you can swing it, book a massage or blowout when you arrive. And then come back with clients as an excuse to (literally) rinse and repeat. 

Plan the logistics so you can be fully present for the conversations.

Rule #4: Expect a little FOMO

We spent weeks deciding which meetings, panels, and events were worth our time. Then we actually got to Cannes and immediately started second-guessing every single one of them.

Every conference comes with a little bit of FOMO. That’s part of the deal.

Most of the time, though, you’re not actually missing anything. You’re just imagining a better version of wherever you aren’t.

Save your energy for the people and conversations in front of you.

If you’re attending as a brand, the same advice applies. Plan your activation early, commit to the idea, and resist the urge to keep tweaking it once you’re on the ground.

There is exactly one acceptable reason to change the plan.

Oprah.

One mission inspired everything we created at Cannes: Make something people are genuinely glad they found.

That meant leaving newspapers to be discovered instead of handing out another piece of conference swag. Hotel lobbies. Coffee tables. Long lines. Anywhere marketers naturally paused for a minute.

(Occasionally, an overzealous bathroom attendant found them first.)

It meant Marketing Minute interviews that gave marketers useful ideas they could put to work immediately.

It meant making sure everyone who spent time with us walked away with something they could actually use.

Speaking of which, we’re sharing the same conference content systems we used at Cannes:

• Your virtual war room for live social: Plan your stories before you board the plane.

• Game plan for live posting: A simple sheet for covering multiple sessions without losing the plot.

And lastly, how you can turn one interview into weeks of content:

Steal them. Improve them. Share them. Just don’t hand out another logo’d lip balm.

Abby’s post about conference swag … struck a nerve.

Turns out people feel strongly about swag, both for and against. Who knew?!

We’re siding with Abby. However, there were a few brands that really nailed the moment: 

• Canva's gelato. Free gelato in the Cannes heat, while everyone was dripping sweat. Nobody throws away gelato.

• Supergoop x FQ. Big pump sunscreen stations across the beach — with mirrors — so you could actually use it right there. Useful then, memorable after.

• Pinterest's real tattoos. Bold, not for everyone, but they know their audience, and you're definitely not forgetting that one.

The whole trip in one sentence: Skip the swag, keep the substance.

Swap “Cannes” for any conference and the tips above still work. Stay hydrated.

See y’all next time. 

— the storyarb writers’ room 🫡

Oh! And another thing... 

S/o to the writers’ room, who stayed home turning voice notes into actual sentences (half of which uploaded out of order, thanks to Cannes' Wi-Fi, which had other plans). Decoding “wait, was that the yacht guy or the other yacht guy?” with 0 timestamps is its own skill. That’s a playbook for a different day.