I never thought about the TV show “Entourage” until I returned to Cannes this year.
For those unfamiliar, HBO’s Entourage followed Vince (Adrian Grenier), an up-and-coming actor, and his crew of friends who helped navigate Hollywood. It was about the people behind the star making things happen.
I definitely felt that way when I heard about Cannes this year. I was in a meeting – which really wasn’t my meeting – helping my Vince on achieving stardom. Not the Hollywood variety, or even the Cannes version, but rather the coveted tech incarnation. During this call, with one of the biggest companies in the world, I said something clever. I know that because my Vince called afterwards: “you gotta join me in Cannes. They loved you!”
For most people this would be a can’t-say-no proposition: Cannes is evocative of southern French glamour, complete with visions of tastefully sipping rosé on yachts while chatting up out-of-your-orbit celebrities. Who wouldn’t want to go?
Welp, me.
Conventions at Cannes cannot be contained to the actual meeting center, aspirationally calling itself “The Palais du Cannes.” Most of the events are scattered throughout the city. You have to soggily tromp back and forth in the Mediterranean sun as you make your way from a restaurant meeting to plage-side speaking session. Sometimes a yacht is involved (but it’s usually docked).
As someone who wears SPF 70 in foggy San Francisco my first reaction was: “are you sure you need me?”
Yes. My Vince was emphatic: they had an incredible collision of news that wouldn’t find a better setting. The trip had to happen. Now.
I paused. To bring up the fact that most companies spend months planning their Cannes activations would simply seem like excuse-making, especially with the news we had to share. With less than seven days to go, we audaciously planned to crash Cannes.
While events like CES and Money2020 have media and attendee lists, Cannes has an app, making it relatively easy to identify journalists, event planners and party organizers. We pitched all of them our news while also searching for suitable hovels in sweating distance of the Palais. I packed as many sweat-wicking silks and linens as I could stuff in a suitcase and even brought a small air conditioner (having faced one evening the last time where my AirBNB’s AC conked too late in the evening for the contractually agreed upon last-minute repairs).
On the day our party was set to fly out, the company that was so taken with me during our Zoom call asked us to hit the brakes. Cannes was no longer an ideal setting for this story, at least for them. Their participation was the lynchpin of our PR outreach strategy. That was the main reason I was going. Now, we were in turn-around. Like any character in Entourage, we were forced to contend with bigger forces at play. But just like Vince’s crew, we weren’t going down without a fight.
How could we rebound?
An hour and a half after landing on Sunday, I plucked my clients off the Croisette and deposited us in the nearest source of shade that wasn’t reserved for a private party: the JW’s dining room, Scalini. Undeterred, we made calls. Texts. Our party of three became a party of four. Then five. Then six. Three hours later, deals made, speaking slots procured, we prepared for the next day.
The next morning started with an alfresco interview with The Economist. A plage-side speaking session with a major entertainment studio and a CPG company followed. Then a podcast with Forbes. Rinse. Repeat. Despite the last-minute withdrawal, the nature of our disruptive news was still strong. Meetings with new prospects flooded in. In one case someone was truly threatened and melodramatically stomped off during a meeting. That’s always a sign you’re on to something important.
At the apex of absurdity (that would be Thursday), I watched Paris Hilton crash the PRWeek party, only to be told we had been invited to another soiree at the site of a famous fashion house featuring Wyclef Jean. As Wyclef rapped to Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie” we convened our final day strategy session to determine how we would respond to what happened at Cannes – which as you can tell, I’m being purposefully vague about. Suffice it to say, we have homework!
But I can distill it to the following take-aways:
- Don’t be cowed by last-minute changes, it’s Cannes
- Have a plan B, C, D… you get the idea
- Continue to pitch your news to journalists and event planners, because the flake factor is higher than other events (blame the rosé). That’s how some surprise features and speaking slots happen.
- Don’t wait till the kickoff to network, start using the Cannes app the instant it’s available. But most conversations don’t happen through the app. LinkedIn and email are still the best ways to communicate.
- Even if you hate parties, go. That’s where more networking happens
- But… take notes during your parties; otherwise, the rosé will wipe everything away
On Friday at 3:30am, a town car picked me up for the drive to the Nice airport. That sort of Hollywood ending made me pensive, making me think of Entourage and our situation. It’s not about the glitz. It’s about the hustle, the loyalty and making things happen when everything’s on the line.
